Murdered: Soul Suspect - Quick Review (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC game)

Exploring the shadowy afterlife of a recently murdered detective is something quite unforgettable but not for all the right reasons. Murdered: Soul Suspect is a mystery adventure game where, after witnessing his own brutal murder, Ronan O’Connor finds himself locked in the ghostly afterlife with some newly acquired supernatural abilities and a mystery to solve. 

Developer: Airtight games
Genre: Action-adventure/mystery
Release:AQ date: June 6th 2014 (JP: July 17th 2014, NA: June 3rd 2014)
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows
ESRB: M - Mature

As you prowl the dark, damp streets of a beautifully detailed town called Salem you’ll attempt to bring O’Connor’s mysterious, masked killer to justice. It’s a tentatively emotional game with a strong, powerful storyline and some very interesting gameplay elements in the way of Connor’s unique, unearthly abilities. Walking through walls, possessing the living and reading their minds all become a natural part of your investigation yet it doesn't take long to discover that these ghost abilities are a lot more scripted and limited than orginally portrayed.
 

Unfortunately this feeling of limitation is persistent as you explore a game which feels painfully unfinished and, overall, just a little neglected. Whilst the environments are striking and extremely detailed they’re let down by how often they’re reused during separate side missions. Whilst the game tends to come across as an open world romp it quickly becomes apparent that there's a lot less to explore and, even if you did, there's not much to find anyway. The game features a fair few side missions but these quickly run out about midway through the game leaving you with nothing else to do but doggedly pursue the main storyline as you try and ignore characters repeating phrases like, ‘Sorry, can’t help you’ when you attempt to talk to them. 

During the missions themselves the writing tends to be quite poor with a lot of inconsistencies and some rather poor characterizations, for example one woman, with no mental health concerns, promptly committed suicide simply due to the suspicion her boyfriend was cheating on her. O'Connor tends to be generally quite thick and, even when things are obvious, he still murmurs to himself in utter confusion about what's going on. The search for clues too is agonizingly boring as things loll about in plain sight and, when trying to piece together evidence by selecting one of several options on screen there's very little challenge as any wrongly selected pieces of evidence just grey out. You can complete every mission through trial and elimination and, in cases where speaking with witnesses, there's no option to slyly question them and usually asking them plain outright is enough to solve the case. There’s this general sensation that the developers never quite got around to implementing as many side mysteries or free roaming aspects of the game as they’d have liked to and, for the missions which are present, they're all rather low quality in and of themselves. 

The enemies that you encounter start off as rather threatening and a little spooky but as soon as you realize how generic and easy to avoid they are then any lingering fear is quickly snuffed out. Whilst you can directly confront them there's alternatively a plethora of hiding spots called soul residue that, by slipping inside them, renders you completely invisible to any demons mooching about. Now, there's nothing wrong with hiding spots but these are excessive in number and, besides, there's no way to be discovered once you're nestled inside one anyway. The lack of variation in enemy encounters and the enemies themselves renders them little more than an annoyance than something challenging or eerie but, by this point, you begin to wonder if there’s anything worth fighting for anyway.

The painfully short length of the game doesn’t help matters as the entire campaign will take up a very modest 10 hours of your time with the potential to be even shorter if you’re not up for exploring everything. With only one difficulty level, one which feels incredibly easy, there’s not much room for re-playability either so in this sense some players may find it unfulfilling as there’s not much room for improvement. The complete lack of challenge and the fact that you cannot ramp it up a notch is rather damming but there is some thought put into how players can get more hours of the game. In a rather distinctive ‘L.A Noire’ fashion you can earn percentages and badges at the end of every mission based on how many clues and pieces of evidence that you find, in this sense if you find that you missed some evidence and only achieved 80% on a mission you may attempt to retry it though, truthfully, there seems little point in doing so. The gameplay is extremely repetitive and mostly ends up being a hunt for clues in various, similarly designed buildings before watching cutscenes. 

