Murdered: Soul Suspect

Trying to unmask a serial killer is tough at the best of times but it’s even more difficult when you’re one of his victims. This is the scenario that befalls Ronan O’Connor, recently deceased detective, in Murdered: Soul Suspect, Airtight Games’ supernatural murder-mystery game set in the atmospheric surrounds of Salem, Massachusetts. After meeting a grisly demise while on the trail of the notorious Bell Killer, Ronan finds himself revived as a ghost who must bring the case to a close in order to pass on and be reunited with his late wife Julia.

As the rather hokey premise suggests, Murdered isn’t a game that takes itself too seriously, despite its gruff protagonist. Ronan is controlled via a fairly traditional third-person action adventure control scheme with a few supernatural twists, though these are often used clumsily. As a ghost, Ronan can walk through internal walls but consecrated external walls are impassable unless he can enter through an open door or window, which seems to be a case of using a convenient story conceit to disguise the limitations of the Unreal 3 engine. The game also frequently erects temporary barriers of ectoplasm in order to funnel the player on to the next location, although in truth Murdered’s Salem is hardly big or complex enough to get lost in.

The story progresses through a series of crime scenes, each of which sees Ronan attempt to uncover a piece of crucial information in order to continue his pursuit of the Bell Killer. Clues are revealed primarily by careful investigation of each scene and an assortment of supernatural powers allow Ronan to possess witnesses and police, opening up various options for discovering further information. Once the key clues have been assembled, the player is free to have a stab at working out what happened by selecting the most pertinent pieces of information, though it’s fairly forgiving if you get it wrong a couple of times.

Occam’s Razor applies in nearly all situations in Murdered and some of the investigations are so simplistic that they border on insulting but the detective work is actually surprisingly satisfying in the main. The game does a good job of making the player feel clever by allowing them to piece together the sequence of events just before big plot revelations, in a manner that will be familiar to anyone who has consumed more than their fair share of ITV whodunnits. The story moves along at a fairly brisk pace, assisted by strong voice acting and competent writing, and is gripping enough that there’s a strong motivation to keep playing even when the crime scenes are less than mentally taxing.

Unfortunately, the game’s combat system is another matter altogether. During the course of his investigations in Salem, Ronan encounters demons at semi-regular intervals that will attempt to feast on his soul, killing him more or less instantly and forcing the player to restart from the nearest checkpoint. Demons can in theory be avoided but Murdered’s stealth mechanics are flaky and it’s usually more practical - and far less annoying - to simply exorcise them via QTE, leaving Ronan to go about his detective work unmolested. Even this is fraught with frustration though thanks to the game failing to recognise crucial button prompts with maddening regularity.

The demon encounters simply aren’t very much fun and seem to serve no purpose other than to pad out the game and push up total gameplay time. It’s a shame, because Murdered is otherwise quite a refreshing experience. Over the 10 hours or so it takes to complete, Ronan neither fires a gun nor engages in more traditional melee combat and the game relies entirely on dialogue and exploration to advance the narrative. So out of joint with the rest of the game do the demon sections feel that one can’t help but wonder if they were added late in development to satisfy a perceived need to ensure game had mass market appeal.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is then, fittingly, something of a conundrum. Though a bit rough around the edges and replete with the odd plot hole and a creaking combat system, the game’s atmosphere, charm and novel premise do just about enough to pull it out of the mire. It’s difficult to recommend Murdered at full price but it's certainly one to look out for when the inevitable reduction comes during this summer’s Steam or PSN sales. Savvy gamers jaded by the predictable shock and awe of the usual AAA blockbusters who approach it with relatively low expectations may find themselves pleasantly surprised.