Shadows of Doubt

Oh how much I want to like this game... It has so much potential. A very solid premise, setting, systems but it is wasted on the utter jank that is the gameplay. I understand that this game uses procedural generation but it breaks immersion every couple minutes. Emails are always the same, letters are always the same, murders are (almost) always the same, every conversation goes the same way, side jobs and murder cases constantly bug out and you get stuck with them, they can be insanely difficult like "find someone who has size 9 shoes" or "beat up this 45 year old person with a large build" when everyone looks the fuckin same. Sometimes you do get lost in the world when the game works but it very rarely does and every time it just pulls you straight out with a giant slap in the face. Unless this game gets some major overhauls, better premade cities (for those who want a more polished experience) and greater variety, I would wait for a giant sale or skip this one.

There is no right way of solving a case. Stuff just happens and it doesn't care if you get it or not. You're not a detective mastermind and all respect is earned. + immersive atmosphere + good music and sound design + getting drunk - lack of interesting characters - some minor technical difficulties

I do recommend, but devs, please, for the love of god, dont abandon the game, it has pottential and a lot of issues you could easily fix.

its sad to say due to bugs after 70 hours played this is currently unplayable. i cant make a new game without the game being insanely bugged. not playing with any mods either

I used to love playing this game, and I came back to it recently. I have no idea what they've done but the updates have made this practically unplayable. The AI feels a lot more janky, the game is riddled with bugs, and the rain causes insane FPS drops (I'm talking like 5 FPS). It rains a LOT in this game, and removing rain detail does not seem to help. This game is conceptually great, has amazing atmosphere and world-building, and it's a lot of fun. But I find it baffling that this update was released in its current state. You only need to play for like 5 minutes before your game comes grinding to a halt because the raindrops make your detective have a seizure.

The game is unfortunately not optimized, so please be mindful when getting it, i still play with low setting and get lags and freezes. I wish the devs could fix it instead of just releasing random updates.

Games gets boring, simple and repetitive after a few hours. This game should never have been fully released it can use a lot more content.

This game has absolutely consumed me. It's absolute crack for an ADD IT supporter like me.

Awesome potential. Unfortunately the dev decided to push 1.0 too early. While he is slowly pushing more updates, I am assuming he will release the steam workshop update then abandon the game altogether. I prefer to judge games as they are. The game just seems a bit unfinished.

This game is an interesting one, it certainly took risks and tried something I really hadn't seen before. Really ambitious and creative idea. I was, however, extremely surprised when I saw the "1.0" announcement. It feels like it needs a lot more time to cook. The Good: - Exploring is a lot of fun. Given that you can play in randomly generated cities, you're never 100% sure what you're going to find the first time going into any location. - You're very free to approach cases your own way. There's no preset storyline that you're being forced onto, or single method to solve something. You look at your evidence and tackle the case the way you want - The atmosphere is so good. So grungy, so dystopian, but also just a tiny bit of silly that makes it fun. - If you like stealth, you'll probably like it. Disarming security systems, avoiding the gaze of passerbys, dodging security lasers. Sooner or later you'll find yourself desperately hiding under a bed as a homeowner comes home at the wrong time, hoping you took a shower after you rustled around in that last garbage can. The Bad - The biggest problem for me is that motive is not really a factor in the crimes you're solving, at least not in any I got. Solving a crime is fun, but it feels strangely hollow when there's no real reason behind any of it. You find a randomly generated person with no real back-story or personality, who killed another randomly generated person with no real back-story or personality. Why did they do it? Who knows, certainly not the game. You found them by matching fingerprints and going through the phonebook, there's no juicy backstory to unveil. - Because of the randomly generated nature of cases, some are just borderline impossible to solve. It's not the end of the world, but is frustrating. - The game gets repetitive fast. It wasn't long before I felt I was just doing a handful of things over and over to solve every case. Truthfully, I found this game novel for a short period of time, but the bad quickly outweighed the good. I'm excited for what this game will inspire others to create in the future, but it feels more like a first prototype of something big than a polished product.

Game has some problems, but the story this games creates are unreal, and make it one of if not these best detective game i have ever played.

A very competent detective simulator. I only played on largest cities and with very long campaign progression and it's very satisfying to manouver through huge numbers of strangers. All of them have their own agendas, making it tricky to find the one person you're looking for. It's a lot of legwork, sometimes annoyingly so, but it's super satisfying when you finally crack that case that previously seemed impossible. There are some bugs but not that many, and they are usually fixed by reloading. Most importantly, I can't think of any other game that really lets you feel like a private investigator as well as this one. For that feeling alone, it's a worthy recommendation. The fact that it's good and offers countless hours of entertaiment makes it an even bigger recommendation. Side note - I love the show they play on the TVs in this game, always stop by to listen to the latest development haha.

getting aggroed way to easy, alarms going off cuz theres 17 cameras in a kidnapper victims apartment at 2 in the morning and the whole entire complex hops in to your beat ass every single time i try to give this game another chance it comes down to the stupid AI seeing through walls and ruining the experience, i give up trying

[h1] Peak detective gaming [/h1] This great game has it's fair share of bugs that can make your experience pretty annoying at times. But if you can overlook those, trust me it's peak. Not just peak in detective games, but it is just an amazing experience. The whole visual style, and theme and world that the game has, it is charming, beautiful and everything you'd expect from a classic detective bust the mysteries game. It is also sandbox, you can do a bunch of things and honestly, sometimes I just love sitting at a diner smoking, and wandering around looking for interesting side hustles. If you really wanted to, you can meta the game and learn how to solve every case with like 3 key points, but it takes the fun out of it. To enjoy the game at it's best, imo it's with roleplaying. Immersing yourself with it and having to figure things out over time and experience. There are cases that are hard, and you need actuall critical thinking, or even better, think who would've done it in real life. It just works. I got retirement, finished the game but I will keep playing. It's just that great.

