Murdered: Soul Suspect

Интересный детектив с интересной развязкой. Для пары вечеров отличный выбор.

You play as a ghost detective trying to solve your own murder. Existing in a spirit world layered over the living one, you can watch humans, possess them, read their thoughts, see evidence through their eyes, and influence what they think about. However, you can’t speak to them, and most people have no idea you’re there. Solving a murder alongside a police force that can’t see or hear you gives the game a genuinely interesting perspective. Instead of making informed guesses like a normal detective, you can use supernatural abilities to uncover information no living person could access. You can also walk through most walls and doors, making exploration less about finding a way into a room and more about discovering what useful information is inside. The story is mysterious and engaging, although the ending feels rushed. Most of the major revelations happen within the final twenty minutes, and everything is wrapped up very quickly. What makes the mystery interesting is that you always feel like you’re following the correct trail, but the final reveal changes what that trail actually means. You haven’t been wasting your time or chasing irrelevant clues, yet you also haven’t understood the full picture until very close to the end. I won’t spoil exactly why, but it creates a strange feeling that you were both right and wrong at the same time. The game is structured like a semi-open world, with several large areas connected through a central city. Loading screens separate them, but on a modern system with an SSD, they only take around a second. The areas are also large enough that you rarely need to constantly load in and out during quests. There are several side quests involving spirits who need help moving on to the afterlife. These are short, self-contained detective stories that use the same skills as the main campaign. They don’t reward you with items or upgrades; you complete them simply because you want to help. I actually liked this, although the lack of rewards may put some people off. The world also contains collectibles that reveal additional stories. One thing I hate is the demons. They appear in mandatory stealth sections that interrupt the pacing. They stop being scary after the first encounter and quickly become annoying obstacles that feel like padding. To defeat one, you sneak behind it, hold a button, and complete a simple prompt. They never become more intelligent or gain new abilities; later sections just add more of them. They aren’t challenging, tense, or frightening. While they have some relevance to the story, that doesn’t make them enjoyable during gameplay. The city layout is also frustrating. Although you’re a ghost, certain “ghost objects” prevent you from passing through them. This gives the developers control over where you can go, but many of these barriers seem designed purely to slow you down. The game originally released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so these restrictions may have helped the older hardware load the environment. On a modern PC, however, they feel unnecessary. You’ll try to move directly towards a location, hit a barrier, and realise there is only one predetermined route. The slow movement speed makes this worse. Running feels more like a light jog and is barely faster than walking. Thankfully, exploration feels much better outside the main city, where there are fewer barriers. These areas allow you to move around more freely and actually feel like a ghost. The detective puzzles are simple but enjoyable. You search an area for clues and combine them to understand what happened. They are very forgiving, as there is no penalty for incorrect guesses. You can eventually solve most puzzles by selecting every option. This leads into my biggest issue: there are no real consequences for your actions. On one hand, this helps sell the ghost fantasy. Humans can’t see you, so you’re free to possess people and read their thoughts without being caught. On the other hand, it removes nearly all tension. You never feel like the killer is hunting you or reacting to how close you are getting to the truth. I would have liked to see mediums used as enemies. Humans who could detect spirits and force you to possess someone to sneak past them or maybe you'd just have to avoid them altogether. Anything to add a challenge honestly. There ARE demonic "pools" that can kill you if you step into them, but they’re easily avoided. Even when you get caught, you can normally escape with a button prompt. Outside of a few scrripted puzzle moments, they never feel like a real obstacle. Despite these complaints, I enjoyed the game. It was nice to play a short, self-contained mystery that I could casually sit back and enjoy with a controller. I felt like a detective solving an interesting case, and the ghost abilities give the investigation a unique identity. I’d give it a 7/10. I recommend approaching it as a walking simulator with detective mechanics rather than a game with meaningful combat. It does a good job of making you feel like a spirit trying to solve your own murder, even if the gameplay mostly lacks challenge and the ending feels rushed.