Murdered: Soul Suspect has a brilliant storyline that never reveals too much at once and which is, right up until the end, gripping. The voice acting is superb and the graphics are bleak but atmospherically so. Unfortunately, that’s all it really has going for it as the characters are lacking in personality and the game, whilst boasting style, lacks substance. Even O’Connor, the one person who should at least have something going on, has very little personality and not particularly likeable due to his rather stereotypical persona. It’s a shame because this game has a brilliant premise and could have been so much more but it seems as though it’s unfinished with gaping holes littering every aspect whether that’s a lack of dialogue with NPCs or a lack of variation in side mysteries. If the game as longer with much more content then it would have been a fantastic edition to the much unexplored territory of mystery detective games. L.A Noire this is not and, currently, it’s far too overpriced for what is essentially a 5 – 10 hour game of scripted repetition.

The Good:

• Voice acting is top quality
• Lovely, detailed environments
• Powers acquired gradually
• Great premise of solving your own murder 
• Gripping storylin, a little disturbing

The Bad:

• Very scripted feel
• Lack of content 
• Repetative missions 
• Easily defeated, generic enemies 
• Quite buggy (as of July 2014) 
• Extremely short
• Side missions poorly written
• O'Connor painfully thick
• Characters lack personality

The Score: 4/10

Final thoughts: “Soul Suspect appears to be lacking some soul, I’m very disappointed as this could have been something really quite special.”

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The Last Door: Collector's Edition - Full Review (Free game/Collector's Edition PC game)

‘The Last Door’ is a door worth opening as what you’ll find on the other side is a solid, spooky and extremely well crafted game that manages to be both horribly unsettling and wonderfully enthralling. 

Developer: The Game Kitchen
Genre: Horror adventure 
Release date: May 20th 2014
Platforms: PC, Mac and Linux
ESRB: Rating pending

Created by the indie company, The Game Kitchen, ‘The Last Door’ is a point and click horror game that borders somewhere between quietly creepy and in your face horrifying. This compelling game will have you intrigued from the start as the beautifully orchestrated music plays and the sharp graphics drop down into a pixelated art style that makes you wonder why the developers have opted for this low resolution feel. Discard any initial reservations you had about its appearances as this is an extremely well made, well-polished game that is more than worthy of worldwide recognition.

Story and gameplay

The game is set in Victorian England and, after an incredibly morbid prologue, your character receives a letter from an old friend with a rather cryptic message on it. Prompted by the potentially serious implications from the letter you set out to Sussex to the lavish manor house that your friend owns but upon arrival it appears empty and abandoned. As you search the estate for clues you’ll uncover dark secrets, skeletons in the closets and a mystery that will only be explained by travelling across the country in subsequent chapters. The four chapters of this game were initially released separately and they still feel like very short standalone games that all follow on from one another, though that’s not a bad thing. If anything the use of cliff-hangers is very appealing as it builds up your anticipation to continue playing and makes the game feel even more riveting. 

The use of episodes splits the game into nicely manageable segments as it will take several hours to complete the entire thing though the quality of the chapters does vary and, whilst each episode has its own strengths and weaknesses, the inconsistency makes the problems glaringly apparent. The first chapter for instance excels in atmosphere and emotion whilst being the shortest and easiest of all the chapters. In the second episode there is a greater depth of experience but some of the descriptions of items have been watered down to either simple statements or overly explanatory ones which, compared to those of the first chapter, hinders the feel of the environment. That said, these are very minor issues and as a whole  the game plays fantastically with a strong focus on suspense and anticipation rather than gore and violence. 

As is standard in point and click games your advancement is dependent on solving puzzles and, in this case, the puzzles are inventory based. This means that you’ll be frequently be searching for things you can pick up before using them on objects in the environment or combining them into something new. Often, things can be difficult to locate as the pixelated surroundings conceal things wonderfully but by scrolling over objects that can be examined a magnifying glass does appear so you’re not left helplessly confused at what something is. Overall the game gets harder as you progress which eases you very nicely into the game though there’s nothing agonizingly difficult about any of the puzzles. Though you’ll likely get stuck now and then the puzzles are all fairly logical and not in the least bit obscure so, once you figure it out, it becomes painfully clear what you had to do all along. That said, the puzzles are varied and interesting and usually revolve around trying to access some place or another as you’re generally being led on a journey to constantly discover a secret that is hidden. 

