Shadows of Doubt Reviews

I LOVE this game, but it literally hit 1.0 and was immediately abandoned. If that's not a reason to recommend against buying, idk what is.

This game is just as buggy and lacking in depth as the original play-test was.

I really would like to play this game more. I started out enjoying it, but when the 1.0 update happened my opinion changed. The kidnapping cases should be something I can opt out of. Right now I do not see a way to make them go away. I tried learning how to manage them, but I really do not find them enjoyable at all and would love to be able to get rid of them . If this change ever happens I'll update this review or if anyone has any suggestions on how to disable them please let me know.

Sadly still feels unfinished and unpolished after releasing from early access, despite having tons of potential. Unless there's plans for some big changes post-release I can't really recommend it.

The game is fantastic for the first few hours at least. After that NPC's slowly stop following schedules and just get stuck in their homes or work, making it impossible to do certain things from accessing an apartment when they're gone, to not being able to buy and sell things at shops because the shopkeeper never shows up. I really love this game but the developer refuses to acknowledge that this is a problem.

I love this game, it's awesome. But unfortunately it still feels half baked even after 1.0 There's really [spoiler] only 7 types of murder cases, and once you've played them once you're basically out of content [/spoiler] The devs have said there's not any plans for new content so the only hope is the steam workshop. Please tell me why in this detective game where you play a detective I am completely unable to ask someone where they were at the time of the murder. It's still great and if you're thinking about getting it you'll probably get enough time out of it to get your moneys worth but as someone who's been playing since early access it hurts a little

Unfortunately this game is not up to it's real potential. The main thing ruining this game is the AI of the people. I'll leave aside the optimization of the game which is kinda bad in itself. Just for context as to what was my last drop, I had to work on a kidnapping case. Easy, just go to that address and find out more, and rescue the dude before the time runs out. Fuck yeah let's go and save people! Fuck me for thinking it was gonna be helpful interacting with any AI in this town. I arrive at the address where the ransom was left, and a lady opens the door. I ask about the ransom note and she's all scared and "nee-nee-nee help me I'm scared and the police won't do shit". So I look at the ransom note and the timer starts. Little did I know, when I ask if I can go look around in their apartment or ask any kind of helpful information, I get the "Why in the hell would I let you in" or "Mind your own business" kind of dialogue. The "scared" AI just vanishes and goes back to blank and boring off the street AI, like the case is not even ON. Not the only time this happened but basically this was the last chance I'll give this game for a long while, or until the AI just gets a makeover. I love the concept, I love the aesthetics and the process of doing stuff in this game. But the AI and optimization are just awful.

Look, I really REALLY loved the alpha/beta. It had a great idea, an interesting idea, took it an ran with it. But I can not recommend the full release. It really feels like just a beta with some minor bug fixes and a new mission type. If the devs really locked down, sourced some extra ideas, there truly is something brilliant here. But they didn't. They cashed out. I do not respect a dev that does that.

Sadly, a pretty strong case against early access. I don't really have anything to add to the conversation other than to amplify what everyone else is saying. The game launched into early access with a really cool premise and a lot of unrealized potential. The game never really made any significant improvements, it got a 1.0 release, and the devs have abandoned it. Do yourself a favor and play a detective game where all the cases were handcrafted so that they are satisfying, logical, and most importantly. literally solvable and functional. If you want a stealth immersive sim, there are a lot of options out there. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to quite be a game that blends the two, but don't waste your time or money playing this. I don't think any gamer should want to encourage the kind of behavior these devs have engaged in.

As much as I like this game a lot, I can't recommend it in its current state and based on the pacing of the development so far. I have owned this game for at least half a year now and have seen nothing of substance really added. The main issue with this game is, there is a lot of window dressing and not a lot of substance here. The dev seems more interested in expanding things like... in world TV drama series... VS adding things like... expanding forensics, expanding clues, expanding missions in an actual clever way, adding more buildings to the world, dialogue, fixing the awful UI and so on. Let me paint the picture of the SoD experience. You first load up the game and you are awe-struck. You have this amazing atmosphere, you are bombarded with information, potential leads, clues... you get your first murder case! So exciting. You go in and look around. Notice the vic submitted a police report about being stalked... go to see if you can look at the report - doesn't exist. You read through the emails, an email suggests that he was upset with a co-worker... you check out the lead - irrelevant filler mail. You check the camera system during the time of death... no one is on camera during this time. Your vic has a spouse, surely they talked to their spouse about being stalked - didn't see or hear anything unusual. - You begin to realize that 95% of the game is just clutter and filler, and your instinctual investigative skills will almost always lead you on a wild goose chase either following what you think are leads but are actually very misleading filler emails, or looking for something that doesn't exist in the game. You start to realize that the core of the game is to take this fingerprint and match it to every person that the vic knew and here are some clues to narrow down that search. This is pretty much true with the side missions as well, just with a slight twist on what you actually have to do. I do have to say that the fingerprint system is absolutely fabulous, but that seems to be the only thing that is actually fleshed out. What this game needs is a major expansion to the forensics side of the game... give me blood splatter. A reason for blood type. Let me find shoes that have had blood. Let me find blood that has been cleaned up. Let me find hair. Let me look for signs of a break and enter. Trophies for serial killers. Evidence and paper trail of a purchased murder weapon. Signs or evidence of the killer suggesting murder to a bartender, a spouse, or a colleague. Spousal murder case. Criminal records that are relevant to the case. Police reports that actually exist. Emails that actually make sense to the case. I want more ways to solve murders and compensate with harder cases. I don't need everything all in 1 case, but I want more variety here. Also, remove the government database... this is literally a cheat code. If you want something like that, have it be like, you can bribe a specific officer that can give you a lineup of possible fingerprint matches, with vague information after like a certain level. It is dumb you can just free access all information about everyone. The other thing that needs majorly implemented is a proper dialogue system. It is so annoying not being able to actually question people about anything. Like I want to be able to test for alibis, I want to ask people if they saw anything weird and to actually have people see stuff weird, I want to be able to question the spouse, collegue or witness. Get rid of misleading emails like "Let's secretly meet here" "Why are you dealing on my turf?" "my boss is upset with me", the number of times I thought these were clues indicating the vic was dealing drugs which led to his death, or was upset with the boss, or was having an affair, only to realize these have absolutely nothing to do with the case is annoying. Finally, if you are up to it. More building variety. One final gripe... the UI is such a pain to use. Why is there a button I have to click in the UI to drop something. Why do I need to see every colour when I edit a clue. Why is the map such a pain to use. The UI really needs to be streamlined, simplified and cleaned up. Especially the inventory part. This game has so much potential if the devs could just focus on adding actual substance to the core gameplay loop of the game. They nailed the atmosphere, the npc gen is amazing, and there are more than enough world items... but like I said so much of it is just window dressing and every case has the exact same formula to solve - give or take a few steps. I will say the kidnapping case was a fresh new addition, but it seems they didn't think it through much, cause the most reliable way to solve this is literally to buy a briefcase and arrest the kidnapper at the drop location. Get the location of the person kidnapped. And done. It has been half a year since I bought this game, and almost nothing has actually changed about it. I really hope the devs focus and prioritize and aim to expand the area that matters instead of getting sidetracked on superfluous things that don't add gameplay to the game.