Shadows of Doubt review: A DIY detective thriller

Shadows of Doubt uses procedrual generation to make one of the best detective games of all time

Shadows of Doubt / Fireshine Games

Detective games come in a lot of different forms, and there is no clear consensus on what the best way is to recreate the experience of solving a mystery through game mechanics. It makes it an easy thing to get wrong. Give players too few options and they’ll solve things too easily – or just brute-force their way through it – but give them too many and they’ll easily get lost.

Over the years there have been a handful of great games that have found their way around this. Her Story uses an overwhelming amount of information to make each and every little discovery all the more satisfying, while Return of the Obra Dinn just gives you one giant puzzle to solve, rather than lots of little ones, slowly drip-feeding information in a carefully crafted order.

Shadows of Doubt does something truly unique, as it’s the first detective game I’ve ever played that goes for the full hands-off approach, and it meant that I felt more like a genius detective than ever before.

Shadows of Doubt / Fireshine Games

Procedural generation is the name of the game here. After generating a city full of dingy diners, run-down bars, and depressing apartment blocks, you can wander around and do a couple of quick jobs to earn some money before the main event begins. There’s been a murder and it’s your job to crack the case.

Like the city, everything about the case is procedurally generated: the victim, where they live, where they work, and all of the various relationships they have with people which is especially important as one of them is the murderer. None of this information is handed to you though. All the game gives you is the location of the body, and it’s your job to work out the rest.

You don’t even know the identity of the victim until you get there and find an ID in their apartment, where you have to get your CSI on and start investigating the scene. You can scan for prints, analyze the body, and search the victim’s apartment for clues. Sometimes these will be notes scattered around the apartment, strange emails left on their computer, or something more subtle like words written in blood on the walls.

Shadows of Doubt / Fireshine Games

From there it’s up to you to decide what leads you want to follow, with all of the information displayed in the obvious fashion – on a big pinboard with red string connecting related evidence. This is where things really heat up as you have to investigate people’s apartments, workplaces, and a whole bunch of other locations you’re not supposed to be in.

Which brings me to the other factor I haven’t even mentioned – the stealth mechanics. It’s not the most complex system, but the fact is most of the places you’re likely to find answers – including the victim’s apartment – are restricted areas full of silent alarms, security cameras, and automated turrets, all of which add to the dynamic adventures you’ll get into.

Shadows of Doubt / Fireshine Games

Not only do you need to do all the legwork of figuring out where to investigate, but once you get there you have to pull off an infiltration, disabling security, remaining unseen, and finding ways to get through or around the many locked doors in your path.

It taps into the best thing about systemic games, which is that you come away with unique stories about your adventures. Every case becomes meaningful as you slowly learn what the life of the victim was like, and you become dedicated in your search for justice. I wouldn’t have guessed that dodging a machine-gun turret would help me get emotionally invested, but here we are.

There were a few elements I found disappointing though. The lack of dialogue is a shame. I realize that a full dynamic dialogue tree would’ve been a massive undertaking in what is already an incredibly ambitious game, but interviewing suspects and drawing information out of them is a big part of detective work. All you can do when you meet a suspect is ask them if they knew the victim and ask if you can snoop around in their apartment – then bribe them when they say no. Plus, it means that all vital information has to be found in scattered post-it notes or emails instead, which is still fun to discover, but less interesting than catching someone in a lie.

Shadows of Doubt / Fireshine Games

On top of that, plenty of people will be put off by how obtuse it can be. There will be frustrating times when all of your leads appear to reach dead ends and you’re unsure if it’s because you missed something or you just got unlucky. It’s a weird feeling to be sitting around waiting for the murderer to kill again just so you can get more leads.

Still, it’s worth the frustration. When you engage with it on a deeper level Shadows of Doubt really sings, and that wouldn’t be possible if they sacrificed that complexity just to widen the appeal. It knows exactly the kind of experience it wants to be and doesn’t compromise its ideas to make sure that’s what players get. The result is one of the best mystery games ever made, and I hope they continue to develop these systems even after this 1.0 launch.

Score: 8/10

Version tested: PC (Steam)