We recently got a LOT of snow in southeastern Pennsylvania. While I was stuck in my house, I bought a puzzle game called The Roottrees Are Dead. I love puzzle games and this one seemed to add a bit of genealogy, which sounded fun. Boy, was it ever!
In the game, you are a renowned genealogist. When a plane carrying the very wealthy Roottree family - father Carl, president of the family candy company; mother Brenda, fashion designer for the family’s fashion line ROOT.; and daughters, Rhayna, Rhose, and Rhiley - crashes andeveryone on board dies, a mysterious person knocks on your door. They ask you to fill in the vast Roottree family tree in order to find who is a blood relative of Elias Roottree, the great, great grandfather of the current Roottree generation and founder of the Roottree Candy Company. His fortune can only be divided among blood relatives so it is very important to figure out who is part of the trust and who is not.
This sounds a little overwhelming and it is. A little. The game takes place in 1998 so, while you don’t have a smartphone, you do have a few useful resources available to you. Your trusty computer is set up with a SpiderSearch engine, where you can look up information on the family members. The computer also has access to books and periodicals (magazines, newspapers, etc.) And, every once in awhile, the mystery person shows back up to give you information from the Roottree Candy Company. Use the right keywords to find names of family members, their various occupations, and photos of each of them.
I can’t tell you how much fun I had playing this. Like I said, I was stuck inside for a couple of days thanks to the snow and this was a perfect distraction. I always wanted to figure out my family tree but it can be difficult to figure out if the information you find is actually correct. Thankfully, in this game, you get a notification after you get all of the information for three family members. (Four later in the game and five toward the end.) The game “locks in” the correct information, turning their piece of the tree yellow, leaving you with the blue pieces. And when you get stuck, you get to talk it out with your rubber duck, which I think is adorable.
I blazed through the main part of the game in one day. Yeah, I probably should have taken some breaks but, what can I say, I get obsessed sometimes. Thankfully, there is a second part, which is a bit of a sequel. It turns out that some of the men in the family had quite a few affairs. Now you have a whole new group of people claiming to be Roottrees so they can also get their hands on the family fortune. It’s up to you to figure out who is a legitimate result of the affair and who is just a normal schlub.
If you are a fan of puzzle games, especially word puzzle games, The Roottrees Are Dead may be right up your alley. You can buy it on Steam for about $20. I don’t think this is a game you will regret buying. I just hope they make more genealogy-type games. There are definitely more family trees out there that we can build!