Hope in the City's clues begin in a sketchbook

Hope Song has an art-school future to think about when her parents disappear. The 17-year-old at the centre of Hope in the City comes home from school to a ransacked apartment, then starts looking for answers with the skill she already has: noticing things and drawing them. Her notebook becomes a record of the investigation, filling with sketches that you connect into new thoughts. It's an appealingly personal tool for a mystery about losing the people closest to you.

Lofty Sky's single-player adventure arrives on PC and Xbox Series X|S on 11 November, with day-one Game Pass availability. Its setting is Shenyang in Northeast China, where Hope's familiar streets conceal the answers to her family's disappearance. A freshly updated Steam demo offers two difficulty modes, giving you a way to choose how demanding that first investigation feels before the full release.

The notebook does the detective work

At the start, Hope's classmates are worrying about the Gaokao, China's national college entrance exams. She has a different plan: going overseas to study art. Drawing gives her somewhere to put her attention while the pressure builds around her. When she returns to the wrecked apartment, that same habit becomes useful in a much more urgent way. Hope has no official authority or investigative resources; her observations are what she can bring to the search.

You gather clues from places and conversations, recording what Hope notices as sketches. Those observations then become material for the thought-building system. Connect separate thoughts to form an insight, and build on insights to reach a breakthrough. The structure gives the notebook two jobs: keeping track of discoveries and helping you work out how they belong together. Finding a detail starts a process that continues when you consider its connections.

The press kit describes those connections opening new locations and dialogue as the investigation advances. You can pursue leads in the order you choose, with custom cutscenes arriving as you solve parts of the case. That gives a breakthrough a useful consequence beyond completing a page: it changes where Hope can go or what she can ask. There's a clear attraction here for players who enjoy the moment when scattered information becomes an explanation.

The notebook also has a very different texture from the surrounding city. Its pages hold little drawings and handwritten-looking notes against pale paper, while the investigation screen sets them beside a purple panel for forming an insight. One pictured page surrounds a portrait with a heart-shaped frame. The clues retain the character of something Hope would draw herself. Every notebook illustration was hand-drawn by Asian-Canadian artist Callista Antonio, giving the game's central tool an artist's work of its own.

Home, seen differently

Shenyang's streets and interiors use angular characters, strong colours and dramatic changes in light. A classroom screenshot puts Hope beside a stack of books, resting her head on her hand; another image looks down into a narrow street lit by pink signs and small pools of yellow light. The city has ordinary places to recognise as well as corners that invite a closer look. A shop counter, shelves and a conversation can all belong to this investigation.

Writer and artistic director Masha Loftus grew up in Northeast China. That connection to the setting is a welcome part of the project: Hope is investigating a place she calls home, among people whose willingness to help she has to judge. The premise gives those everyday encounters a troubling edge. Her parents are missing, and the people around her seem keen to avoid trouble. Asking questions means bringing that disappearance into their ordinary lives.

The English version is fully voiced, with Angela Tran playing Hope. The announced cast also includes Chelly Li as Leah Liu, Courtney Lin as Lin Meng and William Jung as Police Officer Zhou Kai. If you're choosing a mystery for a younger group instead, our look at the classroom case in Hasbro's family collection covers a local multiplayer alternative. Hope's search is a solo narrative adventure built around her own missing family.

Choose how to begin the case

The updated Steam demo adds Story Mode for a more casual experience and Detective Mode for a greater challenge. The exact differences between their investigation rules haven't been detailed. The update also adjusts the apartment perspective and controls, improves camera movement and adds Japanese and Traditional Chinese, alongside English, Simplified Chinese and Korean. Those changes make this a useful time to try the opening and decide which mode suits you.

The full game follows on 11 November, one day later than its original date, on Steam, Xbox PC and Xbox Series X|S. The Xbox listing includes Play Anywhere and cloud saves. Hope's most inviting feature is already easy to grasp: the drawings she carries around become the means of understanding what happened at home. For a player drawn to observation, conversations and connections, that sketchbook is a good reason to start looking.