Don’t Sleep on Shadows of Doubt! – UPDATED

Featuring a unique mix of hand-crafted design and procedural generation, the detective stealth game Shadows of Doubt is one not to be missed.  

UPDATE 09/09/24 – Shadows of Doubt Hits 1.0 and Expands to Consoles! 

Hold onto your magnifying glasses, detectives! Shadows of Doubt is stepping out of Steam Early Access and officially launching on September 26th, 2024! Not only will the full release hit PC, but our favourite detective sim is also landing on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S (both physical and digital!). Now, more players can dive into this fully simulated, sci-fi noir city and hunt down those pesky serial killers. 

Expect all the case-cracking goodness you’ve come to love, but with fresh features and content for 1.0! Shadows of Doubt is levelling up, and we can’t wait to see what’s next! 

Launching April 24^th on Steam, Shadows of Doubt is the detective game I didn’t know I needed. Set within a hyper-industrialised 1980s alternate reality, the game’s party trick is its procedurally generated world capable of living on with or without you.  

Expect all the case-cracking goodness you’ve come to love, but with fresh features and content for 1.0! Shadows of Doubt is levelling up, and we can’t wait to see what’s next! 

Gameplay  

From the get-go, Shadows of Doubt provides an eerie atmosphere, with the game’s main menu soundtrack hitting the nail directly on the head. Shadow of Doubt’s tutorial is a specially crafted case designed to introduce the game’s mechanics, which set the tone for the rest of the gameplay experience. The incredible sound design only gets better from here! Everything from our footsteps, the ticking of the clock, the phone ringing, and the raging storm outside works together to ground us in the world’s aesthetic within just the first moments of the tutorial.   

After a phone call with no one on the other end, a note telling us to find Okello Sow is shoved under our door, and the game is afoot (channelling my Sherlock Holmes here. How am I doing?)   

With a quick peruse of the Cities directory, we have an address for an Okello Sow. It’s time to hit the street, but not before lockpicking our old police gear from a box in the closet. Lockpicking was the only part of the game that felt like a bit of a letdown. Rather than a mini-game, all you need to lockpick is the required amount of bobby pins.  

Characters is a place where Shadows of Doubt excels. No doubt, thanks to the game’s procedural generation, when creating a new world, every person you come across will have something interesting about them. Maybe they look ‘interesting’, maybe they frequent a shady establishment, or just maybe they’re a killer.  

Our character is no different. Whilst there isn’t extensive customisation, the inclusion of a non-binary player option is a welcome one. There is also a pretty large selection of skin tones to choose from.  

Video Game Representation Why It Matters

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Shadows of Doubt looks to be a streamer’s delight. Not only does the game offer endless opportunities for chat to get involved to figure out whodunnit, but the addition of dedicated streaming options is the icing on the cake.  

When enabled, you’ll come across familiar-sounding NPCs with Shadows of Doubt utilising your viewer’s names in game.  

Finally, the main highlight of the game is just how in-depth the private investigator gameplay mechanics are. With literally every building and room enterable alongside the game’s NPC’s all living fully simulated lives, you’ll need to think like a detective to solve the cases around you. Call histories, post-it notes, private emails, CCTV, and interrogations are all required to build a solid case.  

Just a couple of hours in, you’ll find yourself narrating your own actions, a glass of whiskey in hand. 

Cheats and Liars DLC 

Our favourite detective sim is back with its first major content update! Shadows of Doubt captured our attention earlier this year thanks to its incredible procedurally generated sci-fi noir aesthetic and addictive gameplay. Launched earlier this week as a free content update, Cheats and Liars brings a love affair and grand hotel for us to investigate. 

Cheats and Liars also introduces quality of life improvements, including bug fixes and even support for NVIDIA DLSS! 

Shadows of Doubt PC Requirements

We tested Shadows of Doubt at 1440p with Motion Blur and V-Sync disabled on an RTX 3070 and Ryzen 3600X combo. Throughout our time with the game framerates were stable, with the occasional dip below 60FPS in places. Knocking the world size up from the default will take a hot minute to load when first generating the world, but that comes with the territory of procedural generation.