Murdered: Soul Suspect

Introduction

            Hey ho wassup readersssss! It sure has been a while since a review has been posted, and frankly I feel sad about that so without further ado, let’s get into it shall weeeeee.

            This week, the game of choice for my review will be… Murdered: Soul Suspect.

 

            Murdered: Soul Suspect is a game developed by Square Enix and Airtight Games and published by Square Enix this year on June the 4th (A GAME NOT ONE YEAR+ OLD). An action-stealth game based in Salem, the game puts players in the role of one Ronan O’Connor, a tatted-up hard-boiled detective whose life comes to an untimely end as he gets murdered by a person he was chasing, known only as the Bell Killer, a masked serial killer who has killed many even before Ronan.

 

Assassin Creed wannabe

            After Ronan dies, he assumes a ghostly form of himself, retaining his detective personalities and character as he stares down at his deceased physical body, and is tasked with one thing: Solve his own murder. The game continues on from there, unraveling the secrets and mysteries surrounding Ronan’s death.

General Stuff

            Gameplay-wise, the game centers on investigating scenes, combing it for clues and evidence, and at the end of the investigation, piece together what happened that led to the crime/caused the crime. With the ability to walk through real life objects with ease thanks to his ghost form, Ronan is also limited in that he cannot pass through ghost objects, objects that have been there in the past which continue to linger in the present. 

Never forget Platform 9 3/4 from HarryP

This parallel layer of reality, known as the Dusk, merges with the real world as described simply above resulting in the world’s look within this game. The Dusk houses ghosts stuck inside, some of which have unfinished business to attend to (like Ronan), or seek justice for a murder.

another ghost

            Another aspect of gameplay is the stealth present within the game. The one sole (baha get it) enemy of this game is known as the Demon. Spirits wrapped in cloth floating about with mangled hands and nothing but an orange light beaming out of its hood as its indication of vision/line of sight. They patrol areas within a map on the lookout for wandering spirits to consume, in the hopes that they can regain their own humanity. Ronan must be careful around these Demons as they can potentially destroy his spirit, and must approach them from behind in order to execute them, expelling them from the Dusk.

 

Extra large for extra effect

The “pretty awesome” parts

Atmosphere

            The game’s atmosphere is truly awe-inspiring and well-created. With its backdrop of Salem, a town infamously known for the Witch Trials, where hundreds and thousands of people have been falsely accused of witchcraft and either executed or left to hang. A gloomy atmosphere and the story of the game help to amplify the game’s chosen setting, this together with ghost-involving gameplay help to gel all of it together to provide the player with an extremely good and interesting world to explore and understand.

dat shovel tho

Collectibles

            I don’t really tend to point out collectibles as being a good point about the game, but the collectibles within this game appear in the form of plaques that contain information about certain historic events of Salem and also some terminology that used to be present as well, the other collectible are remnants, these reveal a chilling story after all of the parts are collected, which is told from a person’s point of view, which also helps add on to the atmospheric feel the game is attempting to achieve. 

 

Lesson 1: what is a Collectible?

With interesting information and historic events for the players to collect and read about, and also the incentive of the player to collect all the remnants within certain parts of the world in order to hear about these stories, is definitely something that will keep the player at the edge of their toes looking out for these collectibles, keeping the game fun and interesting to the player while the game tells its story.

Engaging Gameplay

            Murdered: Soul Suspect’s gameplay ties in very well with the developing story and the collectibles as mentioned above, resulting in a very engaging gameplay experience for the player as they slowly unravel the secrets of Salem while trying to figure out their own murder, leaving the player hooked to their screens for as long as possible until sleeptime… or meals perhaps.

            Utilizing clues the player finds in their investigations to aid in getting a better idea of what things transpired. This addition of player input helps to add to this engaging gameplay experience for the player, as they feel like they interact more with the protagonist Ronan, and understand his life as the story goes on.

 

if only words floated irl

The “not-so-awesome” parts

Short Story

            Now, I am not usually the one to complain about a short story, but usually a game with this much potential in terms of its unique detective ghostlike flavor that is not commonly found in other should afford a longer story. To be more specific, I feel the story was not as well-fleshed out as it could have been. 

 

"GIVE A LONGER STORY DAMMIT"

            When I say not as well-fleshed out as it could have been, I mean it could have been less linear than what it is right now, because every question and answer is the same, and every object and investigation must be carried out the same way every time, with different variations for any form of replayability, something else this game lacks sorely as well.

