Fireshine Games and ColePowered Games have crafted a unique immersive sandbox experience with huge potential. Being able to take on the persona of a detective in a retro-futuristic city, where shadows and stealth are your best friends. Taking on private investigations all while hunting down a horrendous serial killer that will certainly kill again, unless you catch them. This theme is as enticing and thrilling as it sounds. This is Shadows of Doubt and it’s available now on Steam early access. If you are even remotely interested in this game, do yourself a favor and play it.

Gameplay

Shadows of Doubt puts players in control of their own private investigator. You can give your character a unique name and customize the type of gameplay you want to experience. Everything from the size of the city to procedurally generated cases. There is always a new twist you can spin on your next game session to make the game feel fresh. The game plays exactly what an immersive detective simulator should. Giving players full freedom to explore and uncover clues by the will of their own wit. This means that the game does not hold your hand when it comes to solving a crime. It is all up to the player to discover if there is any vital information in order to bring you that much closer to cracking the case.

There is a prebuilt city and case scenario for players that want a more scripted experience. This is really just to get the player used to the game’s features and get them acquainted with how the world works within Shadows of Doubt. I do recommend playing this mode initially just to get your feet wet and become more familiar with the game’s UI. This is the best way to experience a tutorial for the game before taking on the challenge of a true procedurally generated and open experience.

The AI in Shadows of Doubt is good but clearly, this is early access and it shows at times. The AI walks into walls, goes to their homes and glitching into the house without opening the door. These are all minor things that can break immersion but surely will be patched as early access carries on. The tru highlight of the AI is the interrogation system. You have full freedom to have a conversation with every single NPC in this game to try to acquire information relevant to your case(s). This is truly a game changer and provides that feeling of a living and breathing world. There is a serial killer on the loose and it’s up to you to catch them. The longer you take, the higher the body count rises.

The main gameplay consists of problem-solving, investigating, and stealth. You will be breaking and entering quite often in this game as you will come to realize that most people don’t like to share vital information with a random detective they don’t know. The stealth system needs some improvement since I was able to stay crouched in a well-lit room and not have a single soul spot me out in the open. This did not happen too often but there are some glitches that need to be addressed sooner than later. However, even with these issues, the stealth gameplay is thrilling. Not knowing if you will find anything useful in someone’s apartment and the possibility that it could very well be the killer is refreshing. The degree of unknown and the tools which it allows you to solve the cases are what propels this game to another level.

When it comes to investigating, you have access to your inventory of detective items such as a fingerprint scanner, handcuffs, weapons, and various other items. You also have a fully interactive and customizable case board that allows you to jot down notes and create connections with the numerous clues you will find throughout the city. Again, the game won’t hold your hand so it is up to you to put the pieces together. There are other features to add to the immersion, such as money, body temperature, and a fully working telephone system among other things, to aid the procedurally generated world.

Expectations

The game is in a very playable state right now and according to the developers it plans to be in early access for about 6 months. New items and features will be added to the game as time goes on. Honestly, I am very satisfied with the amount of content currently found in the game, given the variety of cases currently available and the fact that worlds can be procedurally generated. All of this adds hours of gameplay worthy of a full release.

My gripes mostly consist of bugs and glitches which are par for the course with early-access titles. The good news is that Shadows of Doubt will only get better the further we get into its early access. The other is the lack of voice acting. I can understand why voice acting would be tough to pull off in a game where most of the content is procedurally generated but it really would have elevated this game if they could make it work. Just adding that much more to the immersion.

Verdict

Shadows of Doubt is extremely ambitious, smart, and unpredictable. All the characteristics you want in a sandbox detective sim. If you take into account the amount of work gone into this game and the developer’s road map of content then you truly have a special title worthy of your time. This noir simulator is choc full of unpredictability and I’ll be there for all of it, during early access and eagerly awaiting its full 1.0 launch.

Shadows of Doubt is available now for PC on Steam early access.