I played the latest demo of About Fishing and let me tell you: it is a masterclass in playable marketing. The game markets itself as an angler-detective mystery through its sample, which has been expanded from Oisin's version last year, and everything the demo shows feels promising — except for one thing that becomes clear by the end. First off, I was genuinely captivated by the atmosphere. It is mystery-drenched in a way that never veers into wacky territory even when it introduces something as absurd as a thieving goose. You get mermaids, you get missing persons cases set against an eerily beautiful rural backdrop of desolate towns and churches with prison cells literally built into their basements, all rendered in this cold, drizzly aesthetic that is deeply unsettling rather than cartoonish. The world feels inhabited and worn-in from the first minute, which is exactly what a mystery should do — make you want to stay in it even when things are clearly wrong.
The twist I cannot let everyone miss before playing: there is no fishing at all. You're not casting lines or managing bait; instead you play as an investigator collecting and examining evidence from five distinct case files, each of which has been fleshed out since the last version. For every missing person, you open a dedicated folder filled with handwritten notes, journal entries, even photo strips in one investigation and annotated documents that force you to piece together what happened before making any conclusions — one detective thread is all about an old man's obsessive journals while another has cryptic letters scattered across several locations. The game makes its point the hard way: it builds a world so vivid you care about every character, then lets you investigate each of their tragedies thoroughly rather than skimming past them with minigame mechanics. Every case resolves in its own way and culminates in a final chase through an abandoned hospital building that feels earned because you've spent real time absorbing the narrative details beforehand. It might not be the fishing sim some expected from the title, but it is one of those games where loving everything about it makes the honest-to-god lack of actual fishing almost irrelevant — and I suspect this version will only become more complete at launch.
Source: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/playing-its-mystery-drenched-demo-suggests-ill-like-everything-about-about-fishing-except-the-fishing
Also see: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/about-fishing-is-a-romance-novel-and-that-youll-love-it
The twist I cannot let everyone miss before playing: there is no fishing at all. You're not casting lines or managing bait; instead you play as an investigator collecting and examining evidence from five distinct case files, each of which has been fleshed out since the last version. For every missing person, you open a dedicated folder filled with handwritten notes, journal entries, even photo strips in one investigation and annotated documents that force you to piece together what happened before making any conclusions — one detective thread is all about an old man's obsessive journals while another has cryptic letters scattered across several locations. The game makes its point the hard way: it builds a world so vivid you care about every character, then lets you investigate each of their tragedies thoroughly rather than skimming past them with minigame mechanics. Every case resolves in its own way and culminates in a final chase through an abandoned hospital building that feels earned because you've spent real time absorbing the narrative details beforehand. It might not be the fishing sim some expected from the title, but it is one of those games where loving everything about it makes the honest-to-god lack of actual fishing almost irrelevant — and I suspect this version will only become more complete at launch.
Source: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/playing-its-mystery-drenched-demo-suggests-ill-like-everything-about-about-fishing-except-the-fishing
Also see: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/about-fishing-is-a-romance-novel-and-that-youll-love-it