Analysis of the shadows of doubt

Shadows of Doubt is a detective and stealth sandbox where you can investigate all citizens. Anyone is a suspect or can be a victim.

The study Games powered by Cole wants our heads to explode from the tutorial that serves as an introduction to a never-ending story of partly procedurally generated murder mysteries framed in a city that never stops. But like the butcher (who looked oddly similar to a robot portrait I saw in an airport) said, we’re going in parts.

Something very big.

The random generation of Shadows of Doubt is not just a change of scenery. From the beginning, they ask that we define the size and population of the city and when it will be generated. Each of its inhabitants has a name, a fingerprint, an appearancea place of residence and a job, you can at any time look up any name and address in the telephone directory, go to their home and talk to the person, if they are there. It’s an entire city with its buildings with infinite floors and multiple apartments.

Overwhelming? It’s just still loading the scene. When we wake up in bed in a dark room, we discover the level of interaction we have with the environment. Being able to turn on any light and leave it that way if no one turns it off, be able to open everything (everything)

all a shooter has, power bring it all together what you find. You can keep things in very, very limited inventory or write down information on one of these boards with pins and threads that the most conspiratorialists manage to manage.

This creates a Diogenes complex at the level of the information received: until you concentrate and start to organize your life (virtual, with the other there is nothing to do), you have spent hours putting on a board every last piece of crumpled paper you had. find on the street. This plug is the best ally with which you can make and break links, generate a file on the suspects or the victim or simply write down your own information. It is very detailed and extensible, being able to create different folders, name them, change the colors of the wires and connections… Overwhelming, yes, but when you find the order, you discover a very real world, where being able to take everything without not enough. that doesn’t mean you have to do it. You have to know how to measure and play the character that suits you.

Detective, neither private nor public.

Shadows of Doubt presents itself as a detective and infiltration game. It’s because our character has a license, which we call license, which he doesn’t have. The system that governs is the bounty hunter. Once you have completed your investigation and arrested the criminal, money is charged and notoriety is gained. But to investigate a crime scene, you have to do something like sneaking in, because the law is not on your side. Whenever something morally suspect is committed, most often a break-in, neighbors and police will be alert to your misdeeds and if they catch you, they will fine you or shoot you. There are always tricks that can be used like lock picks, ventilation tunnels or hacking cameras. It all depends on how we want to take on the challenge of entering the sites to collect clues. Of course, nothing is very sophisticated and If they catch you, it is very easy to escape and they are quickly forgotten.

To help us in our task there is a whole system of gadgets that we can buy but also cards that modify DNA to be able to learn greater skills such as cold resistancebecause it is cold in the ventilation tunnels and this makes us shiver and attract attention. There are other aspects like hygiene, hunger and thirst that also affect us. That’s how dense it all is.

Very lively city.

The world of Shadows of Doubt is an alternate universe from the late 70s. A futuristic Art Deco past where there are genetic enhancements, connected computers, and a network of vacuum tubes that surround the entire city. All controlled by megacorporations. Its 3D pixelated design contributes to the retrofuturistic atmosphereand the city models are neat from the architecture to the wallpaper. But what helps the most is movement.

There is a living city full of people with routines. These are not NPCs that act when you see them. If we don’t leave our apartment, the waiters continue serving and go home at the end of the service. People meeting other people and walking around, hidden areas full of homeless people living in slums and businesses with their cubicles with each employee’s personal belongings. And that’s a value in Shadows of Doubt. Like I said, every person who lives in town has a criminal record, Each of the people you meet (or not) can be a victim, a suspect or a simple citizen.

Negative point, interaction with them is always done with the same 5 sentences of dialogue. Although they react to your actions. There was a waiter who insulted me because I emptied my stock of newspapers on the floor of his establishment. But then I bought him a coffee and like nothing happened.

Keyboard and mouse required.

Although it is in the first person, Shadows of Doubt puts a lot of work into the game’s menus: objects, information and their processing rely on menus which, for lack of any other idea, were solved by moving a cursor with the Joystick, which will never be as fluid as a mouse. Often this is confusing and even the function of some buttons for main actions is not defined.

As an example, the use of computers in the game. The cursor is moved with the right stick and clicked with

Conclusions.

Until you learn to live in the game, Summary of Shadows of Doubt. We must learn to sort information and keep what we need at all times. This density that is difficult to navigate in the early stages of the game, once this is done with the systems, is understood as part of the setting and is then adopted. But even overcoming that hurdle, working with a controller, not a keyboard and mouse, weighs down the experience.