Shadows of Doubt
Genres: Puzzle, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Adventure
Play modes: singleplayer
Release Date: 26-9-2024
Developer: ColePowered Games
Our verdict
7.5/10
- Difficulty: Medium
- Players: 1
- Playtime: 10+ h
Shadows of Doubt is a detective sandbox set in a procedurally generated, voxel-styled noir city in an alternate 1980s. As a private investigator you take cases, tail citizens who each have a name, job, home and routine, break into apartments, hack security and piece together murders from fingerprints, notes and records. It suits solo players who want open-ended detective work with stealth, not a guided escape room.
Players praise the freedom: no objective markers, many ways to approach a case, and a living city where a clue can send you on a long chase in the wrong direction. Several call it the most original detective game they have played. Its rating is Very Positive, at about 81 percent of nearly 13,000 reviews.
The complaints are consistent. Many describe it as janky and unfinished, with buggy AI, soft-locked cases such as kidnappings, crashes and no autosave. Others say cases turn samey after a few runs, lack real motives, and can be too easy, with anagram clues that give away the killer. Some feel updates have slowed. Buy it for a few dozen hours of unique sleuthing; skip it if bugs and repetition ruin a game for you.
Pros
- Procedural city where every citizen has a home, job and routine
- Open-ended cases with no objective markers to follow
- Stealth, break-ins and hacking feed the investigation
- New cities and cases offer replay value
Cons
- Buggy AI and cases that can soft-lock, like kidnappings
- No autosave; crashes can cost hours
- Cases feel samey after a few playthroughs
- Some clues, like scrambled-name notes, make cases too easy
About
A procedurally-generated sandbox stealth game with a whole city of secrets at your fingertips!
Shadows of Doubt is set in an alternate reality in the hyper-industrialized 1980s. Think like a detective and use a variety of gadgets as a private intelligence investigator, gathering evidence and making money by solving cases, finding and selling information and more.
Play your own way in a fully simulated world with hundreds of citizens. Discover, meet and tail individual citizens, each with their own name, job, apartment and daily routine, in unique, procedurally-generated cities. Each case has different culprits, clues and experiences for you to test your investigative skills.
Explore anywhere in the city! Every nook of every trashy bar, every place of work, every seedy hotel room… This dystopia is your oyster. Break into apartments, rifle through secret documents or hack security systems - even a discarded receipt can be the key to cracking a case. Trace the receipt back to an individual location, scour CCTV footage and match the time up to the receipt to find out who it belonged to!
The entire world is fully simulated. Each citizen has an apartment, job, daily routine, favorite things to do, places to go, and people to interact with. They live out their lives independently, in a world that moves on with or without you— uncover this knowledge and use it to your advantage!
Become a private investigator in a truly unique detective experience. Think like a detective to solve the cases around you: check call histories, find passwords, read private emails, speak to persons of interest, watch CCTV footage and more to retrieve evidence and build your case. Store information on your investigation board and link evidence together as you piece together the ful picture.
Features
Become a private investigator and track down a serial killer in a fully-simulated sci-fi city. Think like a detective and use a variety of gadgets to gather evidence and solve cases in this truly unique detective experience.
Meet individual citizens, each with their own name, job, apartment and daily routine, in unique, procedurally-generated cities.
Take on new cases to earn cash, purchase new gadgets and equipment, and customise your apartment.
Gather evidence to build your case - scan fingerprints, check call histories, read private emails, watch CCTV, and find key pieces of evidence to gather information and accuse your suspect.
Play your own way - pick locks, break down doors, sabotage security systems and bribe citizens for information, or stick to the law and play by the book. There are multiple ways to approach each case.
Explore every room in every building, and talk to every citizen. Lose yourself in a detailed sci-fi noir world.