Something that is particularly appealing is the game’s tendency to change the perspective that you’re playing through by quick insights into other characters or, most importantly, dreams and flashbacks that Devitt experiences himself. This continual shifting results in a richer and deeper understanding of the storyline and also the chance to do something a little different. I imagine that a constant focus on Devitt in the present time could have easily become restrictive and monotonous so it’s a welcomed addition to an already captivating game. Breaking up the gameplay experience through the employment of these dreams, flashbacks and briefly controlling other characters is not the only trick that the developers have up their sleeve as each chapter brings something new to the table. Whilst the first game is just you on your own subsequent chapters add in other character to talk to and the introduction of conversations is surprisingly powerful. Every chapter beginning starts with something shocking or disturbing that’s entirely different to the start of the last chapter so, whilst the game is short, you do cover a lot of ground and are treated to some intimately haunting scenes. The characters are well introduced, have interesting dialogue and talk in a manner fitting of the era. There are a lot of letters and diaries present in the game that you read for backstory and they’re very manageable in length and not in the least bit dull. Often, letters contain clues for puzzles and I enjoy how they not only had an atmospheric purpose but a practical one too.

A final critic I have is to do with the controls as in order to pick up items you must first examine them using the magnifying glass. I’m still somewhat undecided about this but the constant need to examine an object with one click then pick it up with another does become fairly irksome and, at the start of the game, it tended to result in me skipping over items thinking I had already obtained them. Of course this error went away as I adjusted but I prefer the option to both examine and immediately pick up things to not necessarily make the game simpler but rather make it less irritating. Other than this the controls are very easy to operate, the camera is perfect and the inclusion of skipping to areas you have already visited by double clicking on the exit saves a few long and boring walks. In a game where you may be stomping up and down the same corridor numerous times, this can only be a good thing.

Graphics and environments

The most important aspect of a horror game is its ability to scare you, or at least make you feel uneasy and apprehensive, and ‘The Last Door’ manages this fantastically partially due to how well the environments are portrayed. Walking through a pitch black corridor with nothing but a tiny light is as terrifying as it would be in any well-made horror game and whilst it could have been easy for it to lag behind its competition it is far from doing so. The environments are extremely detailed, spooky in some places and quite lovely in others. There’s plenty to look at and interact with and great care has been taken to flesh each individual room or area with enough decorational items that simply exist to add to the overall feel of the place.

Though you are initially restricted to the manor and its grounds you’ll travel to different places throughout the subsequent episodes and not once will you feel boxed in by limiting environments. Despite the low res quality of the game there are some truly beautiful scenes that are perfectly detailed and perfectly executed. The views of distant rolling landscapes and the layered, overcast skies remind me in turn of an obscure Van Gogh painting in that there’s such little information but the balance of hues and shades still results in a near perfect representation of what it is depicting. History buffs will also appreciate the many nods to the typical Victorian lifestyle and everything from Devitt’s travelling gear to the adornments of the interiors is perfectly in tune with the era it is illustrating. 

Low resolution pixelated art styles are definitely taking more precedence in games and it goes to show that graphics simply aren’t everything. If anything I found the retro graphics to enhance the experience of this game as it played on the notion that there was something there, in the dark, something that you couldn’t quite see. The game manages to limit how much you can see, not only through actual darkness but by also removing that customary clearness and crispness of graphics that we’ve come to rely on so much. What this results in is your imagination running a little wild and the game is fully aware of this with as it applies very delicate, subtle graphical shifts that impact the atmosphere in huge ways. For a game to be able to produce a constant unsettling unease whilst not falling back on gore and high definition monsters is, for me, very impressive.

Music and audio

In a game that provides no spoken dialogue it was imperative that all remaining audio was done to perfection, and it has been. The music is strong and intense and, especially during the opening credits, it has this inexplicable ability to instil the feeling that you’re embarking on some dangerous and mysterious journey. During gameplay there are periods of complete and utter silence that may occur when entering a room or between music tracks and, when the music stops, a great sense of danger instantly washes over you. I remember one occasion where, standing in the back of an old school room the music stopped entirely leaving me alone in a silent, dead room. Then came a noise; a noise I’d not heard before in that room despite having visited there several times, it was muffled and distant but sounded distinctly like some trapped animal or cry for help. Without the ability to explore further I left immediately, even after returning to the same spot, never heard that noise again. It’s moments like this that build you up and make you feel like there’s something waiting for you in the dark, behind a corner, something that may jump out at you. It’s extremely atmospheric and these odd little sounds that come out of nowhere, like the tapping on a window, are profoundly powerful.

