Konami mashes up anime, Among Us, and Sherlock Holmes in a new multiplayer murder mystery

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There are few fictional rivalries more famous than that of the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his equally brilliant nemesis Moriarty. CrimeSight, a new social deduction game in development at Konami, will resurrect their long-running tale, with an unusual sci-fi twist.

CrimeSight is set in London in the year 2075, a time when crime around the world has been reduced by 90% thanks to data harvesting and analysis software that can predict most criminal activity before it takes place. But this peaceable future takes a dark turn when the program predicts a coming crime so heinous that it threatens the entire planet. In response, its creators do the obvious thing and develop a brand-new AI with just one purpose: To investigate and prevent this terrible event.

They name this AI Sherlock.

But as this new program follows clues, it reaches a dark, almost impossible conclusion. Another AI lies at the root of these incidents, an AI that is somehow as powerful as Sherlock itself.

The AI known as Moriarty.

Dramatic stuff, eh? In practical terms, CrimeSight is a multiplayer murder-mystery for 2-4 players about a group of six "pawns" trapped together by a raging blizzard: One a killer, the other a target, and the remainder just four folks who would probably rather be somewhere else. The Sherlock side must figure out who the target is and keep them alive for four days, while simultaneously uncovering the identity of the killer; Team Moriarty must give the villain a weapon, and then put them in the same room as the target, with no one else within line of sight, so the murder can be committed.

It strikes me as kind of a cross between Clue and Among Us, with an anime paint job and a dash of Minority Report to keep things spicy, but an asymmetric whodunit sounds like it could be a really interesting take on multiplayer strategy. There's no release date yet, but interested gamers can sign up for a shot at access to a closed beta that kicked off today and is scheduled to run until July 11. Details on getting into that, and more on CrimeSight itself, are up at konami.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.