Adventures of Bertram Fiddle 1: A Dreadly Business

Victorian London becomes a crooked cartoon nightmare where foggy alleys, melodramatic suspects, and spectacularly odd noses hide a grisly mystery. Adventures of Bertram Fiddle 1: A Dreadly Business casts players as Bertram Fiddle, an enthusiastically self-proclaimed “leading explorator” whose grand ambitions collide with the case of Geoff the Murderer, a serial killer stalking Old London Town. The tone balances bloodless macabre intrigue with deliberately dreadful wordplay, making it more playful than frightening even when the plot heads toward murder. Rumpus Animation’s hand-drawn visual style gives every street corner and character a memorable, exaggerated personality.

Most of the adventure follows classic point-and-click rules: inspect locations, talk to a broad cast of eccentrics, collect useful objects, and work out how seemingly ridiculous inventory items fit the next obstacle. Bertram travels through more than 30 locations, piecing together clues while the story gradually reveals that the case is stranger than his detective instincts suggest. Puzzles favor observation, conversation, and comedic logic rather than fast reflexes, though action-focused scenes occasionally break up the investigation and add a little urgency. Progress is largely linear, so the emphasis stays on following the mystery and enjoying the jokes instead of getting lost in an enormous sandbox.

What separates it from many retro-minded adventures is its commitment to animation and performance: interactions are lively, the voice cast sells the absurd humor, and the moody score channels the lurid charm of old B-movie thrillers. Its Victorian setting owes something to Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper fiction, but the broad caricatures and knowingly terrible puns make it feel closer in spirit to Monkey Island-style comedy than a straight detective drama. The first chapter is a compact, story-led experience rather than a dense puzzle marathon, making it approachable for newcomers to the genre. Players who enjoy humorous mysteries, expressive 2D art, and traditional inventory puzzling will find Bertram’s bungling investigation an entertainingly peculiar case.