I hope you don’t mind if I get a little frank with you here. I’ve struggled to write this piece on Shadows of Doubt for several days. Not because I don’t know what to say – I know what I did and didn’t like during my time exploring several different generated cities – but because I’m not sure how to string together my thoughts on this game. And I think the reason why I’ve found it so hard is because I’m not sure Shadows of Doubt itself knows entirely what it wants to be.
Shadows of DoubtPublisher: Fireshine GamesDeveloper: ColePowered GamesPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC in Early Access
We’ve previously written about Shadows of Doubt before. Martin covered the game for Rezzed Digital in 2020 and I read through his thoughts before I started playing. He was impressed by what he saw, and I know Martin’s a good egg, which made me excited to try it for myself. The various descriptors which have been given to Shadows of Doubt had me scratching my head though. Martin called it “a first-person detective stealth game set in a procedurally-generated noirish city”, while developer Cole Jefferies also describes it as sci-fi noir and an immersive sim.
It’s certainly a detective game. The game doesn’t hold your hand while you solve cases. It’s up to you to collect evidence and figure out who the culprit is. The in-game pinboard where all your evidence hangs will automatically create connections between linked items. It also allows you to make your own notes and connections between bits and bobs, a physical space in-game to help you make sense of the crime.
There’s a wonderful freedom to your approach in solving cases. If you need to search a location, you can try and sneak in either by picking the lock or climbing through vents. You can break in, after a series of increasingly loud knocks. If someone’s inside, you can try bribing them. Most citizens aren’t willing to open up that easily, so you often have to resort to one of these methods to find what you need. Frustratingly, you can only ask a specific set of questions. Unlike Ace Attorney, where you can present evidence and see what sort of response you get, I was disappointed that I couldn’t ask people about specific pieces of evidence, such as proof of a phone call.
Outside of solving cases, I found it extremely fun to explore the world. Even in the smallest city size, there’s plenty of buildings to nosy around – after letting go of my reluctance to break the law (consequences be damned!). I really enjoyed breaking into apartments and offices and snooping about, looking in fridges and seeing if there’s anything to eat, stealing any money left lying around, and hacking into computers to read emails and employee profiles.