Criminally good

For years, a dangerous and charismatic game has evaded the grasp of many designers.

Some say it doesn’t exist, that no publisher would ever back it.

I’m talking about theone city block RPGthat Warren Spector has often mentioned.

People walk the streets and warm themselves by a fire in Shadows Of Doubt. A “bestest best” sticker badge has been awarded to the game.

Its clothes, stature, gait, and fingerprints match the description of what Spector often describes.

And yet, if you tilt your head, something is just a little off.

The game isn’t confined to one block.

Cover image for YouTube video

It’s not an RPGprecisely.

And its simulation has plenty of bugs, jank, and unintentional comedy.

I say yes, let’s.

Many photos and notes on a corkboard, with a printout of a suspect called Aria Parker.

Arrest this game, it’s brilliant.

You know, normal stuff.

I’m very smitten with it.

The player uses a computer to access a murder victim’s emails.

But mostly taking on longer murder cases.

Bodies are often found in their own apartments and it’s up to you to find out what happened.

Poor sap didn’t see it comin'.

A citizen does his laundry in a bank of washing machines.

There’s a lot of unglamourous paper shuffling.

Even to “resolve” a murder, you have to fill in a form at the city hall.

This is the information around which your investigations orbit, the essential ingredients of a cracked case.

A police officer bars entry to a crime scene.

So, a game of blood and paper.

Sounds quite orderly as murder mysteries go.

Perhaps it is, for some detectives.

The foggy streets of the city are lit up by neon signs.

In my experience, as detective “Dick McClumps”, it’s often a wonderful Coen brothers farce.

In my hurry, I broke into the wrong apartment.

The suspect was next door.

The player stakes out a hallway, looking at his watch as two residents enter their homes.

“That’s okay,” I thought as I realised my error.

“There’s a vent shaft in this closet.

I’ll adopt the usualimmersive simtactic, and crawl next door via the air ducts!

The player reads a newspaper in the fog - an article about the “Red Demon” murderer

This is a fully simulated city.

All places may be significant.

Ergo, the entire building has a vent internet.

A map is overlaid on the screen as the player walks, and a woman passes by.

Do you know how hard it is to find your way around inside a warren of identical metal tubes?

I got so lost, I emerged into yet another innocent person’s home.

And all I did was pick the wrong lock and get lost in a vent.

A record of ingoing and outgoing phone calls, along with accompanying notes.

In terms of “emergent gameplay” Shadows Of Doubt is an incredible toy.

(Although there are biomechanical skill upgrades it’s possible for you to unlock).

My role-playing of hapless investigator McClumps would continue.

A suspect shouts “Jerk!” at the player, as they fist fight in an apartment.

Suddenly, the killer’s partner came into the bedroom, climbed into bed, and started snoring.

At any time you might check your watch to see the in-game time ticking by.

I was stuck there for an hour.

An array of many photos and notes arranged with string on a corkboard.

I only appreciated how the limited inventory space would force me to make silly choices.

While stealthing, people will lose sight of you or spot you without clear reason.

I sat in the lap of a company receptionist, printing out employee records one after another.

A barman walks past the player, who sits in a booth.

He said nothing, and I suspect he enjoyed it.

Some will fairly consider such jank a flaw in the simulation.

Anyone complaining that 1.0 still feels a bit “early access” is justified.

You will run up against the limitations of the game’s world, absolutely.

For a closing example, take chatting to NPCs.

It’s a classic case of dialogue being more or less identical for every person in this world.

Yet in all its clockwork detail, I admire it all the same.

It took me 9 hours just to find the killer of the tutorial mission.

For in-game days all I had to go on was an initial - A.

Then for more hours, only a first name.

I gasped a zealous “gotcha!”

at my screen, and understood that something about Shadows Of Doubt felt special.

It might not match the prints of the grail-esque single city block.

But I think the immersive detective sim has found its first true killer.