Vaudeville is an AI-driven mystery-solving game where the player has complete freedom on what they can ask the NPCs. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Vaudeville Review Overview
Vaudeville Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 AI Gaslighting Simulator Is Fun |
AI Is More Artificial Than Intelligent Models Are Peak Uncanny Valley The Game Has No Direction |
Vaudeville Overall Score – 40/100
The concept of interacting with NPCs controlled by artificial intelligence is an intriguing one. Being set in a mystery-solving game makes the idea even more appealing since it injects an element of unpredictability that mere storytelling cannot simply emulate. However, the execution is incredibly poor, and its unique use of AI-piloted NPCs drags it down instead. On the other hand, if you don't expect a proper mystery-solving experience, you'll have a lot of fun interacting with the NPCs.
Vaudeville Story - 4/10
Vaudeville has the potential to be a great mystery game. There are a lot of intricacies to the murders that you're hired to solve, and every NPC has a story to tell. However, the delivery is utterly ruined by the AI's incompetency in responding to your questions. Most of the time, it's actually more entertaining to just not play the game and see how far you can drive the AI into answering absurd questions.
Vaudeville Gameplay - 3/10
For a game where you play as a detective, there’s not a lot of detective stuff beyond interrogating NPCs going on. While the concept of interacting with AI-piloted NPCs without any pre-written options to control the dialogue does encourage free thinking, the result is ruined by the AI’s propensity to go on wild, oftentimes unrelated tangents. There is so much wrong with the gameplay that a summary isn’t enough to enumerate what I experienced.
Vaudeville Visuals - 5/10
While the game does sport decently pretty artwork featured in its opening cutscene, everything else is either a massive disappointment or simply unnerving. This is especially true for its NPC models. They are some of the most discomforting models I’ve ever seen, particularly their hollow eyes which seem to stare at something incomprehensible. Each area accessible to the player is also more dull than a piece of paper; the developers obviously put little effort into filling them out to make them seem lived-in by human beings.
Vaudeville Audio - 4/10
Similar to its visuals, the only saving grace of this game's audio can be found in its opening cutscene with a decently narrated exposition. Outside of that, there's nothing good to be heard. The NPCs talk using an AI-generated voice that can't mimic human intonation if it saved its life, and the background tracks are all bland pieces whose memorability can only be found in how forgettable they are.
Vaudeville Value for Money - 4/10
Even though Vaudeville has an interesting concept, its execution leaves way too much to be desired. For the same price, you can purchase far better games and walk away with far less regret and self-derision. There is also zero replayability for mystery-seeking enthusiasts, as there is only one ending regardless of how you get there. However, if you approach the game without any expectations and a truck full of sarcasm, you could actually milk a lot of entertainment out of trying to get the most banal responses from the NPCs.
Vaudeville Review | It's Incredibly Bad, But That's What Makes It Great
While I'm personally not a big fan of mystery games, I am quite big on stories with intrigue and drama. As such, I approached Vaudeville with lowered expectations out of my own subjectivity. But even considering that, I was still severely disappointed with the game.
Almost everything about Vaudeville was executed badly. Going by our standard criteria when grading games, it had a poorly delivered story, frustrating gameplay, unnerving character models, disconcerting voice-overs, and no replayability. And for the most part, those things could be blamed on its poor implementation of and focus on AI-controlled NPCs.
I mean, even AI chatbots work better.
In its attempt to make it seem like you're communicating with someone of passable intelligence, it has gone down to the very bottom of the uncanny valley in every aspect, creating an incredibly surreal and terrible experience. But during the many moments when I was distracted by the NPC's abnormal responses, I discovered something else.
Talking to them like they were anything but intelligent was far more entertaining than actually playing the game.
Before I knew it, I had spent two hours convincing everybody in Vaudeville that Monsieur Saxabar was the murderer because he "hated anime.". Just the fact that you can do that already makes the game redeem itself (somewhat).
Overall, it's a terrible mystery-solving game. But, as an AI gaslighting simulator? It totally works.
Pros of Vaudeville
| Things Vaudeville Got Right |
|---|
|
AI Gaslighting Simulator Is Fun |
AI Gaslighting Simulator Is Fun
Due to the game's incompetence in guiding you through the admittedly well-planned murders within the city, you might find yourself losing your focus. During those times, nobody can fault you when you start asking questions that are completely irrelevant to the plot. This is something that you cannot do with other games and can be owed to the fact that every NPC is piloted by an AI. Thankfully, the AI will faithfully respond to most of your inquiries in as natural a manner as it possibly could.
It's a golden opportunity to mess with people in a way that you couldn't do in real life.
Sure, one could argue that the point of this design is to encourage free and critical thinking. Due to the terrible implementation and general unreliability of AI-generated conversations, mystery-solving fans would only face hours of frustrating interrogation. On the other hand, those who go into the game with the sole purpose of squeezing some form of entertainment from AI roleplaying as certain characters will certainly have a good, if not expensive laugh.
I personally had a lot of fun accusing the police chief of committing the murders for refusing to disclose the color of his underwear. Accusing Monsieur Saxabar that he was the murderer because he isn't interested in anime was also hilarious, especially since you could gaslight the other NPCs into believing your absurd allegations if you choose your words well enough.
