Murdered: Soul Suspect review: a game that actually has a real story!

Murdered: Soul Suspect is really something. It’s a third-person mystery game in an age of hyper-realistic shooters and bloody beat-em-ups, and though it comes with its own faults, it’s still something I’d recommend to anyone with more than the half-a-brain needed for the latter genres.

At the start of the Murdered, protagonist Ronan O’Connor is unceremoniously killed and tossed from the fourth floor of a building in Salem. Upon finally dying, he discovers that he’s now dangling in ghostly limbo, unable to move on, because he needs to solve his own murder. Fortunately for both you and me, Ronan is a detective.

Each scene you land in in the game has a certain number of clues that you must find in order to continue with Murdered’s main narrative. These clues can be found around the scene, or they can be dredged out from a nearby living witness by the various ghostly abilities Ronan now has. These include possession, influencing a person’s thoughts or actions, reading their mind, or even eavesdropping on conversations. There are also side-quests you can do to solve other people’s deaths, or to find out more about Ronan’s relationship with his late wife.

As a ghost, you find that Salem is stuck in between the past and present. Most of the landscape is seen in real-time, but there are plenty of spots where you can see old Salem, complete with its wooden houses, or catch a glimpse of individuals long gone. This has got a bit to do with Salem’s historical significance.

Because of what happened in Salem in the past, some parts of the town are consecrated. Ghosts can’t pass through the walls of consecrated buildings, neither can they breeze through ethereal remainder of old Salem. As a result, gameplay in Murdered is very linear, and ghost Ronan is confined to a very straight path indeed.

At this point, Murdered does sound boring. But here’s why it isn’t: Murdered has a story, and a combat mechanic, too!

Whenever Ronan encounters a new crime scene, you’ve got to spend time hunting around for clues. After that, you have to piece the clues together to solve the question at hand. It’s not all that easy, and the clues aren’t always that obvious. Also, you have to actually read, something I really miss doing in console games. I did have a bit of difficulty with certain areas, but nothing cannot be solved with the internet at hand!

To make things even tougher, this hunt is compounded by demons, souls that have lingered so long on earth that they are no longer anything near human. You can’t just read and walk a la L.A. Noir. You also have to stay alive.

(See: Watch Dogs review: fantastic sandbox action crippled by its own hype)