Shadows of Doubt Reviews
Ingenious, unstable, and uncompromising in pursuit of its goals, Shadows of Doubt truly is the ultimate hard-boiled detective sim.
One part detective sim and one part chaos generator, Shadows of Doubt lives up to its influences as an immersive sim that actually makes good on its ambitions.
What emerges is a genuinely impressive engine for generating narratives somewhere between Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick, but riddled with errors and overlooked features.
Being a hapless detective in this superior cyber-noir will see you battle with your own brain as well as the game's bugs. Just try not to break into the wrong apartment.
Shadows of Doubt may have a few problems that hold it back, but it's easily one of the most ambitious and exciting games of the year so far.
Shadows of Doubt is an incredibly smart and intricate detective thriller, giving you tons of freedom that can be both a blessing and a curse.
Shadows of Doubt is not an investigative experience I would recommend to everyone. Still, if you love gritty, procedural, and remarkably free games in their approach, you can't miss it.
Review in Italian | Read full review
A clever and unusual indie detective story, but the emphasis on clunky stealth and samey cases quickly saps your enthusiasm for the pixelated noir setting.
How much potential is there in Shadows of Doubt's ideas, its noir setting, and the special way it lets us experience firsthand every aspect of an investigator's daily life? Too bad for the bugs, for sandbox cases that are less convincing than scripted ones, and for a sensational concept that isn't fully exploited.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Shadows of Doubt is an intricate simulation of a grim corporate world that handles player freedom on a level you rarely see. The fascination wears thin as you delve deeper into the seedy underworld, but the initial intrigue alone is worth the price of entry.
Shadows of Doubt as an idea is incredible; even the PC version of the game is fantastic; the console version, however, is riddled with issues that make it almost unplayable in its current state.
Shadows of Doubt has some interface design issues, needs to fix its bugs, and is far from friendly to its audience. But he is so brilliant in the execution of his proposal of narrative freedom in solving riddles that he deserves to be celebrated, especially in times when safe sameness seems to guide the market towards repetition and superficiality.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Find clues, solve cases, and explore this dystopian future in one of the most unique immersive sims currently available for console.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Shadows of Doubt isn’t just another detective game, it’s an open-world, first-person noir experience that gives you all the tools to be the grizzled detective you’ve always wanted to be. From breaking into apartments under the cover of darkness to sleuthing through classified government information, the game offers a staggering level of freedom.
Close your eyes for me. Now imagine you’re walking down a dimly lit alley, the cold, damp air clinging to your skin like a bad memory. A flickering streetlamp buzzes overhead, casting jagged shadows that dance in the mist. Out of the corner of your eye, you catch the movement of a figure in a nearby window, fleeing like a ghost. Before you can react, they vanish, leaving the alley in a tense silence. You sprint toward the building, your gut twisting in suspicion. As you push open the door, the smell hits you. Inside, sprawled across the floor in a pool of blood, lies a body. Lifeless. Now open your eyes. You’re now back in the real world where you didn’t experience any of that. And that’s a bit like what playing Shadows Of Doubt on PlayStation 5 is like. It’s genuinely heart-breaking to say this, but in its current state, I cannot recommend Shadows of Doubt on console. There’s an amazing game here, but the technical problems are simply too big to ignore. It’s not just a matter of a few bugs. It feels like the game was released in an unfinished state on consoles. These issues constantly get in the way of enjoying what could otherwise be one of the most immersive and addictive games of the year. As it stands, I have no choice but to award Shadows of Doubt the Broken Thumb Culture Award.
Shadows of Doubt is simply brilliant, with its sleuthing gameplay loop proving clever, creative, and unpredictable in design to ensure that each case you solve will keep you fully immersed in its fascinating world. I was constantly amazed at how deep each case would go, and with cities on offer that are packed with citizens to interrogate and locales to explore, it’s hard not to feel blown away by the scale of it all. I haven’t played anything quite like it before, and whilst it does have some imperfections and some cases can leave you flummoxed for a little longer than I’d have liked, Shadows of Doubt offers the best representation of ‘solving a murder’ that I’ve EVER seen in gaming.
Playing detective has never felt so organic! The procedurally generated map, which can be explored completely freely, offers a wide variety of ways to track down a perpetrator - or to end up in a dead end. Gameplay systems centred around stealth, profiling and physical confrontations and status effects, a social credit system or upgrading implants create a depth of gameplay that is unheard of in this genre. However, one drawback is the repetitive process of filling in the form at the end of the case. Shadows of Doubt is unfortunately still full of bugs and glitches in its current state, but this should be tolerated in case of the first fully-fledged sandbox detective game.
Review in German | Read full review
An extremely addictive and satisfying core gameplay loop combined with exceptional gameplay, immersion mechanics, an outstanding setting, and a strong, fitting visual style make this an indie title for the history books. There is nothing like this out there, and I'd be shocked if there's anything like this again.
Shadows of Doubt should be great. A lack of variety leads to repetition so quickly that I can’t recommend this 1.0 and console release. If the devs continue supporting the game with new content, especially something more directed like the tutorial mission, then it could potentially become an indie classic. For now, though the game is a mere shadow of its potential.