Murdered: Soul Suspect (2014)

Interesting concept for a game. There is not much gameplay here actually, you mostly just walk around and look for clues. There are stealth sections but those are a joke, in my opinion the game would be better without those.

The story is interesting and the game is REALLY cheap, I think I paid like 2 euros for it. You can beat it in one sitting which I would actually recommend, since the game takes place in a single night and its relatively short, unless you aim to collect every collectible.

I would recommend it for like 2-3 bucks.

I did give it a three. Didn't really want to write a written review for it but just wanted to point out that a three in this case is not me saying not to play this game. It's actually a good length, short but not too short. The story is actually interesting and the main character is awesome if you are into noir.

Setting is good and takes place in Salem with tons of history about the witch trials if thats something that fascinates you. The mystery is possible to be solved before the end like a good proper murder mystery. I don't think it's too obvious though. The rating is because overall the game is kind of a simple game and concept. But simple doesn't mean bad. I had it on my backlog for ages. And I'm honestly glad I went back to it.

Finally beat this tonight and boy howdy was this a great experienced from a truly underrated title. I think people are too harsh these days. If something isn't grandiose open world multiple mission super customizable bullshit, they just dislike it outright.

This has such a tight story, with - honestly - super surprising twist after twist, especially in the last 5 minutes or so which had my girlfriend and I both exclaiming "what the FUCK" repeatedly simultaneously. No story in a game has kept me so engaged in a while, and I'm not even a person who, despite being a professional writer, cares much for story in games lmao

Really great voice acting, a really solidly written detective story with cool ghost atmosphere and pseudo supernatural overtones, really decent custscenes, great sound design. Just a truly wonderful little gem of a title. Easily the best 1.99 I've spent in YEARS. It's a shame the company went down the tubes, cause I'd love to have seen what else they could've done.

Pick it up if you ever see it on sale. It's really worth the time, despite what the ignorant naysayers might proclaim. It has a few bugs here and there, but really what doesn't in this day and age. Here's to you "Murdered: Soul Suspect", who's only crime was having a kinda goofy title. In the end, the real murder here was the senseless and baseless killing of a pretty decent studio and a nifty little game by rage loving gamers.

RIP.

This is SO good but also SO buggy. It really feels like The Saboteur. Something that had tremendous potential, still came away far better than it had any right to be considering its shaky development, but also has some clear problems. It's one thing for collectible achievements to stop tracking and not pop, but now straight up "unmissable" story achievements aren't popping either, and that's just kinda inexcusable lol

I still love it though. Super underrated with an EXCELLENT plot. Cannot wait to see how it all ends.

Beat while missing 1 life story, 1 killer info, 2 Julia's thoughts, 14 ghost girl messages, 1 history and 2 eternal flame ghost story. I put extra effort into finding ghost stories because I liked the stories, but the hub world was way too large to search again. I absolutely hated the lack of a map, which caused me to spend way more time on this game than necessary. Having a mini map with compass to help orient the player with the immediate surroundings, and a larger world map to find your way, is mandatory for every game. This game's lack of that was unacceptable. There also should have been some kind of feature to help find collectibles; highlights in ghost vision mode or something. The story, setting and atmosphere were very well done. I especially liked how the spirit world was an amalgamation of the real world and objects and structures from the past. It was very surreal. I also liked talking to other ghosts and solving their troubles to help them move on. That was good insight into the human condition and some were quite touching. I wonder if the ghosts who don't want to move on or don't realize they are dead eventually become demons? The demons were suitably freaky but the QTEs to deal with them were not fun. QTEs are not gameplay. The guy had a ghost cigarette for the entire game (which had no mechanical use) yet died with 2 guns. He should have had ghost guns to make the game a bit of a shooter. It would not matter how simple or clunky the shooting controls would be, it would be better than god damn QTEs. I did kill every demon by watching their movements and getting the timing down. The investigation elements were ok. It reminded me a little of LA Noire, but more simple. There were no consequences for screwing up though. The stealth sequences were a nice mix up to the stealth genre because of having to guide the living girl instead of actually doing the stealth. It was still a little too simple with no fail states. The ending of the game was the opposite. It had a time limit and the solution was not obvious so I had to retry many times.

This was an interesting game but I would not have purchased it. It borders the line between something worth playing and something that would be better watching someone else play. Many of the gameplay elements were good and would make an excellent foundation for another game like this. Some user friendliness (especially maps), less collectibles and more engaging gameplay (action, deduction puzzles, strategy) would be needed to make a good game.