Overall

This is one of my favourite modern point and click game’s and I thoroughly enjoyed the care and attention that has been poured into it. The variety of environments and perspectives that the game gives you adds an additional layer of detail and stops the game from being repetitive and boring. The story itself is curious with a mixture of themes bordering strongly on the occult but mingled in with the subjects of insanity and madness which is very nineteenth century. You can tell the game is strongly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s works not only from the presence of crows who consistently feature in his works but of little details like the bird tapping on the glass in a home owned by a man who’s descended into madness whereas, in ‘The Raven’ the tapping of the raven sent the narrator into insanity. Likewise, the presence of blind black cat in one part of the story is a direct reference to another of Poe’s work; the Black Cat and there are plenty of other bits and pieces in there too, considering Poe was active during the same century the game was set it feels even more appropriate. History aside, this is an indie game with a difference and is well worth a play as it is beautifully orchestrated, wonderfully written and very well designed. You may or may not find it easy and I imagine it depends entirely on how much of the genre you play and how intuitive you are. The Game Kitchen is currently fundraising so they can complete Season 2 of ‘The Last Door’ so there’s plenty more in the pipeline if you enjoyed this fantastic game. 

The Good:

• Very atmospheric with lots of suspense. 
• Beautiful music, flawless audio.
• Decent, logical puzzles.
• Appealing graphical style.
• Nice range of environments.
• Layered, interesting storyline.

The Bad:

• A little too easy in places.
• Some chapters are weaker than others.
• Controls can be annoying.

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: I love, love love love, this game and cannot wait for the next season. It would be better had it been longer but they're bringing more out so it's all good.

‘The Last Door’ is currently available to be played free. If you want the game with additional scenes and achievements you should pick up the Collector’s Edition of the game instead for just £7 from Steam, here. More details, including where to play it, can be found on their website here.

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5 Days a Stranger - Full Review (Free PC game)

This point and click horror adventure game is witty, intriguing and extremely engaging despite the archetypal sounding plotline. What’s even better is this is a completely free game so, for that reason alone, you should definitely play this fantastic, albeit creepy, little gem. 5 Days A Stranger is an amateur game created by Ben “Yahtzee” Crowshaw and made using the Adventure Game Studio tool. Despite the game’s modest backgrounds 5 days a stranger has won a handful of awards so with all the raving reviews I just had to play it, and here I am, raving about it because it was an incredibly enjoyable experience.

Gameplay and plot

5 days a stranger is set entirely inside the DeFoe manor house mostly due to the fact that after Trilby, gentleman slash cat-burglar, enters the house to steal some valuables he finds himself unable to get back out the window again. No problem, he thinks, he’ll just try another window since his one is oddly stuck, but all the windows are jammed. And so are the doors, plus the wall is too tall to climb and far too smooth to get a grip on it anyway, and… wait, what’s this? There’s a layer of thick concrete beneath the lawn in the backyard. Something’s not right here and, worse still, Trilby’s not the only unfortunate soul stuck in this mansion. Together with a group of strangers, Trilby must find a way out of this luxurious country manor but when the murders begin suspicion threatens to tear this fragile union apart. What is the dark secrets that lurk within the DeFoe manor, who is stalking its opulent corridors and why the hell did Trilby’s fence not research the place before sending him there? 

I was hooked into this game in its first few moments after, discovering the window was jammed, I meandered on downstairs and ran into a man called Phillip. Phillip is another trapped thief, just not a gentlemanly one, who’s also got a bit of an attitude problem. It’s Phillip who you first get to talk to properly and it’s Phillip who’s the first one to explain what’s been going on in the house. At first he thinks you’re here to rescue them all but when he realizes you’re trapped too he explains what’s been going on, in some way or another every person in that house have been separated from their friends or co-workers and come into the house alone and, once they’re inside, they’re trapped. What’s really unusual though is that Trilby got in through a window and as he rightly points out, how did nobody notice it was unlocked for his arrival? The trapped guests were periodically checking every potential escape route, taking it in turns and being completely thorough but somehow that one window had been wide open just long enough for Trilby’s arrival. There’s something else at work in this house, some kind of intelligence, and my God I wanted to know what it was. Phillip thinks it’s a reality TV show, Trilby’s not so sure and for some reason I was more concerned that the fridge in the kitchen was devoid of food. They’re going to let us starve? I wondered to myself, staring at a huge pile of salt in a kitchen cupboard. Are they serious, how have these people been surviving, what have they been eating, the carpets? It’s been days! I really didn’t realize this was a horror game and that things were going to get a lot worse than rumbling tummies. 

