JOE has been possessing the people of Salem while looking for clues as a dead cop this past week, as we’ve been playing Murdered: Soul Suspect on the PS4.
Murdered: Soul Suspect sees gamers taking control of a recently deceased fedora-wearing, cigarette smoking detective called Ronan O’Connor in the infamous US town of Salem, Massachusetts.
Salem is the perfect setting for a game based around death and mistaken identity as it was the home of the Salem witch trials, which saw innocent people being killed after being falsely accused of witchcraft between February 1692 and May 1693. The witch trials of the 1600s also have a role to play in Murdered: Soul Suspect, but that’s enough about history for now…
The game was developed by Airtight Games and published by Square Enix, the same people that recently brought us Tomb Raider (review) and Thief (review), and if you were a fan of either of those two titles then you’re sure to enjoy Murdered: Soul Suspect.
Like Tomb Raider, there’s a lot of searching around for clues and hidden objects in Murdered: Soul Suspect, and while that’s exactly what you’d expect from a detective game, it can get a bit repetitive as there’s very little high-paced action to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Instead, Murdered: Soul Suspect aims to get your heart racing with creepy apparitions that pop up and disappear in an instant. It really does get a bit unnerving at times, especially if you’re wearing headphones while playing. One of the unique selling points of the game is the fact that you are a ghost that can walk through (most) walls and it works really well in fairness to the developers. You can also take control of a cat at certain points in the game, which we found to be incredibly fun, but unfortunately that only happens a handful of times and we felt the idea could have been utilised better.
Murdered: Soul Suspect sets out to be a thrilling murder mystery and while it successfully achieves this in some aspects you will have to do a fair bit of reading in order to keep up to date with the story. There are collectables to be found around the large map, but they only serve to inform the gamer on the events that have unfolded in Salem before, during and after the death of Ronan.
As the dead cop Ronan, it is your job to solve the Bell Murders committed by the relentless serial killer, known only as the Bell Killer. The Bell Killer is also responsible for Ronan’s death so there’s even more reason to catch the man (or woman) responsible. With that in mind, most of your time will be spent searching for clues and the only time that you have to face confrontation is with demons that roam around certain parts of the game. In order to ‘kill’ the demons, you have to sneak up on them, but this can be a tad difficult as Ronan can’t crouch or look around corners and can only run or walk, which can be a tad frustrating at times.
With that being said, if you take your time with the game and read up on the various events that have taken place then you’ll get lost in a deep story about love, loss and what could have been for Ronan. If you’re looking for a game that’s crammed packed full of non-stop quick-fire action, then we’d suggest Battlefield of CoD.
You can pick up your own copy of Murdered: Soul Suspect on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, and PC, from just €28.00 over on Littlewoods.ie. You can also check out Littlewoods Ireland’s great selection of video games & DVDs here.
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