In Murdered: Soul Suspect, the player controls the ghost of dead detective, Ronan O'Connor, whilst exploring the small fictional town of Salem - unique for its frequent supernatural occurrences. Meanwhile, it is Ronan's sole duty to pull off his hardcore detective wizardry in order to investigate the identity of the 'Bell Killer' (the unidentified person who had killed him) and why (as we witness his death within the first few minutes of booting up) in order for him to pass on to the afterlife.
Firstly, the game itself isn't severely long - a few hours is all it takes to finish. In this time however, the story does a great job in creating a complete mystery, top notch I might add. A few overlapping stories are neatly layered into this campaign; including Ronan's Bell Killer investigation, the aim to meet his previously deceased wife in the afterlife, a rivalry between Ronan and fellow-cop Baxter and (unexpectedly) the collectibles - my favourites being those darn grim ghost stories rewarded after collecting certain items.
In addition to the premise, Ronan himself seems to have been designed in a clever manner. We are given plenty of exposition into his past through scattered notes belonging to his wife or residue of memories, delving that much into Ronan's past to even tell us how he came to start wearing his trilby. The fact that he was formerly raised as a criminal and tattooed for every crime he committed before realising the error of his ways already creates the essence of an antihero where we wouldn't expect it. Due to his brother in law Rex pulling some strings, Ronan was miraculously commissioned as a detective; we soon find out however that he was being blackmailed by Baxter - which again goes in favour of the narrative.
Moving on to the technical and gameplay side of things however, things aren't as top notch. Firstly, a minor nitpick I had was the quality of visuals - especially in cutscenes. I never usually slate the degree of fidelity, however a great deal of the game was suffering from 'The Amazing Spiderman 2 syndrome', and that isn't a good thing for the users of next-gen consoles such as myself. Besides this tiny issue, I frequently encountered glitches (such as my objective on the pause screen reading "exit the attic" for nearly the entire game, as well as Ronan suddenly refusing to move or solve a side mission), despite being solved with a simple reboot, I found these to be fairly inconvenient and are therefore worth addressing.
The main gameplay consists of walking around the mazed town of Salem (Ronan is unable to walk through the outside walls of buildings due to preordained supernatural barriers - blah blah blah), which acts as a hub to connect with each mission location. Wherever the investigation takes place in the story, Ronan can then proceed to walk through the inner walls of buildings (something I found strangely liberating) from one crime scene to the next. The detective mechanics involve our protagonist observing clues (as he can't physically touch them - obviously) or possessing an NPC in order to read their mind of vital clues. Despite the concept of solving crimes by piecing together the clues in Ronan's head, the detective aspect of the game is far too easy - clearly the developers intended on lowering the challenge in order for the gameplay to flow better with the story.
Finally we come to the "combat". Throughout Salem, the player can encounter Demons: souls (forming a somewhat resemblance of a Dementor) which have been driven insane by their time in limbo - this basically means they are evil. In order to overcome these foes, Ronan must be stealthy by remaining undetected within the residue of other ghosts in addition to creating distractions before sneaking up behind the Demon to finish it. This part of the game was by no means perfect mainly due to clunkiness and limited options; also the scare factor of these creatures was overruled by the 'death' system - since Soul Suspect lacks that much challenge, I didn't really fear dying as such.
Overall, Murdered: Soul Suspect is a unique and memorable experience with unjust criticism. I believe the main reason for this was possibly due to the expectations surrounding it being that of a high-end action-blockbuster, whereas on the other hand I perceive Soul Suspect as a rather clever point and click adventure with a few b-movie elements thrown in there, and I don't see why it can't gain a cult status in years to come. By no means is it perfect in terms of gameplay and overall quality, nevertheless the compelling narrative outweighs this along with its twists - making it worth a definite purchase after a price reduction.
7/10: Good!
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