The plot drags you in and forces you to stay, just like that bloody house, because it builds up suspense wonderfully and never reveals its hand until the last moment. It does admittedly contain some slightly typical themes, like being locked in a creepy mansion by some unseen force, but it’s all combined in a rather original way and, genuinely, I was confused as to what was going on just like the characters. The plot unfolds very gradually and primarily through reading the few texts present in the game which are short but sad. There’s a pretty decent twist in the storyline that you may or may not see coming, depending on how versed you are in creepy mansion fiction, and the conclusion is very satisfying and nicely wraps everything up. For some reason I was expecting an ending that was going to be anti-climactic and though it didn’t exactly have whistles and bells on it was very fitting, cumulative and had good a splash of humour just to top it all off. 

The way you play the game is very simple; you have several icons that can be used to interact with the world; walking, using, talking and looking. You switch which of these you use by clicking them at the bottom of the screen or by using the F1 – F4 keys on your keyboard and then use them on the environment to navigate around the place, talk to people or find and pick up items. Sometimes you’ll have to combine things to make new items to advance the game and to solve the puzzles within it. The game itself is split into days which act as chapters, between each day you’ll get a cutscene which is usually rather disturbing and very confusing. Each day something will change and they’ll be a new task for you to complete, the first day for example is mostly just finding out what’s going on and meeting everybody. But then things get strange and you’ll have a lot more on your hands.

Graphics and audio

The horror elements of the game are apparent; there’s a fair bit of gore and some very dark themes though none of it is over the top and it’s certainly nowhere near as disturbing as IHNM. The blood and gore may not look like much to those glancing over but when you’re wrapped up in the storyline and the feel of the game it’s positively terrifying when the rare but effective gory scenes jump out at you. The graphics are a lot more subdued than other point and clicks but there’s no denying it looks pretty decent and is no less than I’d want from a 2003 point and click adventure game. There’s clearly a lot of detail that has been put into the environments and there’s a really great feel and personality present in the DeFoe manor, among other things. The animation of the characters too is truly brilliant. I’ll never forget how Trilby’s usually stoic face was contorted into utter, wide eyed fear as he awoke from a terrifying nightmare and the ability to portray that with such limiting graphics is exceptional. 

There’s not a great deal of audio in the game and it’s mostly restricted to sound effects such as footsteps and the creaking of opening doors. I encountered an annoying audio bug that meant whenever I clicked off the screen to look at something else the audio would repeat on itself over and over, such as his footsteps endlessly walking. Bugs aside, the audio is decent and the music is sufficiently creepy. Initially the music was only really present in the intro and credits but with the full edition of the game now available there is music throughout the game and it rises and falls with the tempo that the game sets. Though the music is creepy in and of itself it’s particularly disturbing when it cuts out entirely, leaving you standing there in the still silence wondering what’s caused this dramatic shift in atmosphere…

Overall

The personality of this game is not just restricted to the appearance of the DeFoe manor or its grounds, the characters are really well written and with very distinct personalities and great dialogue. Trilby in particular is such a brilliant character; charming and witty with bags of likeability factor that makes him an extremely strong protagonist for such a short little game. Trilby’s little comments when you look at things or talk to people are guaranteed to raise a few smirks and he is so utterly memorable I felt sad leaving him behind when the credits rolled. 

This game is the first of the Chzo Mythos series and if you enjoy this one it’s great knowing that the journey doesn’t end there as there are 4 sequels, though they’re not all point and click games. ‘5 days a stranger’ will last you around about 3 hours of play and I enjoyed it so much I wished for it to be longer with a lot more actions to perform and more item combinations in general. The game had some good puzzles and at one point I was left standing on a windowsill for ages, unsure of where to go from there, so I can’t say it wasn’t a challenging game. At times it was too easy but for a free game, it’s simply outstanding.

Score: 8/10

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