A detailed glimpse at upcoming current-gen title Murdered: Soul Suspect has left me dying to know more about this fascinating new IP co-developed by Square Enix Japan and Airtight Games.
Detective Ronan O’Connor’s latest murder case poses unique challenges. After all, he’s the victim. After a plummet from a high window onto hard asphalt and seven bullet wounds for good measure, Ronan finds himself in the shadowy limbo of Dusk, a spectral world overlapping the living one, inhabited by ghosts and the echoes of memories and events. And like any ghost with unfulfilled goals, Ronan can only move on by settling his affairs — in his case, finding the mysterious killer who put him into the grave by investigating Salem’s netherworld and influencing the actions and thoughts of the living who can no longer hear him.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXhUV8Ycdug[/youtube]
Soul Suspect is exactly what I’d like to see in a new IP: innovative, imaginative, and ambitious. The premise is captivating, crime and ghost stories go together hand in hand. The art style is a powerful mixture of gothic and noir, and from Ronan’s very first appearance on-screen, I wanted to know more about this tattooed, smartly-dressed detective.
The gameplay revealed in the press demonstration was an eclectic mixture of more mundane investigative skills and the powerful new abilities available to Ronan in his disembodied state. Some clues were pieced together through simple analysis of the evidence, but others were accessed by possessing witnesses and perpetrators to hear their thoughts, see through their eyes, eavesdrop on conversations, or make them act. Combat was quite bare-bones (a simple case of stealth and avoidance), but more detail was promised. Also intriguing were the various interactions Ronan could have with Salem’s bustling population of wandering ghosts.
Murdered: Soul Suspect will be available early 2014 on the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
