Murdered: Soul Suspect Review

Pulling off a good mystery title is no easy task, which is probably why there aren't very many of them; good ones that is. It's not the most popular genre in the world either, but saying that we have had a fair few of them recently. Murdered: Soul Suspect does take a decent stab at it, but you might expect a little more than that from a title which has been released with a most assuredly AAA price tag.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is a story-driven third-person investigative adventure game with some stealth elements. You take the role of Detective Ronan O Connor in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. He's a goodhearted maverick with a rough past. Everything begins seconds after you've just been thrown from a fourth story window by the game's primary antagonist. The fall almost kills you and the subsequent bullets to the chest finish the job, meaning you play through the entire game as a ghost. This has several implications for the way the game is played, such as the fact that you can walk through most walls, teleport short distances, influence some real-world objects, and so on.

When there's something strange in your neighbourhood, who're you going to call?

The primary form of gameplay featured bears similarities to that of L.A. Noire. You spend some time scouring crime scenes for clues. Most of the time these are just objects situated or lain within the room which you need to approach and press X on. However, occasionally they involve a small interactive element; for example, having to possess a witness, influence them, and attempt to jolt their memory such that they verbally recount a new clue. After gathering all the clues that you think you need, you are normally required to resolve the crime scene by either choosing the three most relevant clues or by placing the clues in their appropriate order.



In spite of the fact that this all may sound rather dull, since the game's story is so interesting and well written, it provides sufficient motivation to drive you through the game. Nevertheless, I can't help but think that it would have benefited greatly from a higher level of difficulty. In most cases it was blatantly obvious which clues I had to choose to progress. Presumably, that was a design choice made in order to appeal to a wider audience, but as a gamer it makes the experience much less engaging.

In addition to the primary plotline being very interesting, the game generally has a very well-designed backdrop, numerous side quests, and superfluous opportunities to discover more about the characters and places featured in the game. The possession mechanic, for example, actually stretches a little further than previously mentioned. Pretty much any NPC human in the game can be possessed and their immediate thoughts can be read. I didn't come across any productive use of this whatsoever, and so presumably it's just for lore or immersion purposes. Another example of additional content are the phantom letters which can be found all over Salem giving insight into the main character and his marriage, which tragically ended when his partner died.

There's plenty of ghostly dynamics in the game, but much of the time they're pointless

In parts of the game you are required to make your way through short stealth sections. This involves evading, sneaking around, and hiding from patrolling daemons. The daemons can be executed if you are able to approach them closely enough from behind, but if they see you first then you have no choice but to run and hide. The things that you hide in are inanimate humanoid ghostly apparitions which are scattered throughout the entire game, strangely enough, even parts of the game that don't have stealth sections. After you take up hiding whilst being under chase, you begin a tedious game of 'hide the ball under the cup' as you hop from one safe haven to another while the daemon sniffs around and searches each of them for a couple of minutes. Eventually, he gets fed up and wanders off.

As you progress through the main part of the game, the stealth sections remain more or less unchanged. Disregarding the fact that they weren't really that interesting to begin with, by the end of the game you are most certainly bored of them. They become little more than a mediocre time sink and a minor annoyance.

It took me just over six hours to finish the game. Personally, I think that's at least half the length it should be; especially if you add in that the game has practically no replayability value. It's kind of a shame because the story itself is very intriguing, and it more or less remains so all the way through. I would also add that it would have been nice to have a few more slightly complex detective game mechanics. For example, the player could have been required to piece together more complex chains of clues in order to instigate some of the insights which the main character has throughout the game automatically. This is something which was done very well in Discworld Noir almost 15 years ago.

The repetitive stealth sections feel out of place and soon begin to grate

There's nothing to complain about when it comes to the graphical fidelity of the game. In fact, the game world has been constructed quite expertly, the character models are pleasant and detailed, and the game has a fairly well-polished 3-D look. Given that it's a cross-platform release, I'm happy to say that the PC version ticks all the boxes it should, particularly in terms of functionality. Even the mouse and keyboard seems to be a viable control option, although admittedly I played through the game on a gamepad.