Shadows Of Doubt Review

Shadows of Doubt is unlike anything I’ve ever played before, and this is a great experience, as I always look for games that think outside the box. There haven’t been many notable titles that have you as a detective, with the only memorable one being LA Noire some time ago. What we have is a detective sandbox game with blocky aesthetics akin to games like Teardown and Minecraft, and it just works wonders. Think of this as a cross between the already mentioned LA Noire and Ace Attorney, where you play out in immersive and procedurally generated worlds where it is your job to solve murders and catch a serial killer on the loose.

I can imagine being a private detective being quite an intriguing and exciting job. You have to be patient, vigilant and on the ball at all times and hopefully the end reward will be the outcome you want. Shadows Of Doubt is a game you can absolutely become hooked on and easily lap up several hours in one session. The first scenario always being the same and presents itself as an introduction to the game mechanics and how everything surrounding investigations works. After this, the joy of the procedural generation allows for spontaneous detective work.

Be Subtle, Be Smart

Part of being a detective is keeping your head down and carrying out your duties without suspicion. That premise transitions to this game and you’ll be interacting with lots of features throughout each gameplay run. Cracking open safes, picking locks on doors, collecting notes and more. Piecing together as much evidence as you can and whilst doing this you can pin clues to a pinboard within the menus to refer to at any moment. I did find this quite fiddly and difficult to follow at first but with some patience, it clicked with me eventually.

What humoured me was the interactions with members of the public and you have to be extremely careful what you say and who you confront. Making the wrong decision could crack the crime or see your work drop like a lead balloon and break the case. The number of times I broke into apartments and had a jump scare from someone following me through the front door had me dying with laughter as they chased me around the map. What I loved though was how cases differed some being harder to solve than others, with lots of twists and turns and outcomes with no case ever seeming the same.

Visuals & Audio

I adore the visuals in Shadows Of Doubt and the attention to detail throughout apartments, the neon-lit streets and the civilians roaming around being potential clues to your jigsaw. During some of my sessions, I did encounter some bugs and glitches with were often resolved quite easily but some did involve reloading into the game. I put this down to the excellent technology of everything being random, but they haven’t quite nailed the execution of it all 100%. Everything looks beautiful though with some fantastic lighting and traversing through these worlds is a work of art.

There are tense moments against well-illustrated AI especially if you break into their apartments and they catch you in the act. Menus are a little bit clunky when it comes to piecing evidence together but you soon get used to its functionality. As for audio, there isn’t a massive amount of this but sound effects perform as well as expected.

Final Thoughts

I had a great time with Shadows Of Doubt and it is a truly unique game that has never been done before. If you’re into games where you’re attempting to solve crime, murder mystery or piecing evidence together to bring a result, then you’ll love this one. As I’ve said it does have some bugs and glitches sporadically from time to time which can result in some frustration but this doesn’t hamper the adventures you’ll have all that much. At a reasonable price point of £19.99, it is well worth that for the amount of hours you can get in return which can ultimately be an unlimited timesink if you enjoy it enough.