Don’t Sleep on Shadows of Doubt! – UPDATED

Featuring a unique mix of hand-crafted design and procedural generation, the detective stealth game Shadows of Doubt is one not to be missed.  

Update 30/09/23 Cheats and Liars DLC 

Our favourite detective sim is back with its first major content update! Shadows of Doubt captured our attention earlier this year thanks to its incredible procedurally generated sci-fi noir aesthetic and addictive gameplay. Launched earlier this week as a free content update, Cheats and Liars brings a love affair and grand hotel for us to investigate. 

Cheats and Liars also introduces quality of life improvements, including bug fixes and even support for NVIDIA DLSS! 

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In this update, we’ll check into the Grand Hotel to investigate an infidelity, monitor the accused, and uncover evidence of a sordid relationship. Whilst at the hotel, why not check out its facilities? Relax at the rooftop bar or marvel at the crystal chandelier in the majestic lobby. The Grand Hotel is ours to explore and uncover. 

With brand new NPC interactions and dialogues, including the ability to directly accuse your suspect and place them in handcuffs, Shadows of Doubt is once again living rent-free in our heads. You can check out our original Shadows of Doubt review below or jump straight into the games latest update on Steam with 20% off until October 2^nd. 

Launching April 24^th on Steam, Shadows of Doubt is the detective game I didn’t know I needed. Set within a hyper-industrialised 1980s alternate reality, the game’s party trick is its procedurally generated world capable of living on with or without you.  

Each citizen has a home, daily routine, job, and even a favourite thing to do. They’ll go about their lives independently of what you do. Thanks to Shadows of Doubt’s procedural generation, every room and  building can be explored with incredible attention to detail. You’ll find clues, passwords, and even the odd victim or two.  

Gameplay  

From the get-go, Shadows of Doubt provides an eerie atmosphere, with the game’s main menu soundtrack hitting the nail directly on the head. Shadow of Doubt’s tutorial is a specially crafted case designed to introduce the game’s mechanics, which set the tone for the rest of the gameplay experience. The incredible sound design only gets better from here! Everything from our footsteps, the ticking of the clock, the phone ringing, and the raging storm outside works together to ground us in the world’s aesthetic within just the first moments of the tutorial.   

After a phone call with no one on the other end, a note telling us to find Okello Sow is shoved under our door, and the game is afoot (channelling my Sherlock Holmes here. How am I doing?)   

With a quick peruse of the Cities directory, we have an address for an Okello Sow. It’s time to hit the street, but not before lockpicking our old police gear from a box in the closet. Lockpicking was the only part of the game that felt like a bit of a letdown. Rather than a mini-game, all you need to lockpick is the required amount of bobby pins.  

Characters is a place where Shadows of Doubt excels. No doubt, thanks to the game’s procedural generation, when creating a new world, every person you come across will have something interesting about them. Maybe they look ‘interesting’, maybe they frequent a shady establishment, or just maybe they’re a killer.  

Our character is no different. Whilst there isn’t extensive customisation, the inclusion of a non-binary player option is a welcome one. There is also a pretty large selection of skin tones to choose from.  

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Shadows of Doubt looks to be a streamer’s delight. Not only does the game offer endless opportunities for chat to get involved to figure out whodunnit, but the addition of dedicated streaming options is the icing on the cake.  

When enabled, you’ll come across familiar-sounding NPCs with Shadows of Doubt utilising your viewer’s names in game.  

Finally, the main highlight of the game is just how in-depth the private investigator gameplay mechanics are. With literally every building and room enterable alongside the game’s NPC’s all living fully simulated lives, you’ll need to think like a detective to solve the cases around you. Call histories, post-it notes, private emails, CCTV, and interrogations are all required to build a solid case.  

Just a couple of hours in, you’ll find yourself narrating your own actions, a glass of whiskey in hand. 

Shadows of Doubt PC Requirements 

We tested Shadows of Doubt at 1440p with Motion Blur and V-Sync disabled on an RTX 3070 and Ryzen 3600X combo. Throughout our time with the game framerates were stable, with the occasional dip below 60FPS in places. Knocking the world size up from the default will take a hot minute to load when first generating the world, but that comes with the territory of procedural generation.