Shadows of Doubt

Shadows of Doubt (SoD) is a procedural detective adventure in a cyberpunk-lite setting that will leave you wanting more. (Really, I wish there was more content) You play as a private detective in an isolated floating city where murder and theft are common and people are desperate. Without any support beyond your notebook, fingerprint scanner and real-life intuition; you will need to investigate crime scenes, collect evidence, interview potential witnesses and finally track down and arrest the perpetrator. Cities are procedurally generated from a small asset pool of buildings styled after 1950’s-1980’s American architecture laid out in a square grid. Both the building and street names are also procedurally generated, offering a new city every time you start a new game with a few common elements across the cities. What is even more impressive is the hundreds of NPCs that are generated with each one given a name, address, phone number, occupation, fingerprints, blood type, marital status, friends and daily schedule. (and more!) The setting is a cyberpunk setting, but this is only a light touch that mostly applies only to the technology of the world. (Automated turrets, anachronistic computers, cyberware upgrades in the form of Sync-Discs) The game has just as much in common with Raymond Chandler than William Gibson. Murders happen regularly and the player is only given an address to the crime scene, but beyond that no other information is given. It is on the player to investigate the crime scene, (often having to avoid the police trying to lock the area down) and find clues that lead you to the suspect. This is one of the games’ greatest strengths as the investigations are very open-ended with many routes to find the perpetrator. Look for a murder weapon, scan footprints on the ground, find their address book, check for fingerprints, review security cameras, interview neighbors, go through the victims email and see if someone might want them dead; there’s lots of options to get to the answer, but just as many can end up being dead ends that lead to nowhere. This is brilliant as a game isn’t afraid to let the player fail an investigation, making difficult cases memorable and solving them satisfying. Side quests do exist in the form of contracts which are posted around the city in diners and city hall. They are made up of simple tasks like public humiliation, catching people in affairs and the recovery of stolen items and are meant to fill the time between investigations. Often, they give only giving small vague clues and you will need to use your detective skills to fill in the rest of the case’s details. These are quick and fun and are useful when the player needs a quick bit of cash in a hurry. In addition to the investigation aspects of the game, the game also has survival mechanics that exist to immerse the player in the world. The player will need to tend to hunger, sleep and thirst, but also respond to being cold, wet, injured, sick, drunk, etc. Most of these are easily avoidable and can be cured quickly, but they are nice touches that help the feeling of being a detective in this world. I mean what is a detective story without going over the details of a case with a donut and a cup of coffee? The player will also benefit from purchasing an apartment in the city to have a place to sleep and store things. Almost every room in the city can be rented and on top of that it can be remodeled with different floors, wallpaper and furniture. It is not central to the gameplay, but it’s fun for the kind of player that likes to roleplay. Now for the bad. - The procedural nature of the game does not allow for much flexibility, the cities are created from a small pool of assets and no matter how big/small you make it, it’s going to be the same buildings repeatedly. - There is no shortage of bugs of both the visual and gameplay kind, sometimes this results in cases that are unsolvable due to evidence not appearing. - Combat is pretty…bad; for the most part ambushing people with a melee weapon works well enough, but the blocking/parry system is frustrating at best and feels broken at its worst and it’s mostly advised to skip it all together. - The biggest problem is that the longer the game goes on, the more information you accumulate about the city and its residents, which can occasionally make the late game a complete cake walk. For example, if you previously gathered info about a victim’s co-workers in a previous case you now have all that information on file. Now if any of them are involved in a later case as a murderer, you will find evidence that points you to them immediately, almost completely removing the investigative part of the game. Although this is natural and makes sense, it is an inherited flaw that unfortunately cannot be avoided without stripping away the simulation aspect of the game which allows for the player to use accumulated knowledge of the city. - It appears the games production is mostly over. There have not been large updates for a while and there isn’t much communication from the developer(s). Recently there was a “modifiers update” which added a few gameplay options, but they are small (but welcomed) additions to the game. We can hope that ColePowered Games has more planned for the title, but do not buy the game expecting there to be significantly more content added. -Performance is poor despite not being graphically intensive, what's up with that? Overall Shadows of Doubt is an excellent detective game because instead of giving the illusion of investigating crimes, it puts the task in the players’ hands to be as good (or bad) of a P.I they can be. Throw in the moody retro-cyberpunk setting and a dynamic city that requires real world thinking and you have an indie title which people will be recommending for decades.