Cons of Vaudeville
| Things That Vaudeville Can Improve |
|---|
|
AI Is More Artificial Than Intelligent Models Are Peak Uncanny Valley The Game Has No Direction |
AI Is More Artificial Than Intelligent
Properly interrogating the NPCs is arguably the worst part of the experience playing this game. It's so annoying, in fact, that you'll often wonder if the artificial intelligence used to pilot the NPCs always forget their intelligence at home whenever they come for work. I've encountered so many exasperating moments that it would be too much of a hassle to list them all down, so I'll generalize them as best as possible.
First, the AI has an annoying propensity to go on these wild, often irrelevant tangents whenever they answer your questions. For example, informing an NPC about the recent murders to provide context for your following questions would elicit the fakest shock from them. Afterward, they would start asking you about your favorite food or whatnot. This isn't something that happens occasionally. It happens quite often.
Then there is the fact that the AI tends to lean toward vague answers, especially if you don't make extremely specific inquiries or grill them for half an hour. As an experiment, I tried asking everybody their age, and almost all of them either gave an unhelpful ballpark range or simply avoided the question entirely. Even if I mentioned that I was a detective and the information would be helpful with the murder cases, all of them simply skirted around the issue and tried to talk about something else. While one could argue that it adds to the realism, there is no reason for a game to require players to go through so much trouble to collect information as simple as one's age.
And the worst thing is that you can't address the above issues by giving them specific orders. Like, there was one time when I was talking to the coroner about the dead bodies. I got fed up with her tangents about the importance of life and the profundity of her work, so I told her to shut up and get to the point. She didn't. Instead, she kept talking while directly acknowledging my order. That repeated for about five minutes before I had to close the game and touch grass to calm down.
Models Are Peak Uncanny Valley
If you're ever in need of a game to serve as an example of why better graphics don't necessarily mean a better game, you can rest assured that Vaudeville can serve as another title in your list to present. Just have your friend sit down in front of a Vaudeville NPC as it stares at your friend's soul with its hollow eyes.
The problem only escalates once you start listening to them talk. Voicing in Vaudeville is done synthetically, and it's not pretty. It sounds like one of those lifeless sponsor announcement segments at the start of many TV shows in the past, only worse. Or perhaps it's better to describe it as the voice of a robot desperately trying to fool its listeners into thinking that it's human.
I think it would have been better if the game used Live2D (2D animated images, basically) with no voicing. Then the leftover effort could be used to improve the background music to make the scenario more immersive.
The Game Has No Direction
While most games make it a point to at least provide their players a reminder of what they're supposed to be doing every so often, this one doesn’t. This serves to guide them in the general direction of where their goal is without stepping on the freedom afforded to them by design. A bit of goading is highly appreciated, particularly for people who tend to lose themselves indulging in a game's side quests or collectibles.
There's none of that in Vaudeville. What it does have is a premise and a goal, all delivered through the game's opening cutscene and a single line on your notepad (which you can delete, by the way). Frankly speaking, that's not enough, especially in a game where the temptation to mess with the NPCs is so overwhelming that it becomes one of its few saving graces.
Its complete lack of save slots and the AI's habit of resetting their dialogues only serve to ruin your sense of progression. The only way you can mark your progress is through the game's notepad, which you can jot clues on.
But the thing is, even that is completely useless. The game doesn't differentiate between a playthrough where you investigate each NPC's tale thoroughly and one where you absentmindedly make a guess to determine who the murderer is. In fact, you can probably get the game, check a walkthrough for who the murderer is and what their motive was, and complete the scenario with that information – all of that can be done within five minutes.
And that brings us to its last issue. Despite having an excellent interactive element in AI-piloted NPCs, there is only one ending. It's incredibly disappointing to discover that the developers didn't make full use of an AI's capability to generate information by allowing randomized scenarios per playthrough.
Is Vaudeville Worth It?
Unless you're looking to make fun of AI, no.
Look. Vaudeville has a fantastic concept behind it. Having an AI pilot NPCs and doing away with pre-written responses does encourage free and critical thinking. However, in its current state, it's simply not worth getting the game, even at its relatively low price. You'll have a much better experience going to the bookstore to pick up a mystery novel from the shelves.
Unless the game makes significant improvements down the line, you'd do well to avoid this title.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
 Steam Store |
$19.99 |
Vaudeville Overview & Premise
Three brutal murders have shaken the bustling city of Vaudeville, filled with socialites, entrepreneurs, and other high-profile personalities. It's up to Detective Martini to unravel the harrowing truth behind each death and find the culprit behind them all.
Vaudeville FAQ
Does Vaudeville have a different ending each time?
Not as far as I’ve determined. Each time I reset the game, the culprit was always the same.
Do the AI in Vaudeville admit to the crime?
If you grill them hard enough, it’s possible. But mileage may vary.
Vaudeville Product Information
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| Title | VAUDEVILLE |
|---|---|
| Release Date | June 30, 2023 |
| Developer | Bumblebee Studios |
| Publisher | BBS Games AB |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Mystery |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | Everyone |
| Official Website | Vaudeville Website |
