Dante Posted June 13, 2013 Posted June 13, 2013 The Escapist - Preview at E3 2013 The "Ghost meets Die Hard" game that you feel like you've played before. In the tradition of murder mystery and crime investigation games like LA Noire, Hotel Dusk, and Phoenix Wright comes Murdered: Soul Suspect from developer Airtight Games and publisher Square Enix. The game puts players in the ghostly shoes of a dead detective in the town of Salem out to solve his own murder. I saw the game as an E3 floor demo behind closed doors at the Square Enix booth. A producer guided the audience through the first investigation of the game - the scene of main character Ronan O'Connor's death. Ronan, having only just grasped his deceased status, stands by as his brother vows to avenge him and his colleagues mock his arrogance (and fedora). Then, using a series of pale, hovering sentences in the world to guide him, he sets about gathering clues in the immediate area around the crime scene. The basic investigation involves Ronan approaching a clue, pressing X to "Investigate" and then guiding a cursor over specific parts of whatever he's looking at to bring up more ghostly words that indicate what it is he's looking at. Viewing his own dead body, Ronan can hover over the chest cavity to bring up words like "fall," or "shot." Selecting the correct word helps him identify his cause of death (he fell, THEN he was shot). Sometimes Ronan can even investigate beyond what the living can see by interacting with shadowy areas or figures that may reveal sequences of events Ronan missed while he was alive (like a mystery witness that didn't come forward after he was killed). Ronan cannot touch things in the real world, nor speak to the living, but he can possess people that are already touching or holding things he wants to investigate (e.g. like a notebook held by an investigating officer). He can also use possession to eavesdrop on conversations or trigger memories in potential witnesses that are having trouble with their recollection of events. Possession also comes in handy when entering buildings - because part of the fiction of the world is that all buildings in Salem are consecrated so that spirits cannot go into them unless a door is opened. Once all clues in an area have been gathered - he fell from the fourth story of an apartment, was shot with his own gun, and his killer was familiar with the area), Ronan must make a deduction. This happens when the player uses a menu to arrange the clues the sequence they happened. If done correctly, the next scene of investigation becomes obvious (the apartment) and the game moves forward. Outside of investigation and deduction, Ronan has the tricky world of "Dusk" to navigate, which is inhabited by other ghosts. Some ghosts are friendly, offering side quests or just avoiding Ronan. Others are red-tinged demon enemies that will try to pull Ronan's spirit form apart - unless he can do it to them first by possessing them from behind. There are also ghostly clues like coded messages and images that only Ronan can see, and possibly only another ghost can help him understand. The real challenge of gameplay comes from puzzle-solving to help Ronan get around and gather clues. Aside from the possession skill, there are other little tricks Ronan can perform to influence the behavior of the living - like turning on the stove to make a person walk into a room. He can also pass through walls, people and other objects, thereby finding things off the main path that may be useful in tracking down his killer. I am hopeful for this game, but a little worried if how Murdered: Soul Suspect mixes murder mystery, puzzles, and moody atmosphere will be successful. Even very good murder mysteries are vulnerable to the occasional plot hole - and those can be fatal to average mysteries. If Airtight Games is clever, most of the questions raised in Soul Suspect will be answered -- or made to seem like deliberate red herrings.
Emerald Emblem Posted March 23, 2014 Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) Just got a ShopTo ticket about this game, it's now going to be released on PS4 and Xbox One as well as PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. It's also getting a Limited edition, the Limited Edition will include the following: -The Game. -Special Packaging. -Physical Journal. -Code to unlock HTML 5 interactive map. 6/6/2014 European release date. Edited March 23, 2014 by Emerald Emblem
Goron_3 Posted March 23, 2014 Posted March 23, 2014 Hmm sounds interesting tbh! Hotel Dusk and it's sequel were two of my favourite DS games so the fact it's taking some inspiration from them is encouraging. I've got my eye on it.
