Developed
by Airtight Games and Published by Square Enix, Murdered: Soul Suspect is a third person adventure stealth game
that follows the plot of a dead Detective looking to solve his own murder,
against the backdrop of the town of Salem, Massachusetts, where the supernatural
is a very real thing indeed.
Salem, Massachusetts
as you know, has a pretty brutal history concerning the Witch Trials and it’s
always fascinating when Urban Fantasy decides to go down that route, and even
historical fantasy has explored the town before with WGN America’s period
horror drama Salem (which I would
recommend for all lovers of American
Horror Story) asking what if
there were actually witches during the Witch Trials. It’s an exciting series,
but I’ve never actually seen a game set in Salem that explores its history and
that’s something that really drew me to Murdered:
Soul Suspect.
Set
in the modern day, the third person Murdered:
Soul Suspect opens with a brutal murder of the main protagonist, Ronan, who
goes in to chase after the mysterious serial killer and without calling for
backup, gets thrown out of the window and killed. However, much to Ronan’s
confusion – he wakes up on the streets moments later as though nothing is
wrong, or at least, apart from the fact that his body is lying there dead in
the street, people around him cannot see him, and he is a ghost, unable to
enter the afterlife to rejoin his wife until he solves the mystery of who
killed him. It’s a fantastic idea for a game, especially when set against the
atmospheric, haunting backdrop of Salem at night and throw in some of the
creepiest monsters that you’ll see in a video game. There are several scenes in
this game where as one would expect will cause you to jump, and the demons, who
are constantly searching for ghosts to devour and present the main obstacle for
Ronan’s quest to uncover the truth, are as scary as heck, and I’ll admit it – I
jumped more than once, because the game gets the tension so damn right.
The
game itself is incredibly atmospheric, with some great visuals and the horror
setting of the game really works well. Thanks to the decision to cast Ronan as
a former Criminal turned Detective, the game feels a lot like a noir crime
thriller, with the story being the strongest part of the game. It’s closely linked
and interweaving as you’re pulled into a compelling game of cat and mouse as
you attempt to hunt the killer, with several twists preventing the outcome from
being obvious. It’s a satisfactory standalone game that works from a
storytelling perspective, but when you bring in the game mechanics into the
equation things get a little more problematic.
For
starters, Murdered: Soul Suspect isn’t
really a challenging game. It’s very much a linear approach with the game directing
you down closed corridors with minimal exploration and not much staying power
beyond the odd sidequests which you have to complete before you finish the last
level, or else you won’t be able to go back and finish them. Whilst the hiding
from the demons (often in hiding spots, where you can jump from one to the
other to avoid the demons from noticing you – kind of like the hiding spots in Assassin’s Creed, only scarier) can be
challenging especially when there are more of them, you will always find a way
to get past them. The cases too, when you have to find clues at each crime
scene, don’t really challenge you when you’re presented with multiple options
because it will always direct you on the right course with no consequences.
The
cast of characters are small and mixed in quality. Aside from Ronan, whose
story you will be quickly invested in, there’s also the teenage medium who can
talk to Ghosts, Joy. She serves a great counterpart to
Ronan who ends up helping him through most of the story. However, there’s
nothing much beyond that aside from a couple of stereotypes such as Baxter, a
cop who always had it in for Ronan, and we don’t spend enough time with the
rest of the cast to really get to know them. It’s also worth pointing out that
as Ronan, you can posses people and read their thoughts, but they aren’t
exactly notable, feeling average. (I did spot a cool reference to Tomb Raider when I was poking inside of
someone’s head towards the end of the game, though).
Murdered: Soul Suspect isn’t action heavy. You don’t even fire a gun once (IIRC)
but that’s not what matters. The storyline is fascinating and the world is
great, with some interesting ideas like the ability to possess NPCs (and even
animal NPCs, like cats, which allow for some of the more fun moments, gameplay
wise) and influence machines like security cameras and telephones as a poltergeist.
The mystery is compelling and it’s got a good resolution that won’t leave any
room for any sequels. It’s very much a standalone game that’s well worth
checking out if you, like me, haven’t quite moved onto a PS4 or a Xbox One yet
(although it is available for both consoles and Microsoft Windows according to
Wiki), and despite its flaws (I only
encountered one glitch towards the end of the story which was fixed when I
restarted from the last checkpoint), it’s one of the few games that I actually
have managed to complete (normally I end up buying a new game when I’m about
3/4s of the way in and never returning to the one that I’ve started), so that
automatically earns it bonus points.
Would
I recommend Murdered: Soul Suspect? Probably.
It just about scrapes an eight out of ten on the ratings scale, also bringing
not much to offer in terms of replayability value, especially if you solve all
the sidequests on your first playthrough), it’s one that I never wanted to stop
playing until I completed the storyline, with an incredibly atmospheric
backdrop that for the most part, works. It’s not the most enjoyable game that I’ve
played so far this year but it’s a strong one.
VERDICT: 8/10
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