A murder mystery story inherently deals with pitch-black subject matter, but the genre is deceptively versatile. Just look at two standout new detective games, which are on total opposite ends of the tonal spectrum. On one hand, you have The Incident at Galley House. The brainy puzzle game is gravely serious as it unpacks generations of grief through a disorienting series of deaths. The Mermaid Mask, on the other hand, is a laugh riot.
The latest installment of developer SFB Games’ Detective Grimoire series, The Mermaid Mask is a point-and-click mystery game that has you solving a murder aboard a submarine full of eccentric passengers. It’s a hit with critics, currently sitting high as one of the best reviewed games of 2026 on Opencritic. Players are digging it too, judging by its ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ review status on Steam. It doesn’t take a super sleuth to figure out why. The Mermaid Mask confidently leans into the silliness of its whodunnit premise while weaving a complex web of secrets that’s worth getting stuck in.
Following up 2019’s Tangle Tower, The Mermaid Mask is a new standalone story starring the Sherlock Holmesian Detective Grimoire and his sarcastic sidekick, Sally. You don’t need to have any experience with the duo’s past games to get right into their new adventure; their wit and chemistry immediately comes through as the two try to out-rib one another. That dynamic doesn’t let up, even when the two are called to make sense of a bloody murder scene aboard a sea vessel. Captain Mortuga lies dead near an open cauldron covered with scratch marks.
As dark as that sounds, The Mermaid Mask has a blast creating a cast of oddball suspects to interrogate in the ship’s various rooms. There’s Dirk Dansom, a Hollywood himbo there to research a role. Godrik Gripp is a weirdo salesman who carries around a walking stick puppet. The real star of the ensemble is Symmetry Silkmoth, a melodramatic illusionist whose theatrical presence gives the sardonic detectives a perfect foil to bounce off. The voice acting is top-notch across the board, with the cast offering a masterclass in comedic timing.
Those strong comedic performances are crucial to selling The Mermaid Mask as a criminal circus. Even the most serious murder mystery stories can sound downright convoluted when you strip back their serious tone. The lengths that murderers go through in these stories to hide their crimes, covering their tracks under a trail of puzzles, is a little ridiculous. Rian Johnson recognizes that in his Knives Out series, casting Benoit Blanc as a genius detective routinely forced to deal with absolute morons impeding his investigation. The Mermaid Mask has that same energy; Grimoire and Sally already feel over it before they even begin searching for clues.
While the comedy helps it stand out in a crowded genre, The Mermaid Mask still centers around a rock-solid mystery. The point-and-click formula gets put to good use as each room is filled with clues to sniff out and sharply designed tactile puzzles that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Professor Layton game. Every character has their own complicated backstory, as does the submarine itself. There’s so much depth, in fact, that the story drags as it dives towards a conclusion that has to tie a lot of loose threads up in exhaustive fashion.
The Mermaid Mask is still worth the trip, even if it dries out before its finale. It captures the screwball spirit of The Secret of Monkey Island and applies it to an improbable murder mystery where every suspect is a goofball of the highest order. Pair it with this year’s Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse for a nautical double feature that highlights that a murder mystery can be as serious or funny as you want — depending on how you tackle it.
