Step into a noir city as a detective in Dupery, a solo deduction roguelite where you must sniff out syndicate liars to save your reputation.

If you have ever wanted to step into the shoes of a gritty detective navigating a city under the thumb of a criminal syndicate, Dupery offers a compelling challenge. Set in a dark, noir-inspired atmosphere, your primary goal is to hunt down members of a shadowy network while keeping your own investigative career afloat. It is a game that demands constant vigilance, as the city is filled with individuals who are more than happy to lie to your face. You will need to carefully navigate these treacherous waters to uncover the head of the syndicate.

Gameplay

The core of your work involves handling procedurally generated cases presented on a grid. Each grid contains a mix of characters, some of whom are innocent, while others are actively working for the syndicate. You must interrogate these roles, review their statements, and cross-reference their stories to determine who is telling the truth. Because the cases are generated procedurally, you cannot rely on rote memorization; you must actively deduce whose stories simply do not check out.

Managing your reputation is just as vital as solving the crimes. Every time you make an arrest, you are taking a gamble. If you correctly identify and arrest an evil role, your reputation increases, which allows you to move forward and select your next case. However, if you make a wrongful arrest of an innocent person, your reputation takes a hit. If it drops too low, you will be fired, effectively ending your run. You have to balance your desire for justice with the cold reality of job security.

To help you keep track of the chaos, you are provided with a notation toolkit that lets you build your own in-game crime board. You can use strings, pins, and notes to compile the imperfect information you gather during your interrogations. This is essential for tracking the 175+ individual roles you might encounter, ranging from the helpful to the deceptive. Whether you are dealing with a mathematician who provides numerical clues or a critic who makes your reputation loss worse, your ability to organize these details is your greatest weapon.

What stands out

What sets the experience apart is the sheer variety of roles you will encounter. With over 175 distinct characters categorized into Innocents, Meddlers, Underlings, and Traitors, the social landscape is constantly shifting. Underlings are known to lie, and Traitors are even more dangerous, but even the well-meaning characters can be tainted. This categorization forces you to constantly adjust your level of distrust as you move through different regions.

The game is structured into three distinct campaigns, each set in a different region with its own unique mechanics and roles. As you progress, you will face a syndicate general at the end of each region, leading up to a final, brutal confrontation with the mastermind. Between missions, you can customize your experience by choosing specific roles to add to your cases and acquiring various quirks and modifiers that shape how your run plays out.

Who might enjoy it

If you enjoy deduction games that force you to weigh conflicting testimonies and manage high-stakes consequences, this is one to watch. It is particularly well-suited for players who appreciate the tension of a roguelite structure where every decision impacts your long-term progress. If you find satisfaction in organizing complex information and testing your ability to spot a liar, you will likely find the investigative loop here quite rewarding.

Review and concurrent-player statistics are not included in this discovery.