The Roottrees Are Dead is a deduction-based mystery game that uses the clunky world of 1990s internet as its mystery-solving vessel. This is both a great strength and weakness of the game. On the upside, the way you gather information, follow rabbit holes, and jot down quick notes is all very organic feeling. There usually aren't any weird text boxes or questionaries to fill. Just you and the leads you find through obsessive googling. The actual core mystery behind The Roottrees Are Dead isn't the most compelling, but the process of solving the entire family tree very much is and I was enthralled the whole time.

However, I did have a handful of frustrating moments because of the free-form way of finding your information. The Roottrees Are Dead does not have enough of its quirks ironed out to avoid some very gamey awkwardness. I had multiple times where not searching the exact right thing or not searching in the exact right place led me to believing my leads were false. This is coupled with the fact that the game is a rather difficult mystery game with many intentional ways to trip you up. The annoyances never outweighed my joy in chasing leads, but the game might be a bit more clunky and obtuse than some players will want to bother with.

This game is SO good. You know how when cats are figuring out a puzzle or are really excited and they start wagging their tails? It's like that. I've been playing with my sister and I highly recommend playing it with a partner. Not only do you get to bounce ideas off of each other but you can high five every time you lock things in. We just have the very end of Roottreemania to finish but I've really enjoyed it!

I liked a lot about the puzzle set-up and investigating things, although there were a few places I felt the game cheated a little with certain evidence needed specific wording to find that no other clue indicated was even an option to attempt.