Murdered: Soul Suspect (2014)

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

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.