Orson, P.I.: Midnight at the Grand Hotel

Introducing Orson, P.I., a bear cub whose cuddly exterior hides a jaded, hard-boiled detective living within. The first game of the franchise takes place at the Grand Hotel of Chicago, a long-stay luxury hotel.

July 2nd, 1949. Orson finds a cryptic note at his office's door. The letter, full of strange scribblings and seemingly-random numbers, suggests a heist is coming at midnight. Knowing this, you have a chance to solve a great crime before it even happens.

Gameplay switches between two main sequences: in the first, you explore the hotel and investigate. In the second, you return to your office and, using the information you've gathered, piece together the puzzle. The overall goal of the game is to "solve" the cryptic note by identifying who is involved in the conspiracy, what their role is, and where they plan to be at midnight.

The guests at the Grand Hotel are often famous and the persons of interest in the game are no exception. This gives the sting operation a cover: Orson assumes the role of a "high school newspaper reporter" looking to "interview his heroes."

These characters are not always honest. In fact, one should not take a single word at face value. A savvy player can take advantage of this dishonesty. Catching them in their lies will help separate the true suspects from the red herrings.

Once you've completed investigating a floor, it's time to think things through. In our case, this involves "entering the psyche" and engaging in an internal debate. The Psyche consists of many rooms, each with three doors and a question above them. Every door has a potential answer to the question. Entering the correctly-labeled door will lead you to the next room; guessing wrong will loop you back to where you entered.