I have been playing "Shadows of Doubt" on my last two weekends:
It is quite good. Get's me real in my puzzle+ocd+cyber-detective noir vibes. And is a real shining example of "gaming technology" gone the right way for me.
It is what people would call an "immersive sim"-type game, but in a procedurally generated world. (Also Voxel-Style)
So it creates a map for you, fills it with buildings (with convoluted airducts to crawl around in), businesses and apartments and then creates the people inhabiting it. Those people have spouses (No children), a job with working hours, schedules and different characteristics (build, ethnicity, fingerprints, hair, glasses, hobbies, voice, income etc.) (Important point for the detective work)
You play a cyber-noir detective doing a handful of jobs (Mostly identifying and finding people and then either trashing their place, steeling secrets back, following them, or finding out if they have an affair with someone) and then getting evidence back to your employers.
The big thing are the murder-investigations though. Usually the game makes someone a serial-killer, which you have to find before he kills again (to get paid).
This is being done by:
1. Building profiles for the inhabitants of the city by connecting clues and documents to them. (For example just talking to them might give you their name and how they look and how their voice sounds. Then after finding their employee-records you connect them with name/photo and learn their income, position in a business and date of birth. Then scanning their hand when they sleep (don't ask) you have their fingerprints. Rifling thourgh there own documents you find their birth-certificate... and so on and so on.
2. Finding clues at the crime scene or from witnesses (For example an unknown set of fingerprints, a vague description by someone in the area, or a deliberate left note by the killer), or security-footage by a cam (Yes there a cams in the world which save up when people where passing through their field of vision for a day)
3. Connecting the information on a case-board. (And finally it allows for wrong conclusions)
Overall this is impressive technology, and i would love to have something similar made by a huge team with more complexity. That, sadly is my problem with the game. While a great idea, the cases itself are either very easy to solve or nearly impossible unless you already lucked/worked you way into having the perp already fully profiled.
(For example if the job is "Find me this skinny, tall man with AB+ blood type and a income of 42.000 as a bookkeeper - Well, you better have all Businesses already "visited" and know all bookkeepers or it will be a LOOONG night)
But luckily you can have several cases on backburner and sometimes they pretty much solve themselves.
There are some other mechanics:
Some "cyberware/DNA" implants to give you some powers - sadly many are just "you get money if" -types which are not important, but others make you better in combat (knocking people out) or negating falling damage (Jumping from a skyscraper when chased by enraged folks who found you in their bedroom rifling through their computer while they slept, hehe) or just straight up being more beautiful, so people give their names to you more freely.
Buying your own apartment and decorating it: Not needed, but fun to relax and lose a bit of that earned cash.
Thoughts:
While their are already some mods to have the game have more content, this is the one thing which needs to be expanded: More difficult/convoluted cases, red herrings, more lines for npc's. Fully ramping up the logic behind the alertness-system of npc's ("Must have been the wind"-syndrome). More communication between the npc (Mail and speech). Well i would say this game scratches an itch though. It is atmospheric, clever and technical impressive. But it could be so much more. But well if you flaw is: "I wish there was more" or "man this could even be better when..." you have done something right.
It is quite good. Get's me real in my puzzle+ocd+cyber-detective noir vibes. And is a real shining example of "gaming technology" gone the right way for me.
It is what people would call an "immersive sim"-type game, but in a procedurally generated world. (Also Voxel-Style)
So it creates a map for you, fills it with buildings (with convoluted airducts to crawl around in), businesses and apartments and then creates the people inhabiting it. Those people have spouses (No children), a job with working hours, schedules and different characteristics (build, ethnicity, fingerprints, hair, glasses, hobbies, voice, income etc.) (Important point for the detective work)
You play a cyber-noir detective doing a handful of jobs (Mostly identifying and finding people and then either trashing their place, steeling secrets back, following them, or finding out if they have an affair with someone) and then getting evidence back to your employers.
The big thing are the murder-investigations though. Usually the game makes someone a serial-killer, which you have to find before he kills again (to get paid).
This is being done by:
1. Building profiles for the inhabitants of the city by connecting clues and documents to them. (For example just talking to them might give you their name and how they look and how their voice sounds. Then after finding their employee-records you connect them with name/photo and learn their income, position in a business and date of birth. Then scanning their hand when they sleep (don't ask) you have their fingerprints. Rifling thourgh there own documents you find their birth-certificate... and so on and so on.
2. Finding clues at the crime scene or from witnesses (For example an unknown set of fingerprints, a vague description by someone in the area, or a deliberate left note by the killer), or security-footage by a cam (Yes there a cams in the world which save up when people where passing through their field of vision for a day)
3. Connecting the information on a case-board. (And finally it allows for wrong conclusions)
Overall this is impressive technology, and i would love to have something similar made by a huge team with more complexity. That, sadly is my problem with the game. While a great idea, the cases itself are either very easy to solve or nearly impossible unless you already lucked/worked you way into having the perp already fully profiled.
(For example if the job is "Find me this skinny, tall man with AB+ blood type and a income of 42.000 as a bookkeeper - Well, you better have all Businesses already "visited" and know all bookkeepers or it will be a LOOONG night)
But luckily you can have several cases on backburner and sometimes they pretty much solve themselves.
There are some other mechanics:
Some "cyberware/DNA" implants to give you some powers - sadly many are just "you get money if" -types which are not important, but others make you better in combat (knocking people out) or negating falling damage (Jumping from a skyscraper when chased by enraged folks who found you in their bedroom rifling through their computer while they slept, hehe) or just straight up being more beautiful, so people give their names to you more freely.
Buying your own apartment and decorating it: Not needed, but fun to relax and lose a bit of that earned cash.
Thoughts:
While their are already some mods to have the game have more content, this is the one thing which needs to be expanded: More difficult/convoluted cases, red herrings, more lines for npc's. Fully ramping up the logic behind the alertness-system of npc's ("Must have been the wind"-syndrome). More communication between the npc (Mail and speech). Well i would say this game scratches an itch though. It is atmospheric, clever and technical impressive. But it could be so much more. But well if you flaw is: "I wish there was more" or "man this could even be better when..." you have done something right.
