Here it was a long-time coming, my full thoughts and review on Murdered: Soul Suspect.
Murdered: Soul Suspect is detective-ghost story told through the interactive-medium of gaming. Murdered is kind of like a combination between a TellTale game, LA Noire, and Alan Wake... But honestly the game is more often than not more like an interactive movie, and I think it's with these expectations that you best experience Murdered.
Murdered: Soul Suspect tells the tale of a man named Ronan, who at the game's start experiences his own death. He is pushed out of the window by a notorious murderer, who is known as the Bell Killer, who then commences to shoot him seven times in the chest. Ronan grew-up as a criminal in Salem, but changed his ways late in life to become a detective, partially for the woman he loved, Julia. However, he was torn apart a few months earlier, when Julia's life was taken at the hands of a street mugger. At death's door, Ronan discovers he is a spirit to this world, trapped here until he can move on from something that's keeping him bounded here. He finds out that he can be with Julia again in the world beyond our own if he can resolve whatever is keeping him here, so he goes out to try and solve the case of his own murder.
Gameplay is rather simplistic in Murdered. You will spend most of your time exploring around, using your ghost powers, and looking for items and clues in the environment. As a ghost, you can freely pass through human-world objects, which essentially makes clipping a gameplay mechanic, but you might be surprised how natural it ends up feeling and due to some good visual cues and sounds it ends up not looking or feeling weird, and makes sense with everything else built up with the game. The only objects you can't pass through are ghost-world objects (relics from the past which are present in the ghost world, and tell-able they're ghost world as they glow with a blue aura), and into or out of buildings freely (ghosts can only enter or exit buildings through open doors or windows). Other powers at your disposal include the ability to possess people, to either read their minds or influence their thoughts, to poltergeist and make objects (mostly machinery) act up, to teleport around by choice, and a few other underutilized but still interesting powers.
The game splits-up between 'stages' (bigger interior areas usually), and a Salem hub-world. The stages I thought generally got better as the game went on, and Salem was a joy to explore... At first. The problem is that not much really happens in Salem, it stays the same mostly for the whole game so you can literally almost do everything in it the first time you enter the hub-area (with only a few things you can only do once you gain the teleportation power).
As you explore, there's a variety of content to immerse yourself in the world. There's a lot of side areas and areas off the beaten path. You can approach living people to listen in to conversations they're having with each other, made more amusing you can then possess them and see what they're REALLY thinking. You can approach ghosts, and either talk to them briefly, question them about something they're up too, and very occasionally help them via a side-quest to move onto from this world to the next. However, there are literally only about 3-4 side-quest in the game, and there is obvious content and characters that were left around for more side-quests, but were left-out as cut content. Things like items you can observe for no real reason, characters it looks like you would be able to help but then they cut you short from actually helping them.
And then there's the collectibles. This game kind of goes overboard with it's collectibles, but they're pretty enjoyable and expand a lot on the plot, the lore, Salem's history, character background's, additional cinematics, and my personal favorite, ghost stories. Extended from this, the investigation scenes usually have you looking for and going about collecting clues, and then putting together the clues that matter to a particular solution or outcome. These typically were rather simple, and sometimes felt more like sort of mindless collecting to get to the point. However, other times they actually felt kind of rewarding. None were really 'puzzles' I would say, but were a mixed bag.
The only other real gameplay mechanic is demons, which are rather underutilized. I didn't find them offensive, and I'll admit there was a few times when their screeches or them detecting me legitimately startled and scared me. However, there's only one type of demon in the game, you only face a few of them in the game, and their encounters are often brief and they're easy enough to deal with (you sneak up behind them to execute them, otherwise they spot you and chase you down, where you hide in things until they lose interest).
They're also made less threatening because of how much this game does not punish you for failure. Dying will only set you back right before the encounter, even with collectibles you've collected still being obtained. Failing in investigations is the same deal, you lose some 'detective's honor', but all you will get for failing is a low grade on that investigation, and honestly the grades do absolutely nothing I could discern.
But then this is a game I'd argue isn't really about winning or losing, it's an interactive film essentially, and on that account it pulls some things off really well.
Firstly, the audio design is fantastic in this game. The voice acting for the main characters are all well-done and performed, and even most minor characters are rather well-voiced (though you'll find a few reoccurring VAs). The ghost stories you can get via collectibles deserve particular praise, as the acting done here really adds a lot to the story, and honestly are really well-done.
But it's not just the voice acting. The music is very good too, with some good creepy vibes, emotional melodies, and songs to go well to the mystery. The ambiance of sounds in the environment also add a lot, with a lot of attention to detail to help bring the locations alive. And even the game sounds, for solving cases, getting clues, etc., are all satisfying and fitting.
The story is quite good, especially if you like detective-ghost stories, ala' The Frighteners, Sixth Sense, or the like. While the writing can be a bit hammy at times, they do have some believable dialogue between characters, the story has interesting developments as it goes on, and there are some rather well-done plot twists throughout.
CIneamtics deserve special mention. The cinematography is really well-done, with fantastic angles, focus, artistic direction, and were a joy to watch.
And the characters are well-realized, trope-ish, but manage to be developed and become more than their tropes and have rather realistic relationships with each other. They have fights and don't agree, but come together (sometimes reluctantly), and there are a few heart-warming moments and real development with each other as it goes on.
The game has a good balance between being more lighthearted, and being darker. There are certain ghosts you'll encounter, and specific scenes that go in deliciously dark directions but the game doesn't go over-the-top with it and balances it out with some lighthearted moments, which for the sort of story they try to tell is appreciated (all-dark works in some places, I don't think the story of a ghost cop should be one of them).
Graphically it looks good for the sort of niche budget title it is. Some nice attention to detail in environments, some good art direction, and some of the models are rather well poly'd. There's some visual quality dips in certain areas, textures... But not a bad looking game at all.
Because of all the extra content, peoples time playing the game will greatly differ. If you just go through the story and don't partake really in the world built here or additional story, the game can easily be beaten in 3-5 hours. But take part and really delve into the world constructed here, and your game time may be much closer to 9-13 hours (I spent 13 hours personally and almost got all collectibles).
Generally, I would label this as a game for gamers who like story, exploring, and world-building above all else. Gameplay really takes a step-down to the game's other elements, and it will definitely strike with its niche. But its lack of action, focus on making what is usually the 'extra' parts of games the main part, and just the general styling and minimal gameplay make it lack that mainstream appeal. I'd also say it isn't worth its $50 pricetag, but felt it was worth it for the $15-25 range.
I'd say if the game interests you, it is worth experiencing... Just maybe not at full price. It is different than your typical budgeted game in this day and age, and is sure to find a cult audience. In some aspects, it's a bit disappointing or under-cooked, but as a whole, this may be one of the best realized classic-styled ghost stories to appear in the gaming medium for years. Like the Fedora or not, Ronan is the perfect tour guide into a very different look at ghosts, Salem, and games with a budget.