Something also worth mentioning is the noticeable lack of any score counter or grade on how the player has done in a part of the story for their investigations (similar to L.A Noire), meaning the game, other than collectibles, does not give much incentive otherwise to play the game again for a better score, only to find the remaining collectibles. 

The story itself is also pretty underwhelming, with a few high and low points usually found near the end of the story, filled with many unexpected outcomes. Kind of the cliché ghost story, so to speak. However, because of how short the story is, these high and low points usually start and end in a cutscene (YES A CUTSCENE), in fact it was so short that, nearing the end of it, I was wondering whether all the events that transpired in the story of the game happened over one night.

 

Handful of Side Quests

            With a game that focuses on a different world known as the Dusk filled with lost ghosts, you would think there would be tons of side quests that would aid these lost ghosts in solving their unfinished business, and send them off out of the Dusk. However, this game just has a handful of these side quests, and most of them do not give any form of reward except being recorded into the collectibles page, which isn’t that rewarding, to be honest.

            As I’ve played through the game, I’ve encountered about 6-7 side quests, and I am quite the explorer when it comes to open-world games (kiasu attitude + want to find everything), so I was pretty shocked that at the end of it, there was only just a handful of side quests to do.

Lack of XP/Level up System

            The glaring absence of any form of XP/Level up system in the game also destroys part of the game’s replayability. With little things to unlock and an absence of any form of ghostly power other than Ronan’s detective prowess and the ability to teleport… short distances or through gaps… and even then, this teleport ability is locked until halfway up the story. The lack of this system is a letdown to the game’s potential as well.

            But to be absolutely fair to the game, its gameplay time overall is pretty short, so the inclusion of an XP/Level up System would be pretty pointless. However, a system like this would definitely give more incentive to the player to do certain things, and leveling up would confer an advantage in fighting against demons or finding collectibles… anything is better than an absolute lack of everything definitely.

RATING TIME

Gameplay: 9/10 – the gameplay is extremely unique in this game. Although I would be exaggerating if I said I have never seen a game that has a detective/ghost genre mix like this game does, I would at least say this is the first time I have ever experienced such differing gameplay from all the other big titles out there, differing in a good way of course.

Story: 7/10 – the story of the game is pretty well-made and progressively gets exciting as the player progresses. However, it is severely hampered by its extremely short length, as mentioned extensively above.

Graphics: 8/10 – It runs on the latest Unreal Engine aka 60FPS beast, perhaps one of the smoothest game engines that have ever existed. This game shouldn’t even be that taxing to older computers AND it still looks good to play.

Sound: 7/10 – about to face demons? *fitting music plays* a plot twist in a story? *fitting music plays*

Depth: 4/10 – the game lacks any form of depth other than surface-level investigations which are all the same everytime, combat with demons which is usually two things: kill them or escape them, usually the former. And Ronan, the main character is apparently only blessed with detective skills and short-distance teleportation the entire game. Depth is certainly lacking in this game.

Learnability: 8/10 – a learning process of “what can I walk through, and what can’t I walk through” and learning from there.

           Replayability: 2/10 – suffers… badly.

Overall: 6.5/10 – a pretty solid game, hampered by many flaws in terms of its short story, lack of depth and lack of replayability.

Summary

            A game that manages to fuse elements of the detective game genre with characters from both the spiritual and the human plane, Murdered: Soul Suspect pulls it off with engaging gameplay, vast amount of collectibles and last but not least, its atmosphere as a result of using Salem’s dark history as a backdrop. 

            The game is flawed in its incredibly short story however, also contributing to this is a lack of a reward system, an XP/Level Up system, only having a handful of side quests to do within the game, resulting in a lack of replayability and a lack in the incentive to explore the map, other than for collectibles. 

This is not to say the game is bad by any means, but I shouldn’t be expecting to pay close to 50USD on a game that has a story that makes up about 80% of the game that lasts less than 8 hours long, but of course the interesting gameplay concept of ghosts/detective work ALMOST makes up for this. Definitely an interesting game, but its price is also definitely something worth considering before making the purchase.

Thank you all for reading my review and have a happy weekend! ;)

There are 7 holes on his chest cos he got shot 7 times (***MAJOR SPOILER***)