Shadows of Doubt review

I found Atticus Pruitt riddled with bullet holes on the floor of his bathroom. By the window overlooking the city, a sniper rifle rested against the wall, its snout poking through the blinds. A murder had taken place, and all I had to go on was a corpse. What followed was a case that spanned the entire city, multiple people and locations, and countless dead ends that almost saw me give up. Then, there was one avenue I hadn’t explored, and from the moment I pulled on that thread, the murder began to unravel and suspects began to make their presence known. Shadows of Doubt may have its problems, but there’s no denying this is one of the most interesting games I’ve played all year.

Set in an alternate city in the 1980s, this dystopian noir setting is fully explorable, and every world is procedurally generated. Each time you play, there’s a case that needs solving, and you are drawn straight away. My first case had me solving the murder of a marketing executive, and the various situations I ended up in were so varied that it felt so unique and unlike anything I’d ever seen before. The best way to explain just what you do in Shadows of Doubt is to talk you through the process of finding the killer, and exactly what I had to do to get there.

After finding the body of Mr Pruitt, I searched his body and scanned for fingerprints to begin building his profile. I scoured his apartment for clues, whether a note stuck to the refrigerator or an email on his computer, I looked for names, phone numbers, and leads that would help me reveal who may have a motive for putting a bullet in his head. I checked his address book, his wallet, and anything else I could find to begin building the bigger picture until I had an idea where to go first. On the gun by the window, there was a different fingerprint that didn’t match his, so I had the potential killer’s prints, but I had no idea who they were.

I visited his place of work but the doors were locked and a security system was in place. I was able to lockpick the power grid so I could disable the cameras and the turret, letting me freely explore all the computers in the office, but I had to try and locate login details before I could check his colleague’s desktops. My first suspicion arose when I found ammo in the receptionist’s drawer that matched the bullets that filled his body. The problem was I couldn’t find a password that let me into her computer.

Earlier when searching Atticus’ apartment, I found a receipt for a restaurant, so after I checked his offices, I headed there for any new leads. I tried to pose as a health inspector, but the jerk behind the counter didn’t believe me. I headed outside and looked for a back door that would lead me into the manager’s office, but not after going through the trash for anything that would help. When I got inside I found some security footage on the PC that showed Atticus eating in one of the booths with two strangers. Finally, a potential suspect I could actually see.

I scanned the table but didn’t find his prints, but there were some others that would end up being vital later on. I visited an underground gun store that tried to kill me when I broke in through the vents, visited his colleague’s apartments trying to interview them with little reward, and after further investigating, I stumbled across his friend’s apartment – someone who had been warning Atticus about a threat of some kind. When I got there, I found another dead body, and the entire case blew wide open. Remember the desk of the receptionist I mentioned? In this friend’s address book, I found out where she lived, and after searching through the city directory, I was able to plot a route right there.

When I got there, I knocked on the door an she eventually answered. She wasn’t as startled or as shocked as I thought she might be, but also she wasn’t allowing to to check her fingerprints or come in to look around. She shut the door on my face, so I decided to find a way into her apartment through the vents, and when I got inside things went from bad to worse. Shadows of Doubt is one of the smartest games I’ve ever played. As far as who Atticus’ killer was, that will remain a mystery for you, dear reader, but I hope I’ve given you a good idea of one of the many different ways cases can be approached. You can literally end up anywhere, finding a plethora of clues and talking to hundreds of people if required.

The possibilities are endless, and it’s staggering just how authentic the investigative process is. You can take on other jobs to earn extra money, as spending it is going to be something you’ll do a lot of. Bribing people to give you information or door codes is something that’ll happen quite a lot, and if things ever go south and you end up in hospital, you’ll have to pay your fees. You can also be spotted by people and arrested, meaning you’ll have to pay your penalties if you’re going to continue with your police work. Knowing you may have to pay money for these reasons makes you more cautious, but sometimes you have to take big risks in order to get closer to the truth.

With so many leads and clues that arise, your case board is the most important tool at your disposal. You can pin everything to it from people of interest, locations, emails and documents, potential murder weapons, information about fingerprints, blood type, and addresses, and more. Custom threads between multiple clues can link them together, and you can move everything around to keep things organised so you don’t lose sight of what you’re doing. Creating your own tapestry of intrigue is one of my favourite aspects of Shadow of Doubt, and it forces you to be concise when pinning it all together.

As much as I loved Shadows of Doubt, there are some issues that need addressing. On the sixth floor of the apartment complex where Atticus was found, there appeared to be a random dead body there, however, when going back to his apartment, he had disappeared, leading me to believe that the random body was his. It’s also finicky equipping items to use such as the scanner and code breaker tool for working out door and safe codes. When you need to use violence (hopefully only in self-defence), it can be awkward throwing a good punch and blocking incoming attacks. Finally, up on the directional pad never worked when a prompt appeared to press it, leading to frustration when trying to look through a filing cabinet for important information.

Shadows of Doubt is an ambitious detective sim, but for the duration of my time trying to solve the murders in a seedy 80s city, I couldn’t get enough. When you feel like things are going nowhere, there’s that one piece of information you have with that one clue you missed the previous few times examining it, and seeing it can turn the tide of an investigation. Having to manage things like being too cold or too smelly hinders the enjoyment as it tries to be somewhat of a survival sim, and if they got rid of this I would have loved it much more. Still, I can’t get enough of it, and it’s one of the coolest games I’ve played in 2024.