So something that dawned on me recently was that Airtight Games and Square Enix’s new game Mudered: Soul Suspect has gotten very little coverage from us and with the release date looming, and the fact that the game looks like it has a lot of promise I thought we could provide a little information for those that are interested and share what we know so far.
Murdered: Soul Suspect is set in a fictional version of Salem, Massachusetts, you play a Detective by the name of Ronan O’Connor (good Irish name there) who is investigating a recent homicide… his. That’s right, you play a ghost detective. It’s an interesting premise for a game and if you’re thinking “Hey, is this just going to be the game mix of the movies Ghost and R.I.P.D?” I wouldn’t bet on it. It looks decidedly grittier than those two movies, but I wouldn’t be opposed to a clay sculpting side mission.
Gameplay requires the player to investigate various crimes scenes and locations unearthing clues by possessing the living, seeing through their eyes to look at evidence and even subliminally planting thoughts and ideas in their heads to bring repressed or forgotten memories to the surface or by prompting them to speak to others to learn more. Supposedly though each crime scene only has one conclusion meaning there is no multilayer narrative to the story and that the game will play out in a linear fashion.
To help with your investigation, Ronan works with a girl named Joy who witnessed his murder and is also able to communicate with the dead. She is your Whoopi Goldberg. I’m not sure yet how the player will interact with Joy or what her gameplay mechanics will be but I’m sure it will be nice to have a little extra help along the way… especially with the demons in the afterlife wanting to eat your soul. Yup, demons. Being dead apparently doesn’t stop once your soul leaves your body, there’s still the risk of becoming doubly dead if a demon gets its claws on you. What follows from that, I’m not sure, but I don’t plan on finding out. I’m interested in seeing if the demons can affect Joy in any way or whether her interactions with the afterlife is limited to audio and visual.
Airtight Games have developed a couple of decent titles back on the PlayStation 3, Dark Void and Quantum Conundrum with Murdered: Soul Suspect being their first next-gen venture. Square Enix have published some great games recently including the Tomb Raider and DMC reboots which makes this game all the more appealing.
From what we’ve seen so far Murdered: Soul Suspect is shaping up nicely and is definitely on my hit list for the PlayStation 4. The game hits stores on June 6th so be sure to mark that date in your calendar.