Deus Ex meetsTrue Detective in this cyberpunk noir game - Shadows of Doubt Quick First Impressions

PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it if you’re looking for an immersive detective sim and don’t mind some early access clunkiness. Shadows of Doubt is rough around the edges, but I still had a great time exploring its dystopian sci-fi world. Whether I was investigating a crime scene, crawling through air vents, or harassing the locals, it always kept me on my toes. There were times when I was frustrated by gameplay bugs or the awkward UI, but the highs more than made up for the lows.

TIME PLAYED

I played Shadows of Doubt for around eight hours, which was more than enough time to solve the scripted tutorial case. My remaining playtime was spent in sandbox mode, which let me explore a city at my own pace. While this gameplay mode also let me take on procedurally-generated murder cases, but I wasn’t able to trigger these cases consistently. Thankfully, even when there weren’t murders to solve, I could earn cash and keep myself busy by picking up jobs at city hall.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• Amazing setting and atmosphere. Shadows of Doubt is set in an alternate version of the 1980s. Corporations rule the world, and ordinary citizens are left to fight over scraps. There’s some sci-fi tech, but there are no cell phones or fancy computers, so I had to solve crimes the old-fashioned way. Whether I was playing in a pre-generated city or a procedurally generated one, the pixelated visuals looked spectacular. I loved seeing how the city changed between night and day.

• Real detective work. The tutorial mode gave me a little guidance, but Shadows of Doubt still required me to solve crimes on my own. It was up to me to sift through evidence, find new leads, and pin the case on the right culprit. Since I was a private investigator, I occasionally had to do some breaking and entering to track down new clues. At one point, law enforcement showed up at a murder scene I was illegally investigating. I hid myself in a cupboard until the coast was clear and then snuck away through an air vent. Things were tense for a while, but it felt incredibly satisfying to successfully sneak away. 

• Tons of freedom. Even though I had cases to solve, I could play Shadows of Doubt exactly how I wanted to. Every building or apartment was fully explorable. If I encountered a locked door, I could search for a key or use lockpicking tools to break in. At one point, I followed a random citizen named Nancy, who became increasingly freaked out by my presence. When I followed her into her apartment, she locked me in and triggered the alarms. Another time, I visited a restaurant and chucked a donut at a nearby diner. He immediately pulled out a shotgun and riddled me with bullets. My antics occasionally sent me to the hospital, but they didn’t end my game, so I felt free to experiment and have fun.

• Life sim mechanics. Detective work is the main focus of Shadows of Doubt, but I was surprised to discover the game also had some light life sim mechanics. After a few hours of investigation, I started to get smelly and had to take a shower to clean up. Once I finished a job, I could use my earnings to buy new decorations for my apartment or grab a cup of coffee. These mechanics aren’t especially detailed, but they were nice distractions from investigative work.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVING

• Clunky controls and UI. Moving between menus and sorting through evidence was a hassle, which definitely feels frustrating in a game that revolves around investigative work! When I tried to organize my evidence, I couldn’t always get a red string to manually appear. Some of the controls weren’t very intuitive, and there was no way to remap them to different keys, which meant I’d frequently hit the wrong button when I tried to complete an action. I really hope to see more customization options and UI improvements in future updates.

• Bare-bones dialogue. Talking to potential witnesses is important when you’re building a case, but none of the NPCs in Shadows of Doubt have much to say. Dialogue options stayed the same, no matter who I was talking to, and most characters gave me the same responses. There were several times when I clicked through dialogue too quickly and wound up accidentally paying a character for more information, which was pretty irritating. Refining the dialogue would go a long way towards making the world feel more alive.

• Buggy gameplay. Shadows of Doubt definitely feels like an early access game. Sometimes, the game would tell me I was trespassing after another character gave me permission to enter a space. The procedurally generated cases are a great mechanic, but I couldn’t get them to generate consistently. There’s lots of fun to be had in its current state, but the game definitely could use some refining.

💬 Do you plan to crack procedurally generated murder cases in Shadows of Doubt, or will you leave these mysteries unsolved? Let us know in the comments!