Shadows Of Doubt
PC
The first thing we do, in our pre-alpha build of Shadows Of Doubt, is delete the entire world. On starting a new game, you’re given the option to generate your own rainy cyber-noir city, with size and population density sliders to choose exactly how big a haystack you’ll search for your murderous needle in – but project lead Cole Jefferies suggests we begin with the provided demo world (four blocks by five, population: 146). Which, with a single stray keystroke, we remove from existence. Oops.
This accident does, at least, give us chance to generate a new world. A loading bar spools through tasks – lays out blueprints, creates life, plants evidence – and in doing so, weaves an entirely new murder mystery for us to solve. “In my game, the killer might be in a certain apartment, and in another game, it might be a completely different person, in a completely different part of the city,” Jefferies explains. “But the basis of the storyline, the key beats, are the same.”
In this game, we find the victim – one Charles Sesay – upstairs in our own apartment building, his blood spattered all over the tiles of his bathroom. But first we have to reach that room. As a private eye operating on the fringes of the law, accessing most crime scenes will involve a little criminal activity of your own. (Get caught, and after taking a beating you’ll wake up back in your apartment, with a fine depending on your current felony level.)
In the case of Sesay’s apartment, we’re able to get in without any unwanted attention, thanks to a handy ventilation shaft. It’s worth noting, though, that these routes are generated along with the rest of the city, so in another game we might have to rely on slightly more high-profile methods, like picking the lock in full view of a security camera or just wholesale barging down the door.
Once inside, you’ll find a mix of authored and generated clues. The vital breadcrumbs of each case – diary entries, letters and emails – have all been scripted and, essentially, mailmerged to match your own personal mystery. But they’re really brought to life by the dynamic elements surrounding them.
Among all the other world-building that happens during that load time, the game simulates 12 hours of history for all its inhabitants. “The murder needs to happen, basically, before you get there, and all these clues need to be set up,” Jefferies says. Every citizen has their own routine, and they’ll leave behind traces of where they’ve been: receipts for a purchased meal, perhaps, or flashes of their image on CCTV. Or fingerprints.
Scanning Sesay’s home, we find it’s covered in one set of prints, which are simple enough to confirm as the victim’s own. But on the apartment’s safe – empty, unlocked, its door swinging open – we find a second set. Finding out who these belong to? Well, that sounds like detective work.
At this point, the game presents two potential leads to follow. Graphite Enterprises, the victim’s place of work, or the canteen which – per a crumpled receipt discovered in the bin – Sesay visited a few hours before his death. Ultimately, the answers that await you at these locations will be the same in every game – only the names have been changed – but you’re free to find your own route to them.
This is a power we choose to exercise. A diary entry mentions a ‘Matias’; a peek at Sesay’s address book (this is a thoroughly analogue future) furnishes a surname and an apartment number. Just one floor down, in the same building. Maybe we can crack this case without ever stepping out into the streets. This might run a little counter to Shadows Of Doubt’s intent, but it’s hard to deny the perverse thrill of having a city built just for you, then choosing to ignore it completely.
A loading bar spools through tasks and weaves an entirely new murder mystery for us