Shadows of Doubt mixes immersive sims with murder mystery

It’s late at night and I’m gulping down some pent-up coffee as I walk the rain-stained streets of this cursed city. The bodies keep piling up, and if it wasn’t for me, no one would be solving these murders. Worse yet, I’ve been evicted, and if I want a nice apartment, I’ll have to collect the clues. I am playing Shadows of doubta new mysterious immersive sim early access on steam, and I’m in full noir mode.

Shadows of doubt is based on a compelling concept: it is not only a detective game, but it is also a procedurally generated game. If I want, I can generate a whole new city from scratch. My job is to track down the guilty among the innocent, collect clues and solve crimes like a true gumshoe. I have access to a mind map, the classic board of clues connected by a red string, where I can pin autopsy notes and stray documents together. This mechanic becomes crucial as I delve deeper into the mess surrounding a mystery, discover clues and track down suspects.

And in Shadows of doubt, everyone is a suspect. The entire city is generated with people having their own apartments, jobs and daily routines. It’s also an unusual alternate history of the ’80s; no one has cell phones, but I have a fingerprint scanner and a filing machine that I carry in my pockets. But while I can walk up to people and politely ask for their names or fingerprints, no one wants to help me.

That’s why I’m forced to the questionable measure of sneaking into their apartments through vents and scanning their fingerprints while they sleep. And if a kid robs me in an alley, or an entrepreneur goes into a rage for catching me stealing change, and I have to punch them with my fists – you better to believe I scan their fingerprints before I run. That information may appear in a future case, once I’ve cleared my current workload.

That’s the beauty of it Shadows of doubt. The world is vast and vast, with some quests involving a gravitas – a lovers’ quarrel with a dead or nefarious employer. Others demand that I beat up a man in a dark alley. I think all these forms of detective work are noble in their own way. Due to the procedural generation, it is impossible for the game to reach the heights of one Return of the Obra Dinn or The Case of the Golden Idolbut there’s an impressive amount of content to explore nonetheless.

Not all jobs are created equal, but I’m the only one willing to take them off the hands of the local police. I search drawers, read employee reports, question colleagues, and break into people’s homes to read their leases. There’s so much stuff to sort through, and when you start putting the pieces together into a complete story, it feels great. And since solving a murder takes so much work, I could spend hours looking for clues in someone’s garbage or searching the computer terminals of employees at a technology company. All that data is added to my mental palace, where I can sort it into groups and make sense of it all.

Image: ColePowered Games/Fireshine Games via Polygon

Despite still being in early access, Shadows of doubt offers an impressive web of interlocking systems in the confines of its black city. Different companies each move into their own offices, with their own security networks and systems. Buildings are connected by elevators, stairs and ventilation systems. I pick locks, break into the power systems, and bribe myself in places I shouldn’t be. Once I’ve solved the case, I fill out forms and hand them in at the local police station.

Shadows of doubtThe game’s briefcases are a fantastic excuse to explore the gritty cities, and the game’s dark-toned voxel graphics are simple yet reminiscent of detective stories and the noir genre. I ran into a few hiccups, such as submitting what appeared to be a concrete conclusion only to find out I was wrong, but totally devoid of leads to follow up on. But developer ColePowered Games has made something special here, and I’m with it if it goes through early access.