The Roottrees are Dead - ★★★★✮
I have to admit, I had some reservations about reviewing The Roottrees are Dead. The game, by developer Robin Ward, had humble beginnings in a game jam two years ago, and has just had its full release on Steam. The 2023 version of the game was worked on exclusively by a different developer, Jeremy Johnston. It’s still available on itch.io, and was created with the assistance of AI art. It’s a can of worms which, for the sake of keeping this review on-subject, I’d rather not get into — Johnston has addressed it in a devlog, but I think there is a fair argument that, without the momentum from the original version, there mightn’t be a game to review in the first place.
I want to make it abundantly clear that the new version features only human-created art, but I think it would be remiss not to address the game's origins. With all that said, IndieLoupe’s review of The Roottrees… is based solely on the merits of Robin Ward’s 2025 version. Any mentions of “the original” from this point on mean the first part of the game - The Roottrees are Dead - as opposed to the new, additional section, Roottreemania.
Before I get into it, there’s one more quick disclosure for me to make - Return of the Obra Dinn - is, bar none, my most highly-rated game, and The Roottrees are Dead is constantly compared to it. I’m not sure if the game being inspired by what is likely IndieLoupe’s only five-star game helps or hinders it: the comparison may be what piqued my interest initially, but those are some massive shoes to fill. Can it?
Image: Robin Ward / IndieLoupe
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Developer: Robin Ward
Publisher: Evil Trout
Release: 15 January 2025
Retail Price (Steam): 19,50€/$19.99/£16.75
Playtime upon Review: 12.5 hours (to completion)
In The Roottrees are Dead, the Roottrees are Dead. Namely, the President of the Roottree Corporation, his wife, and their three daughters. You’re tasked with identifying all the remaining blood relatives of the Roottree family, ostensibly to sort out the inheritance issues that might arise with the family’s untimely demise.
I started Roottrees late on a Saturday evening, with the intention of completing the introductory mystery - identifying the Roottree sisters - before calling it a night and properly exploring the game on Sunday. Once I’d completed that small tutorial, (“Boo-yah”-ing a trio of dead women felt a little weird), I was presented with the rest of the family tree and some Roottrees of interest. What harm could it do to identify a few of those, and then end the session? I’m sure you can see where this is going. The game sucked me in, and before I knew it I’d completed the main story.
The seven to eight hour playtime for this section was unfounded for me - it took just over four hours to fully complete the family tree, including tying up five optional loose ends that I hadn’t addressed. I’m not quite sure why that was - I made a few half-guesses that turned out to be correct, and used one hint towards the end that told me to search a term that I otherwise might’ve spent a good ten minutes looking for, but I didn’t feel like I was rushing or that the time saved from cutting those corners was significant. For that hint I used, the game’s excellent Intuition system, which tells you how many clues remain for each piece of evidence, was already screaming at me to properly look at a flyer — there were only so many terms I could’ve used from it, so I think it just gave me a nudge in the right direction. If I were playing the game in my own time, rather than reviewing it, I likely would’ve muddled my way through without it; the game makes it very enjoyable to do so.
Image: Robin Ward
It’s easy for me to say “I don’t think it's as good as Obra Dinn” because, as stated earlier, in my opinion nothing is. It’s a statement I could make about literally every other game going. I understand that this is a less apples to oranges comparison than most, but I’m not sure whether any disappointment - of which there isn’t a huge amount - is coming from The Roottrees being a little underwhelming, or from unrealistic expectations that it might hit the highs of my favourite game of all time.
There’s a few problems I could pick at with the main story: there is one piece of evidence which provides such a large wealth of information (the game itself even informing you that “it seems you've hit the jackpot” when you uncover it) that it throws off the sleuthing-to-information ratio, and doesn’t feel as earned as everything else you find. The game felt relatively heavy-handed with its biggest twist, but I question if that could’ve been from me happening upon the clues in an unfortunate order; with the open-ended nature of the game, I imagine it’s incredibly difficult to ensure all players are hitting the clue beats in a way that is always fulfilling. I might well have just gone down a rabbit-hole that happened to give me answers a little too soon. Neither of the examples above impacted hugely upon my playthrough, and were minor flaws in an otherwise enjoyable experience.
So that’s The Roottrees are Dead.
Image: Robin Ward
Except, that’s not quite it.
There’s a little extra in this new version: Roottreemania. Perhaps I need to read the clues on the game’s Steam page better, because, in my opinion, it looks like a small addendum to the Rootrees story, one that you might expect to add an hour or two to the total playtime.
I can’t pretend I wasn’t hit with a little tingle down my spine when I loaded it up for the first time: listening to the introductory preamble from a familiar face, having the smooth jazz hit in, seeing all the new additions to my tree board… all the new additions. Roottreemania is an entire second act, and one which marks a noticeable increase in quality from the initial game. Don’t get me wrong, the first part is great — but Roottreemania is a criminally-understated masterpiece.
The changes it makes from the original game serve to make the player feel like they are actually sleuthing: the mechanics perhaps wouldn’t work straight out the gate, as the first part allows players to grow comfortable and familiarise themselves with the game, but there is far less hand-holding in Roottreemania. In the original story, every name you’ll ever need is neatly provided on a sheet of paper right at the start. You mightn’t know who they are, what they look like, where they go: but they’re definitely somewhere. Not so with Roottreemania. You have to work it all out for yourself.
Image: Robin Ward
In the original, it felt like a very high percentage of the material you found had at least one clue in it. Again, not so with Roottreemania. It allows you to dig in a completely wrong direction, and dig deep. It leaves you trails of breadcrumbs that ultimately go nowhere, and make the world you’re searching in feel so much more real as a result. In the original, you ask yourself “why is this relevant?” — in Roottreemania, you ask “is this relevant at all?”
And, without spoiling anything, the whole concept of Roottreemania, the reason you’re doing it in the first place, makes a hell of a lot more sense than in the original game, at least in my mind. When filling out the family tree in the original, I found myself thinking that the vast majority of the information I was digging up would be readily available to absolutely anyone. The hoops players go through to find the names of people whose existence would be very well-documented don’t really make much sense, and are only explained away by the fact that they’re playing a video game and that’s the core mechanic of it. The solution in Roottreemania is elegant and introduces the mechanics to a scenario that feels much more realistic.
For me, Roottreemania is the main course; it relegates the first part of the game to a satisfying starter - an introductory chapter to get you thinking before the real game begins. It’s more deserving of the headline, rather than being presented as a bonus, or even on-par with the first part. My playtime arguably proves it — I spent twice as long on it as I did the original, and enjoyed my time in it more. The greediest parts of me wish there was one more mini-mystery to it, but I can’t complain when it provided so much more to me than the first part did. Roottreemania elevates the Roottrees are Dead to a much, much higher standard than it would be with just the original.
The Roottrees are Dead - with a heavy emphasis on Roottreemania - is awarded ★★★★✮ by IndieLoupe.com.
The reviewed product was purchased by IndieLoupe.com.
