Shadows of Doubt Review (PS5) – Ain’t That A Kick In The Head

Both punks (steam and cyber) clash, a serial killer is on the loose; and I can’t help but have myself a vending machine croque monsieur: Shadows of Doubt is an immersive sim that’s given itself some big shoes to fill. Detective games are usually presented as curated puzzles, something that oftentimes tries to make the player have a resemblance of their urgency.

But the reality is that whilst these games present you with the faux feeling of solving a case, you’re either guided or pushed in the right direction to get there. Shadows of Doubt is one of the few, and most recent examples, that boldly gives you an idea of what tools you have at your disposal, but it’s completely down to you to solve. It’s also a game that belongs on PC, as there are just so many qualities that make the console version maybe a little inferior. Dense navigation across menus, procedural generation that slows down framerate and a complex set of controls distilled into a controller.

All of it was a hurdle I had to overcome during my first hours. However, after some adjusting, I’m glad it’s here on console because there’s just not enough of this type of polished experience for players. Is this one of the better immersive sims beyond reasonable doubt? Or does it cast a shadow on the genre? I’ll put on my trench coat and tell you.

Above The Law

Monday afternoon, it was raining cats and dogs outside of Finger Guns HQ. A note was slipped onto my desk while I was out brooding. Written on the note in red was a code with the title, Shadows of Doubt. Anyway, I’ve had a few days to chew the cud and solve murder cases in a couple of the cities the game offers.

Players can choose a name, gender and skin tone or completely randomise those options. After a false start on the tutorial case, I tried again and became Elijah Auclair for the rest of my playtime. You choose from a list of a few cities as your playground. The only constant is the city’s layout and buildings. Everything else like citizens, items, and cases are completely procedurally generated to be different every time you start a new character.

Getting into the game you’re greeted with a brief cut scene that establishes the kind of world Shadows of Doubt is: a hyper-industrialised alternate reality set in the 1980s. It feels like a cross between New York and New Orleans with its towering structures but French references with the game’s use of language, cobble streets and randoms who won’t give you the time of day — and of course some of the vending machine delights like that croque monsieur!

Everything’s a shade of brown or grey, whether that’s from the brickwork of the claustrophobic streets or the actual scuzz and grime, a stark contrast to the Americana-style neon signs. This is all with a voxel art style which I think lends itself to having the type of world density it’s going for, but it does warrant some imagination for the NPC designs or the more basically designed interiors.

Magnum P. I. Staker

It’s substance over style though as the game promises and delivers on being 100% explorable. Every room of every tower can be entered, all of which are brimming with items, all NPCs have their own patterns, living quarters and even whole profiles for you to learn (whether you need to or not). It all makes Shadows of Doubt feel like a living, functioning world.

This isn’t your playground of impunity, however, as there is a litany of rules to follow, but more on that later. You start the game as just a citizen with some retired private investigating chops. That is until a note under your door spurs you on to pick back up the fedora and solve a murder case. The game then proceeds to give you a tutorial, essentially telling you how to do every step as you’re playing and learning on the job.

Playing from the first person perspective, the basics of a murder case are as follows: Get details of the victim, check for evidence like fingerprints, any notes lying around the crime scene, check their last calls (ingoing/outgoing) and you’ll slowly start making connections. These connections can all be pinned to an investigation board you’ll find by pressing in the touchpad.

There’s no limit to what you can pin to the board and it’s one of the many examples where Shadows of Doubt gives you complete, albeit blind, control. After an initial investigation, you may have some leads to go on. Maybe a neighbour mentioned a suspicious character meer hours before a victim’s death or sourced the location of the final phone call between the victim and potential assailant, it’s up to you how you want to proceed, and you determine what feels potentially more fruitful.

Protect Ya Neck

No matter your method of pursuit, it usually will involve something illegal to uncover more from the investigation — or at least for me, it did. As I mentioned before, you’re not above the law or even a part of it, making your job as a PI just that bit more tense. Trespassing is an easy one to get caught up in, as non-public spaces will always earn you a fine if you’re caught. Taking evidence, tampering with security equipment to remain undetected and other such sleuthy behaviours are all ways that rack up a hefty fine if you’re caught.

