Image credit: Wise Monkey Entertainment Ltd.
Gareth Owens is the mastermind behind No Stone Unturned, and those acquainted with the British detective world will undoubtedly be familiar with that name. What once started as a solo venture quickly grew into something bigger, and Wise Monkey Entertainment Ltd. is now setting out to create Murder Mysteries in the Agatha Christie style.
No Stone Unturned is its first release, and the team has no time for mediocrity. They are very clear in the fact that they set out to create the “greatest detective game in the world”. This opens up many questions: Have they succeeded? And why did the chicken end up crossing the road?
A dead body and known associates
Wise Monkey Entertainment Ltd.
The game starts with the player awakening as an amnesiac squirrel next to a dead chicken. You are the one and only Detective Cox. The name already hints at what sets this detective game apart from all the others: a great deal of humor, conveyed in a mostly witty and clever manner, whilst never taking itself too seriously. Look, as a German, I’m the first to admit that my sense of humor isn’t always catered to, especially in British media, but the humor really worked for me.
Your task is to find out who killed the chicken and also who knocked you out. Within the first 10 minutes, which mostly act as a tutorial, you are already introduced to all the carefully selected ingredients that make up the game: finding out information, coming to the right conclusions point-and-click-style, and a plethora of mini games that are a direct homage to some gaming cult classics.
Exploring Orchard-Under-Hill, the fictitious village in No Stone Unturned, is extraordinarily fun. The town has a lot of character, and the other animals you meet range from lovable to deplorable. By the end of my two-and-a-half-hour stint, it really felt like I had become a part of the world. The game achieved this with a lot of dialogue – it’s a narrative game first and foremost. But it’s also WarioWare.
Ultimately, No Stone Unturned isn’t reinventing the wheel with any of that, but I also didn’t feel for a second that it needed to. The originality comes from the great story, the comedic timing, and the fact that, usually, there is some sort of twist to it all.
Her name is Kitty, made her money being pretty and witty
No Stone Unturned is currently in early access, and its story is told episodically. Currently, when purchasing the game, you get to play the full first chapter, with the remaining five set to be released within the next year. Whilst I personally try to play games only when they fully release, I think this is realistically the most sustainable way for any new indie studio to start.
And they are doing a good job of it, too: the socials are engaging, the Discord is bustling, and it is clearly extremely excited about its game. One of the main characters of the first episode is a cat called Delicious. Now tell me, which studio is excited enough about its game to release a full song and music video alongside the game release? Usually, none, in this case, Wise Monkey Ltd., and it speaks volumes about just how much passion and love are being put into the game.
This is also generally what I’m most excited about: They say to write what you know, and I love it when video game studios take that advice to heart and do just that. The studio has understood where its strengths lie and really played into them, which allowed it to invest so much more time and energy into things that might be new to it and to start building a cult-like following.
Long story short, in the three-or-so hours it took me to play through the game and get all of the currently seven achievements, I’ve been absolutely delighted. I went through a pretty full range of emotions, and I am left wanting more. If the game upholds this level of quality, I have no qualms about giving it the title “greatest detective game in the world”.
FAQs
No Stone Unturned was developed by Wise Monkey Entertainment Ltd.
There are a total of six episodes coming to No Stone Unturned, with the game launching in early access with its first episode.
The No Stone Unturned release date was April 29, 2026.
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