Try the demo for murder mystery adventure game Rainswept

Rainswept is an adventure game set in the innocent-looking town of Pineview, where detective Michael Anderson heads to investigate a murder-suicide after a couple is found dead in their kitchen. It's coming to PC later this year, but you can already try it via the hour-long demo available on Itch (both the .rar and .exe versions work fine).

The demo drops you at the scene of the crime on the rainy morning of October 7, 1996. I recommend playing with a controller if you have one to hand, but a keyboard is serviceable. The demo only covers the first hour or so of Rainswept, so I can't confirm that, as developer Frostwood Interactive says, "the further [Michael] pursues the case, the more his own past shall come back to haunt him." However, I can confirm that Rainswept has "pine trees, coffee and rain." 

Following the demo's release, Frostwood published a blog post detailing upcoming improvements being made using feedback from the demo, chief among them improved visuals. Frostwood says the full game will sport sharper colors and smoother animations, which should help liven up the sometimes stiff scenes in the demo. Color-coded speech bubbles are also on the way, as well as usability features like save slots and skippable dialogue.  

If you're hungry for more indie demos, have a gander at The Onus Helm, an action RPG where you cannot take off your helmet. Sorry, the Helmet. 

Thanks, RockPaperShotgun

Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.