NPCs will have no problem knocking you out if they catch you in their home and police will pursue you if you trigger alarms. It adds a layer of tension to the gameplay that doesn’t get much easier as you carry on. You can of course fight back, but a stealthier approach is always the safest option. This is because your character goes through a varying amount of status effects, both passively and actively.

Caught in the rain? You had best be careful when running the halls in case you slip — searching through someone’s trash? Well, you’re going to end up stinking and a shower is the only way to solve that, or suffer the consequences of upsetting citizens. You also get hungry and thirsty, as well as injured if you’re not careful when throwing hands. It’s a simple set of systems that all feel very self-explanatory and are also easily fixed. However, it’s an effective method of managing how you carry yourself and a great way to establish itself as an immersive sim.

Conspiracy Theories

Another aspect that delivers on the immersion is the game’s lack of direction. If you’re stuck on how to solve an investigation, you only have yourself and the tools the game teaches you at the start to progress. There’s no right or wrong way to get to a conclusion, only that there is a right answer to every case and you won’t find out until it’s too late.

Many a time in Shadows of Doubt you’re presented with multiple potential suspects, all with extremely convincing evidence that would suggest they did the crime. Not even linking someone’s fingerprints to the murder weapon is enough to be a sure way of a correct conviction. This is in no way a complaint, as it uses that part of your brain where you’re thinking about all the crime shows you’ve watched, making contextual analysis on human behaviours.

However, this can create some massive lulls in the gameplay. I could spend hours just trying to sift through right and wrong, looking up addresses, walking around aimlessly because I forgot where a certain apartment was and the in-game map isn’t much help. I could also argue that’s the point — besides the map — to just kind of live in this world, boring moments and all.

This isn’t an endless battle of solving crimes, however, as there’s an overarching goal you work towards — retiring again! You’ll start with no social level, no fixed address but with money and cases solved you’ll gain both. Your social level will unlock perks that make you feel part of society, even something as innocuous as being able to hang around bars without buying a drink. Whereas the money can help you buy a new apartment, decor, food and drink, and detective equipment like a camera, handcuffs, lockpicks, etc.

Deducing The Facts

Shadows of Doubt starts as an uphill battle but you’ll slowly get to grips with the systems and also come across permanent upgrades. You’ll find these Sync Disks dispersed randomly across the whole map that when installed will give you a perk to help your investigations. Some of them are almost pointless like getting paid for taking photos of bathrooms, whereas others do a bit more to help.

One example is being able to perceive someone’s height and shoe size just by looking at them. It sounds like nothing but it’s a decent way of filling out your investigation. You can also find upgrades for the Sync Disks perks to give you better results — usually just a percentage increase on the perk in question.

Suffice it to say, a lot is going on in the game. The main gameplay loop of snooping around and finding evidence, lock picking whilst out of view of a moving camera and detecting fingerprints with your scanner all lives up to that cyberpunk-y style of detective game I dream about. Although spending more time with it, I noticed how NPCs are on a track and manipulating their AI patterns does start to feel like you’re at odds with the game.

As well as that, going through your inventory to pick out your equipment, or navigating the investigation board is a bit of a chore but is functional and part of playing with a controller. It also has an extremely choppy frame rate throughout the game, which I found visually straining when there’s so much rain or you have to run somewhere.

Case Closed

It is undeniable that experiences like this really don’t come around much on console. I assume Shadows of Doubt would just naturally run better on PC. With that said, I’m glad ColePowered Games made the effort to port for the 1.0 release as it’s one of the better immersive sims you’ll play.

There’s an inherent amount of patience required when playing, but once I got past that and into the groove of detective work, I was lost in the voxel grime of crime for hours on end. If you’re looking to do some pulpy police work that puts the responsibility in your hands, then there’s no better game than Shadows of Doubt. And that’s all the murder she wrote.

Shadows of Doubt is available 26th September 2024 on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam.

Developer: ColePowered Games
Publisher: Fireshine Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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