Looking Ahead to "Murdered: Soul Suspect"

- by Ninja Ross, 26 March 2014

Every so often I'll get seriously excited about a game. I Mean, SERIOSULY excited, to the point where I am impossible to be around. So, what better way to get that out my system than to make YOU put up with it and get YOU as excited as I am? "Murdered: Soul Suspect" is one of those games that have me seriously hyped up, as I might have made clear in my last E3 article.

It stars a detective named Ronan O'Conner, who comes complete with a chequered past, a smoking habit and some cool looking tattoos. Pretty standard for a detective thriller, really. But, during a burglary, Ronan encounters a psychotic killer who manages to shoot Ronan, killing him.

Ronan. Even his cigarettes are all fatigued.

Ooh! TWIST! That's right; our protagonist is, in fact, dead. The game follows Ronan as he tries to find the killer and avenge himself and any other victims of the psycho. Throw in a witness to the killing (also, possibly, the intended target) psychic stuff and a brother on the force and you’ve got yourself a plot!

The story itself sounds pretty interesting. While they are going for a bit of a stereotypical character, it still seems to have enough originality to hold its own. And, despite being a bit generic, a badass cop with a shady past sounds pretty awesome.

While this sort of premise has been used in the past, with films like D.O.A and The Invisible, it's not something that's used very often and seems like it'd have a lot to offer. It seems like it'd have a lot to offer the medium of video games, especially. It gives the developers a chance to play with some different mechanics, to experiment with the gameplay.

And that looks to be what Airtight Games have planned with this. Instead of being your average run and gun, cover-based shooter, it seems more based around a bit of stealth and puzzle solving, as well as story development.

The demos show that you can't actually interact with the living world all that much. In fact, you can pass through nearly every single solid object in the living world. So, exploration should be pretty fun and varied. It’ll most likely add to the puzzle solving further down the line, too. Speaking of puzzle solving, you CAN interact with the world slightly. For example, you can light the stove with your freaky ghost powers. No doubt this’ll make for some interesting powers.

You can posses other characters and see the world from their point of view. So, if you need to get more information on a scene, you could posses the nearby police officer and see his notes. The demo also demonstrates the ability to read minds, which is pretty handy. You can also influence what they think about, by using your own memories.

Whatchu writing there, buddy?

This brings us to one of the most interesting parts of the game; the detective-y stuff! You’ll find yourself investigating crime scenes, the first one being your own. You’ll need to piece everything together by examining the crime scene yourself, even if that’s only possible by looking it at it and not touching anything, and using your ghost powers to find out what everyone else knows.

The dead world, known as The Dusk contains the bulk of the action gameplay. Mostly, you’ll be using stealth and ghost powers to avoid evil spirits. You can sneak up behind them and tear them apart, but if they see you, they will kill you. You can use ghost powers such as possession to hide inside a living person and avoid these ghosts, just as you can use your ability to walk through walls to get around the creeps.

Hiding from mean old g-g-ghosts!

It looks like the levels are pretty big. There’s plenty of exploration to be done and plenty of stuff to find. This is good! It’s all set in the town of Salem, which has a pretty interesting history with the supernatural (as I’m sure you know). I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how much detail is put into the environment. So, I’m guessing there’s probably going to be a ladies shower scene in there. Has to be.

The graphics aren’t too shabby, either. They’re nothing special, you’re not getting anything experimental or anything, but you are getting a dark, gritty, fairly realistic atmosphere. The town of Salem is a very moody looking place with plenty of creepy looking areas in this game.

Graphics and atmosphere aside, Ronan is a pretty cool looking character. I don’t really know anything about fashion, but I heard fedoras are uncool? Can anyone clarify this for me? Even if they ARE considered uncool and stupid, it still looks pretty badass on this guy. Am I right? Add to that some pretty interesting looking tattoos and the SEVEN GLOWING BULLET HOLES and Ronan makes for quite an interesting looking character who manages to stand out just enough from the rest of the AAA game protagonists on the way.

All in all, Murdered: Soul Suspect is looking pretty fantastic. It’s got a nice, creepy vibe that reminds me of games like Condemned and The Suffering. I hope it gets a bit more success than those two underrated gems did, though...

Murdered Soul Suspect comes out in June 2014. That’s too long! TOO LONG!

Tagged: video games.

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