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A decent endless Detective Game

900 View2023-04-27

Shadows of Doubt

6.9

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Shadows of Doubt (Full Review)

Developer: ColePowered Games

Publisher: Fireshine Games

Released: 24 APR, 2023

Price: $20 USD

Shadows of Doubt is an Early Access dark noir detective simulation game. Your goal is to craft and create your own world experience through your interactions with the jobs posted around the city. It does a great job emulating this feeling.

It would be important to note that there isn't much else outside of roleplaying as a detective. There are no real stories or character development or anything interesting to do on the side. It's a straight forward to the point roleplay game.

Roleplay

Interesting

This game is essentially a role-playing dark noir detective simulator.

You have the freedom to be and do whatever you want, whenever you want.

You can be an inebriated investigator who can barely walk straight while using his fists to solve every case, barging into people's homes and handcuffing them without any prior justification. If you like building your own character in your own generated world, you have the luxury of doing that here, so go wild and have fun.

Social Credit

Refers to your overall ability as a detective within the city. The higher you climb the social ladder, the more you have access to information from the locals.

The difference between having no social credit and just a small bit is startling, from no one wanting to talk to you to people happily offering their names and prints and any additional information to help you solve a case.

If you end up reaching the top of the social ladder, I believe there is the option to "end" your career by retiring. But I have yet to verify this for myself.

1 Hour Gameplay & Issues

It's rough

During my time playing this game, I had numerous issues that lingered.

The inability to execute tasks due to the game generating things that did not exist or exists within the confines of walls or structures which were unreachable.

I understand the reasoning for this, it's because of the way the developers coded the game. Missing a few inputs which allowed for one object to overlap with another causing a merging effect to occur, even on the smaller maps.

The many bugs and issues

Examples:

Most tasks you get in the present levels of Early Access are impossible to complete since you will never be able to obtain your briefcase or travel to a location that does not even exist in the world you are currently in.

This must be rectified as soon as feasible, which for EA games varies depending on the game's reception and the dedication of the developers.

Even certain assignments that offer you a lead of "Find the super hidden envelope!" that is right there in plain sight, blending into the textures of the shelves or walls, rendering that tip entirely useless because you were told it would be hidden rather than out in the open for everyone to see.

Many of the created locations in the city are highly crowded, with floating NPCs sleeping on top of their mattresses. I can ignore this because it does not affect the game as a whole, but it is something that should be addressed.

The AI is plain stupid

You can rampage through an apartment building's basements and upper floors, smash windows, knock people unconscious and steal their money, or break into their homes and steal all of their food, booze, and info without punishment.

So long as no one was around, and even if they were, all they would do is sound the alarm, which will not alert any sort of authorities in certain regions.

I do believe one should be punished for their negative actions, when the game is based on a social status on how effective you are at clearing out tasks.

It's not for everyone

That's perfectly fine

This game caters to gamers that want a decent generic old-school detective game with a combination of dark noir and unusual aesthetics with a voxel design.

It's really straightforward and to the point, with a little bit of a learning curve as to how to correctly handle scenarios, which can be solved in any way you see fit.

Solve the case through Bribery.

Solve the case through Assault.

Solve the case through Murder.

Solve the case through Social interaction.

Solve the case through Subterfuge.

The choice is ultimately your and yours alone to make.

Conclusion

It's good for what it is

While it isn't a game that has a set amount of hours to invest into, it's ultimately up to you and your own personality as to how you would like to tackle the cases.

I had fun for what it offers currently, but it will need a lot more polish to get rid of all the kinks and issues currently plaguing it before I would pick it up again. I may see myself returning to the game in a few months to see what else the devs have in store for us, assuming they have anything further to offer with development.

The most important thing I'd like to see is the environment becoming more immersive, with better AI and police enforcement or background checks that restrict you from doing things outside of the city you've constructed.

This concludes my views of this game; while my opinions may be met with criticism, that is what distinguishes gamers; you don't have to like the same things as others, nor do you have to agree with them.

If you want to catch me on one of my streams or locate me on social media, you may do so at the following locations, I'm always playing something new.

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- Pawkt

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Shadows of Doubt

6.9

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Shadows of Doubt is a sandbox detective game developed by ColePowered Games, featuring procedurally generated cities, voxel-based graphics, and an impressive lighting system. Shadows of Doubt offers players an immersive detective experience in a customizable, procedurally generated city. The procedurally generated cities are based in an alternative hyper-industrialized version of the 1980s with its mixture of old technology and sci-fi noir vibes to it.

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