6.3/10

Murdered: Soul Suspect took me by surprise. It is a game that received mixed reviews when it was released and yet, after fully completing the game, I found that I really enjoyed my time with it.

In the game, you play as Ronin, a detective attempting to solve the Bell Killer case. Unfortunately, Ronin finds himself joining the growing ranks of the serial killer’s victims but is stuck as a ghost until he uncovers the truth and reveals the killer’s identity. Overall, the story is what you would expect from a murder mystery- an unlikely partnership, exploration of various abandoned places and enough plot twists to keep things interesting. I will say the ending did catch me slightly by surprise, in a good way, as I thought I had solved the case but the writers’ decided to add one final plot twist, which was pretty satisfying to see play out.

So, how does a ghost solve a murder? Well, Ronin may not be able to talk to the living, he can talk to other spirits and there are plenty of spirits to talk to. Ronin can manipulate the world through his possession and manipulation abilities. Much of the game consists of you exploring various locations, finding clues and then piecing together the clues to solve the mystery. As far as gameplay goes, it is pretty simplistic. The developers did try to add a little more depth to the game, by including demons- ghosts that have stayed in this world too long and constantly seek out other spirits to sate their hunger. In order to deal with these demons, Ronin must move stealthily behind the demon and perform a quick time event execution. I’ll be honest, I found the demon parts of the game annoying and just served to slow the game’s pacing down. The gameplay, as a whole, is pretty simple and can feel a little repetitive at times however it has been done well, so I guess this is a case of if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

Where Murdered: Soul Suspect does excel is the atmosphere it creates. This is not a horror game but it does a great job of creating an unsettling feeling in many of its locations. Firstly, it is set in the town of Salem, which is an ideal setting for a ghost story and the developers do a good job of incorporating Salem’s history in the story. The game also has a good variety of locations from your standard apartment building to a cemetery. The developers do a great job of balancing out the creepier locations, such as the hospital with a location like the church. This means that even if you don’t enjoy being creeped out, you will have some segments of the game that you can enjoy.

The final aspect of the game that adds to the world are it’s collectibles. There are a lot of collectibles- over one hundred and fifty of them. These collectibles do have a function as they add to Salem’s history, characters’ backstory and add detail to the Bell Killer investigation. My personal favourites were the ghost stories. In each of the locations, there was a location specific collectible. If you collect all of those collectibles in the locations, you will unlock a ghost story tied to the location. I really enjoyed the church’s and the cemetery’s stories but all of them add to the town’s worldbuilding. In fact, all of the collectibles do this which makes hunting them down less of a chore and more an important side activity.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Murdered: Soul Suspect. It is the perfect game for someone who isn’t a fan of horror games to play in October. It isn’t an overly long game but it is long enough to tell it’s story and do the story justice. The gameplay is the weakest part of the game as it feels repetitive in places and the demons felt like the developers were trying to pad out the game time. However, as a murder mystery game, I would highly recommend people give Murdered: Soul Suspect a go.

Ronan is a criminal-turned-cop who is killed by the mysterious Bell Killer. Playing as Ronan's ghost, investigate a series of crime scenes, searching for identity of the killer. Many supernatural elements come into play – ghosts, witches, demons – and some flashbacks of the witch trials are pretty gruesome.

As the investigation progresses, you'll explore a graveyard, an apartment house, an old mansion, a police station and of course the obligatory asylum level. While the game world is small, it is open, with the ability to just wander around the town of Salem. It's a gloomy place – the game occurs entirely at night – but is well-dotted with NPCs and collectibles. Obtaining collectibles can unlock other stories, and some NPCs will provide side-missions. There's a decent amount of stuff to do, but most collectibles were easily found as I explored the town or a level.

Investigations require exploring a a crime scene, finding evidence and sorting through the collected evidence. Walking around as a ghost feels fun; Ronan can walk through walls, possess people, and turn on random stuff to mess with the townsfolk. Especially cool were the impenetrable “ghost walls” from past times that can block Ronan from exploring – or even provide new hazards. Oh, and you can possess cats, too. This is actually crucial to progress through several stages of the game.

The demon sections, though, dragged the experience down a bit. Demons will sometimes spawn after completing an investigation. Their existence does have a crucial part to play, and they're easy enough to defeat with a little patience. Given that this is a supernatural tale, it would be rather weird if demons of some kind weren't in the game, and having some stealth sections added some variety to the gameplay. But after a while the demons became annoying distractions from the story.

