Murdered: Soul Suspect
From: Square Enix
For: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Four and a half stars (out of five)
Being non-corporeal obviously poses a significant problem.
He soon meets the ghost of a little girl, who tells him those who die must complete their unfinished business before being able to finally be at peace.
Throughout Murdered you will encounter situations in which you must undertake investigations.
However, unlike LA Noire, being a ghost helps you endlessly.
You are able to effortlessly pass through walls, and possess nearby people.
While you possess them you can either read their minds or influence their behaviour and thoughts to benefit the investigation.
Actually, when you put that into words it sounds sort of creepy.
In between your investigations you will be travelling through a hub world of the town of Salem, which as I am sure you know is well known in supernatural lore with witches and whatnot.
Attached to this hub world are various locations which form the basis of your investigations.
However, it is not all smooth sailing as you encounter demons determined on devouring your soul as you progress through the game.
The demon combat is probably the most contentious part of this game.
The encounters are the same the whole game.
If you get seen by them or approach them from the front, you are toast.
You have to sneak up on them and do a quick time event to vanquish them.
I did not mind it, but I can see how the lack of progression and lack of enemy variants could wear thin.
The first demon is exactly the same as the last one.
When you have gathered your clues and fought off demons, the next job is to piece them together in the correct order.
This is actually brilliant; it encourages you to carefully consider what is relevant, and also in what order it is most relevant.
This becomes key when following the story which, being strongly influenced by supernatural elements, requires suspension of disbelief to properly enjoy.
If you get into it, the six-hour campaign will feel like 20 minutes.
It has been a while since a game has held me in suspense the way Murdered did, and the ending was terrific.
It was just so satisfying.
The omnipresent collectables actually serve a purpose as they tell unique (and often gruesome) stories.
You will actually want to collect them all, which is unusual these days.
If you like watching TV programmes such as CSI and NCIS, you will get a kick out of playing Murdered.
The satisfaction of piecing together evidence correctly and solving the mystery will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end.
If you are indifferent to those shows, Murdered is still well worthy of a look.
It is a strong contender for surprise hit of the year come the end of 2014.
• Simon Bishop
