Hi, I'm Palipilino!
PC
1/22/2026
It's an hour past midnight on a snowy, still December evening. You really should be in bed by now; you've got work tomorrow morning. Every minute you stay awake is another feeble attempt to regain some sense of control over your life, to steal back a modicum of your free time already stolen from you via your corporate overlord, so screw it. Your tiredness is a problem for Tomorrow You. This is your time to do what you really like! Naturally, you spend it doomscrolling various social media and watching the first 15 seconds of video clips before skipping to the next one. You sigh. Another productive night.
Before your body gets the best of you, an article catches your eye. You begin to scan the foreword. "Details are unclear at this point as to the cause of the crash, but local authorities have seemingly ruled out foul play... A tragedy that has shocked Butler County and the nation... Millions of ROOT. fans worldwide mourn the loss of Rhayna, Rhose, and Rhiley... " It takes a moment to realize what you're reading. You scroll to the top of the page and turn on the live feed. "For those of you just joining us, Roottree Candy Company president Carl Roottree, his wife Brenda, and the Roottree Sisters perished tonight when the company's private jet crashed just outside of Pittsburgh. Once again...the Roottrees are dead."
There are many reasons to praise The Roottrees Are Dead, but if you had to pick just one, it would be how perfectly it emulates the feeling of deep diving into a Wikipedia-based rabbit hole at 3am. Solving the game's titular mystery and filling out the Roottree family tree is addictively fulfilling; every mystery firmly solved reveals three more to get your claws into, each discovery always offering another path.
| Played For | 12h 4m |
|---|---|
| Completion Type | All Achievements, Both Routes (Or Roots??) |
| Favorite Roottree | Caroline Morden |
| Fun Fact | Writing this intro took me forever!! Idk why... |
| Scientific Fact | Playing detective games makes your smart stat increase! |
One of the game's best moments is just a few minutes in, once the full weight of your task is revealed to you. You turn to your corkboard to find a massive family tree spanning 4 generations and dozens of unknown entries...the in-game narrator is right to call it overwhelming, but it's overwhelming in the best way, in a way that will make your inner detective practically start pacing the floor in excitement.
And yet, what makes the game's title mystery so compelling is in spite of how sprawling the family tree seems, everything always feels connected. You are always in a flow state of information, never feeling like you are running out of leads to follow or evidence to examine. The Roottrees Are Dead is paced fascinatingly well, and there are always multiple ways to gather new details. The game is very circular in that way, which makes it feel a lot more grounded, like you're investigating something that actually happened.
The overall story of the game is fine enough, but you're not really here for a deep narrative with complex characters. You're digging into the checkered past of one of the nation's most famous families, and it certainly feels like that. In its initial mystery, TRAD is one of the most compelling puzzle games out there. This is the type of mystery that you can easily solve in one sitting, not because it's so short, but because it's easy to get so invested in that you won't want to stop. For the half dozen hours or so you spend solving the Roottree family tree, it's pure perfection—the detective video game genre at its best.
This is aided by some pretty handy internal functionality and a nostalgic backdrop. The ability to easily take notes from articles and cross-reference them at any time is a godsend, and even the little things, like the sound of your mechanical keyboard or basic keyboard shortcuts working on your Windows 98-era PC, really help to sell the mood, all while a soundtrack worthy of a jazz speakeasy loops in the background. The presentation is minimalist but evocative; it's the type of game you'll find yourself playing at night because it just feels right.
When The Roottrees Are Dead was fully re-released on Steam in 2025, it included an additional mystery to solve called Roottreemania, again focused on uncovering the secret history of the famous family. It, too, contains a heap of satisfying connections and has some eureka moments that will have you practically patting yourself on the back. At its core, it's still very good. It just relies a bit too much on the game's initial mystery and feels a bit too disconnected to rival the focused brilliance of what preceded it.
A lot of this mystery's clues feel like you stumble into them rather than look for them directly, and its use of some confusing language surrounding its conclusion makes the case's denouement a touch more uneven. You'll definitely hit a few walls. At its best, though, it's still incredibly engaging and a testament to the incredible groundwork that the game lays with its first mystery.
Eyelids nearly collapsing under their own weight, you power down your computer and head to bed. The alarm clock reads 4:27 AM. You sigh again. Time to get some sleep. The Roottrees will still be dead tomorrow.