And the narrative is where the game stands strongest. There is a lot of backstory to be found about Ronan and his wife. Sometimes collectibles in games are merely annoying, but they are worth pursuing here. It has stand-out vocal performances. The graphics are great – murky and dark. The score's provides a classic horror-story undertone. Murdered: Soul Suspect is a well-crafted detective game with a few quirks that holds its story aloft as its best attribute.

Murdered Soul Suspect is yet another game in the backlog from last year's Square Enix Humble Bundle. With Halloween almost upon us, my wife and I were looking for a spooky game to play through together, and since this is an adventure game about ghosts and it was already in my queue, we thought it might fit the bill.

In Murdered Soul Suspect, Detective Ronan dies while perusing a serial killer and is left roaming the earth as a ghost who must complete his unfinished business, solving the serial killer case, so that his soul can pass on to heaven and he can be reunited with his recently deceased wife. While Ronan was apparently not a particularly good detective in life (more on that later), as a ghost he has the benefit of powers that allow him walk through walls, have psychic visions, teleport, and possess living humans (and sometimes cats). The bulk of the gameplay involves using ghost powers to traverse the environments until arriving upon investigation areas in which clues must be gathered and pieced together in order to progress the plot and get closer to solving the mystery. In addition to these adventure game elements, there are occasional stealth action sections where Ronan must evade ghost-eating demons that patrol certain areas of the map.

As promising as this premise and mixture of gameplay styles initially seemed, much of it is handled rather clumsily. Unlike a traditional point-and-click adventure game, there are no inventory items to use or mechanical contraptions to operate since ghosts pass straight through solid objects. Thus most of the puzzle-solving takes the form of an Easter egg hunt in which Ronan must search each investigation area for the indicated number of clues. Once all the clues have been found, a question appears on screen such as "How did this man die?" that must be answered by selecting the most relevant clues. This is where it becomes painfully obvious that Ronan is a terrible detective; the crime scene might contain a tree, rope, and a body with lacerations around the neck, but the player must still go through the song and dance of gathering and selecting the proper clues to spell out to the inept investigator that the victim's cause of death was not drowning or poison. Further detracting from these investigations is that clues are sometimes hard to identify among the scenery and on several occasions awkward wording of the questions can make it difficult to determine which clues the game deems most relevant, even though the player has probably already solved the mystery of the scene. However, there's no real penalty for answering a question incorrectly, so the player can just press on with trial and error until (s)he can eventually proceed. On the other hand, using the ghost powers to get around the map between these investigations feels pretty good and is generally the most most interesting part of the gameplay. The demon encounters do a good job of adding some fear/excitement, though I found that pulling off the QTE maneuvers to kill a demon was a somewhat frustrating task.

Murdered Soul Suspect's plot is a hodgepodge of film noir and ghost story cliches all rolled together, but is presented in a fashion that is enjoyable to watch, yet still pretty corny. The voice acting is also pretty decent and the story does manage to sneak in a twist here and there, even if the player is often going to be several steps ahead of Ronan in terms of solving the case. Where the game succeeds the most is establishing a spooky, though not necessarily scary, atmosphere. Each of the game's environments from grisly murder scenes to cemeteries to psychiatric hospitals are exactly as creepy and dreary as one would want in a game for Halloween.

Murdered Soul Suspect is a game for which my entire reviewing process falls apart. My wife and I liked playing this game, but also couldn't help but acknowledge that it wasn't a particularly good adventure game from an objective standpoint. Thus, my verdict comes with some serious caveats: If you're in a similar situation to mine, in which you're looking for a spooky adventure to complete with a partner and are a fairly forgiving player, you'll probably have an enjoyable experience with this game. However, for the discerning solo adventure game player looking for clever puzzles or a thought-provoking plot, definitely look elsewhere.

Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️*

Completion Time: 12 hours, 24 minutes (Main story plus 92% of Steam achievements)

*In a different set of circumstances, I could easily see myself giving this game 2 stars instead

Note: This review is the product of discussions my wife and I had after finishing the game, so I want to acknowledge the contribution of her insight. Also, she wanted me to emphasis that by far the highlight of the game is getting the ability to possess and controls cats. I totally agree.

For more content like this, check out my blog, Tales from the Backlog.

This is essentially an interactive story. And interactive in a way that you just can't get it wrong. You are murdered detective trying to solve the mystery of your own death in a little town called Salem.