WackerJr Posted March 27, 2014 Posted March 27, 2014 June 6th then? Excellent, as this title has me intrigued. It looks like it has potential, and the previews I've seen have sparked my interest. Hopefully the finished game will turn out as good.
Aneres11 Posted December 28, 2014 Posted December 28, 2014 Well this is a bump and a half! Did anyone end up playing this? I got it for Christmas having eyed it in the ShopTo sale a few weeks back and asking my sister to snap it up for me as I wanted a game but couldn't decide what. Ended up with the limited edition one (£20 it was) which comes with a little pocket book with some case related stuff in. Pretty cool. Just started playing it last night and having quite a lot of fun with it. It isn't as good as I'd want it to be having played other crime games like Hotel Dusk and even a Jack the Ripper game on 360 ages ago, both of which were slightly better. I say that, but this is getting better the more I play. Basically you're a cop who is killed and in order to move on from the world you need to let go of what it is that's stopping you from being able to emotionally let go. In this case it is why you were killed. And thus the scene is set and you, as a ghost, gather evidence from the people solving your case by eavesdropping in on their conversations, manipulating their thoughts by making them think to clues you've collected to piece some bits of the puzzle together and so on. It's an interesting idea and works quite well. Alongside this you also have to help other ghosts you encounter to move on to the afterlife by piecing together their puzzle of why they died. These are more side missions but I've found myself enjoying those and finding out about why they died more than the guy I'm playing as! There's loads to collect and do and the story is flowing nicely. Definitely a good one to play of an evening as it can be played at whatever pace you like. Anyone into this kind of game should try and check it out! I'm sure the non-limited edition was only £13 on ShopTo.
Hero-of-Time Posted December 28, 2014 Posted December 28, 2014 I think a bunch of us on here who did play it just ended up discussing it in the PS4 thread. Sadly all the comments will be buried in there now. I enjoyed the start of the game but I thought it started to wear thin by the end. The game had good ideas but some were poorly executed. If it had more time in development or more of a budget then maybe the game would have been more polished. The game did have a satisfying ending though.
Aneres11 Posted December 28, 2014 Posted December 28, 2014 Ahh that's a shame. I wondered why no one had said anything about it! I guess it's just me and me then. Haha. Yeah I'm hoping it's a shortish experience as I don't really think I could play it for hours at a time without it becoming tedious. Once I finish up with it I'll post my thoughts unless someone else decides to pick it up and give it a whirl.
Jimbob Posted December 28, 2014 Posted December 28, 2014 Ahh that's a shame. I wondered why no one had said anything about it! I guess it's just me and me then. Haha. Yeah I'm hoping it's a shortish experience as I don't really think I could play it for hours at a time without it becoming tedious. Once I finish up with it I'll post my thoughts unless someone else decides to pick it up and give it a whirl. It's about 6 hours without collecting everything, 8 if you do. And i'm not joking It was a game that needed more to it. Started well, then became quite tedious. You are ghost, but limited to where you can go. I liked the ending, but that's about it. It was too much collect this, it seems this was added in an attempt to bulk the game.
Esequiel Posted December 29, 2014 Posted December 29, 2014 I enjoyed it tbh, only downside was my HDD corrupted at the last scene so I technically never finished it. I ended up watching the ending on youtube lol.
Aneres11 Posted December 29, 2014 Posted December 29, 2014 That sucks! TBH i'm sat in work now and am right in the mood to play it!! So I guess it's not as tedious as I originally thought... Or maybe it's just because I don't want to be sat in work... I reckon this is the kinda game that'll end up being free on Plus soon anyway.
Aneres11 Posted December 31, 2014 Posted December 31, 2014 Just finished this up. Really really enjoyed it. It was short yes, but I think the game got better and better. I think it starts a bit slow and the original location is a bit shit, but as you progress to the Church, mental hospital, museum etc, it becomes much better. Was gripped towards the end! Kinda hoping they do a sequel, or revisit it in some way and build on what they did here. Definitely glad I played it!
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