Sleuth: Shades of Mystery is a unique point and click mystery role playing game. You take on the persona of a detective in a dark world where murder and intrigue are commonplace. You solve mysteries by searching for clues, questioning suspects and interviewing witnesses. Every mystery is unique, with different victims, suspects and clues. All mysteries are solvable, in fact there are always two ways to solve any single mystery, but player skill and a small amount of luck are necessary to nab the guilty suspect.

Sleuth is an open-ended detective RPG. You can use your Sleuth Mail to communicate with other Sleuths and build relationships. The world of Sleuth offers many opportunities to cooperate with and compete against other detectives. If you’d rather just play on your own, that’s fine too. The Sleuth mystery engine allows for endlessly varied mysteries and escalating challenges.

Detective

Your detective is your personification in the world of Sleuth. A detective has certain statistics, skills and equipment that make it easier to solve cases.

Your detective’s appearance does not affect gameplay. Once set, you cannot change your features, face shape or skin color. You can however change your hat, glasses and image background. Your detective’s background affects the skills and contacts your detective will begin his or her career with. These in turn affect how you play the game. You can use skills to help you solve a case, such as:

* Charm: Make a suspect or witness talk by being nice.
Intimidation: Make a suspect or witness talk by being mean.
* Judge of Character: Determine whether somebody will respond better to Charm or Intimidation.
* Lock Picking: Open a locked door without a key.
* Footprint Analysis: Determine if footprint evidence is from a heavy or slim person. You must find a quiet place to concentrate to use this skill.
* Tobacco Analysis: Determine if tobacco ashes came from a pipe or a cigar. You must find a quiet place to concentrate to use this skill.
* Code Breaking: Unravel meaning buried within a coded message. You must find a quiet place to concentrate to use this skill.
* Necromancy: Speak with the dead to learn what secrets they took with them to the grave. You can only commune with the very recently departed.

How to Solve a Case

You solve a case by accusing the guilty suspect. There is always exactly one guilty suspect in every case.

There are three rules you should keep in mind when determing which suspect is guilty.

* You must find a suspect’s Motive to accuse them.
* The guilty suspect will always have a Fake Alibi or No Alibi.
* The guilty suspect will have at least 3 stars of implicating evidence.

Favors
Occasionally, you will be given the opportunity to do a favor for one of the merchants or recurring characters around town. A favor is a special mystery that can help you improve your relationship (standing) with that person and earn other prizes as well. Once you have a positive standing level with a particular person, they are considered to be your Contact. You can view your standing with all contacts by going to your detective page and clicking View All Contact Relationships under the New Case Contacts panel.

New Case Contacts
You start the game with one contact who will offer you new cases when you are looking for work. As you progress, you will gain access to other contacts who can offer harder cases. The more contacts you have, the more cases you will have to choose from.

Witness Contacts
As your detective’s standing with certain people in town increases, they will become more cooperative in your mysteries. As your standing with Witness contacts increases, they will be more willing to answer questions. People who are on friendly terms with you may not like being manipulated. Using Intimidation or Charm on a Witness Contact who you have a positive relationship with may reduce your standing with them.

Gifts
Gifts are items that can be used to make somebody who has clammed up more cooperative. Gifts may be earned in the game by finishing favors for people. Better gifts may be earned for harder favors.

How to Solve a Case

You solve a case by accusing the guilty suspect. There is always exactly one guilty suspect in every case.

There are three rules you should keep in mind when determing which suspect is guilty.

* You must find a suspect’s Motive to accuse them.
* The guilty suspect will always have a Fake Alibi or No Alibi.
* The guilty suspect will have at least 3 stars of implicating evidence.

Favors
Occasionally, you will be given the opportunity to do a favor for one of the merchants or recurring characters around town. A favor is a special mystery that can help you improve your relationship (standing) with that person and earn other prizes as well. Once you have a positive standing level with a particular person, they are considered to be your Contact. You can view your standing with all contacts by going to your detective page and clicking View All Contact Relationships under the New Case Contacts panel.

New Case Contacts
You start the game with one contact who will offer you new cases when you are looking for work. As you progress, you will gain access to other contacts who can offer harder cases. The more contacts you have, the more cases you will have to choose from.

Witness Contacts
As your detective’s standing with certain people in town increases, they will become more cooperative in your mysteries. As your standing with Witness contacts increases, they will be more willing to answer questions. People who are on friendly terms with you may not like being manipulated. Using Intimidation or Charm on a Witness Contact who you have a positive relationship with may reduce your standing with them.

Gifts
Gifts are items that can be used to make somebody who has clammed up more cooperative. Gifts may be earned in the game by finishing favors for people. Better gifts may be earned for harder favors.