So let's start with the story itself then. It's a descent story as best. It's nothing spectacular, has some twists but it does not make you hold your breath. You don't specially feel attached to the main character and the narration is clunky at times.

The graphics, the voice acting and general quality is really good. Shame that the whole game falls short on the rest.

The game mechanics are rather boring and come down to connecting clues with each other to progress the story. But getting them wrong does not cause any fail state of the game, and the overall success is never displayed somewhere at the end of the game. The other part of the game that forced some interaction was getting past demons, which could only be killed by QTE if you managed to get behind them. This part of the game felt annoying and tedious but happened so rarely you can't complain much.

The whole game forces you to follow one single path, and there is no room for exploration. Really linear experience.

The game is fairly short - around 10 hours and that's quite enough.

Would I recommend it - probably not - though I did get through it and did not felt forced to do so. If you're ok in treating it as a story then you might like it. If you want a game - look somewhere else.

Murdered Soul Suspect is a third person adventure game which was developed by Airtight Games and published by Square Enix. The game was released for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in the summer of 2014.

Usually when the main character dies, you get the well-known "Game Over" ..... but inMurdered Soul Suspect, everything starts with the death of the protagonist.

The game takes place in Salem, where Detective Ronan O'Connor was killed while he was chasing the murderer named the “Bell Killer”. Ronan and later Joy, a young medium who can speak with dead people meet many ghosts from the past and the present while they try to solve the "Bell Killer" case. At the end of the game you will uncover the secrets of Salem. The main characters, Ronan and Joy are really likeable they are very well written.

I have to say that the story is the strongest part of the game. I really enjoyed it and I think everyone who likes horror stories will love it. The ending was a real surprise for me.

In Murdered Soul Suspect you have to search different places in Salem for evidence and memories so you can solve the mystery. There are a lot of collectables in every part of Salem, so if you like collecting things this game is for you.

The controls are good, but the gameplay is ordinary.

There are two main things that you can do in Salem, first you can collect evidences and memories as I stated above. Sometimes you have to avoid meeting the bad guys - the demons. There are times when you can't avoid them so you have to fight them but its not real combat just some QTE.

The game is very easy and very short. A normal gamer can finish it in a few hours. The problem is that the game is fully linear and you wont pick it up again as there aren't more endings or anything to do after finishing the story.

Trophy collectors will love this game as you can get platinum trophy very easy and fast.

While I liked the graphics, I have to admit that it isn’t next gen.

Salem looks and feels really nice, its a creepy place. There are more zones in the village so It almost feels like an open world game. The characters and the ghosts are really well designed too. Some of the ghosts are really creepy and some of them are miserable.

While the sound effects and the music are nothing special, they, combined with the art style make a very strong eerie atmosphere and this is why I really loved this game.

I can imagine that It could be made a very nice horror movie.

Murdered Soul Suspect is a very nice game with a cool concept.

It's not perfect in any way and I’m sure that you will either love it or hate it. I have to say that i loved it.

There is a Limited Edition which comes with a very nice artbook that looks like a diary.

+ starts in an unconventional way

+ eerie atmosphere

+ strong story, surprising ending

+ likeable characters

+ nice graphics

- simple gameplay

- very short

- no real challenge

As a game it fails in many level, its very short, very easy and linear and after finishing it, you wont go back to start again. From this perspective I would rate the game 6/10.

But if I look at the story and play a game as an interactive movie (like Order 1886, or the Walking Dead games) it deserves a 8/10.

I think if you like horror or thriller stories and the game is on a sale, you should buy it.

I'm pretty happy to be done with this.

It was a great concept - a ghost detective solving his own murder, but bland gameplay and uninteresting characters make for a forgettable game. Some positives - the unlockable ghost stories in each location were fun, and possessing a cat was the kind of weird idea the game could have used more of. I also enjoyed the teleportation mechanic, which was a joy to use during the stealth sections to help kick some demon ass.

If Airtight Games ever find success I would love for them to return to this concept with different characters. Assisting other ghosts with understanding their own deaths was something the game barely touched on. Some kind of useful combat system would be cool, or even puzzles that took more then a couple of seconds to solve.

I loved the weird bugs this game had. At one point my character developed a limp for no reason and lost the ability to turn. I saw many NPCs walk through walls that I couldn't walk through myself. The cat disappeared in my front of my eyes a number of times. Nothing that really hindered gameplay. Hell, the game could have used a few more bugs. At least then it would have been more entertaining.

Hell, I'll give a generous 3-stars.