Love this game very much. But I gotta be honest, it doesn't feel complete. Lots of bugs. Like having to start this game as an admin. Or it just freezes at startup. Rainfall sometimes make my fps drop so hard it becomes unplayable. Fast forwarding is too slow. too little dialogue options. Like im trying to save your friend from being kidnapped and the guy doesn't wanna say anything. When I cuff him, I still have to pay to get anything from him. Little details like this and some bugs keeps the game from being incredible. If this is v1, i will come back to it with v3 or v4. Devs pls don't abandon this game.

One of the best noir detective games I've played to date. This game has mastered the dark, dystopian, atmosphere.

In its core its a really fun game and the world feels alive because the world is so dense which makes it quite immersive. But the optimization is none existant i turned everything down and set upscaling to maximum performance (it doesnt make the visuals that bad since its already a pixelated game), one second you have 120 fps and another second you dip to 20 and this happens so frequently so you have to cap the fps to 60 or 30 so that its not that noticable, i have an arc b580 which is roughly equivelant to an rtx 4060. I cant stand any fps below 60 but this is the only game i liked that has poor optimization and thats impressive.

its fun and interesting, but theres no autosave. I solved a case and went for dinner, and i come back and im at the murder scene, aka my last manual save. there is also no "continue" option. if you dont save, the game gets deleted. when you enter the game, there is a continue button but you cannot click it. ive lost so many cases due to this. fix it please.

When I first picked up Shadows of Doubt, I was genuinely blown away. The detective sandbox concept, the atmosphere, the freedom in solving cases—everything about it felt new and exciting. As a first-time experience, it was honestly amazing. Easily one of my favorite games of that time (2024). But as the game got updated over the months, I started running into issues. Some of the patches and bug fixes ended up breaking my old saves. In those saves, core features like finding murder evidence just stopped working properly. Even when I started a completely new game, things sometimes went sideways after the first case—bugs popping up, logic breaking, suspects acting weird, etc. It’s frustrating because Shadows of Doubt has so much potential. The world it builds and the way it lets you approach cases is unmatched. Right now, the game needs more polish and stability. But despite that, I still recommend it. If you're into immersive detective sims and can put up with a few bugs here and there, this game is 100% worth trying. I really hope the devs keep pushing updates, because with a bit more refinement, this could be a true classic.

An spectacular game in general, amazingly immersive the whole way through. It’ll take some learning in the beginning but after that you'll realize the sheer depth and scope of the mechanics and world the game provides. The only weakness is the combat which is very clunky.

weird game, beautiful idea, better with mods. So gumshoe pull up a chair pour two fingers of whiskey and falsely accuse the neighbor of being the local serial killer only to find out they were assassins.

fun game, can be quite tricky. One problem I'm having is often falling out of the vents when entering an apartment, landing me outside the building, usually placing me in the hospital due to the injuries.

Very fun and intricate game. While there are some bugs and it isn't extremely polished and, obviously, not perfect, it is still a very fun experience. I also like the style of the game and enjoy how complex it is. Definitely recommend, likely the best detective game out right now.

I like I always do the be criminal strat (its fun, but it donty wotrk) fgun gamer

super fun detective game - but has some functionality issues if your computer isn't built for bulkier games. Would rate it 11/10 as it is extremely well designed and the concept of the game is chefs kiss.

The game offers a really interesting concept and the overall vibes/design are fun, however it is really difficult to get going with. Doesn't really explain how to go about things and it feels like you're dumped in the middle without much context of 'how' the world works to be able to complete investigations. Tried to push through to see if user error was a thing, and instead kept getting stuck in vents between apartments (first time I managed to wiggle out of the wall into the corridor, second time I fell into a random apartment, third time after finding the correct apartment the vent was directly beside the fridge and pushed me back into the vent, but unable to get out or crawl out). I also tried decorating my apartment and then got stuck on furniture (even once removed) and unable to interact with anything else. It happened after I'd purchased a computer, had to reload the game and it still charged me but the computer was nowhere to be found (inventory or not)... Really interesting idea but finding it difficult and demotivating to play. Completely understand games having bugs, especially indie games, but if this is the case, I really think a 'release' or 'respawn' button would be a good option to get around that.

A buggy game, but a really novel concept that's executed fairly well. The game isn't that deep, so you'll probably be done with it after "retiring" once or twice, but I fun immersive stealth sim in the mean time

I love this game because it checks so many boxes for me but I constantly have to save and reload because of bugs that pop up randomly. For example, I opened a drawer, saw an employee roster was inside, but it was both invisible and unclickable

Highly interesting and fun game. Lines of investigation track round the generated cities and make you truly explore your surroundings. The game becomes easier as you go due to sync disc upgrades, access to money and the increasing size of information you hold on all the citizens of the city.

new: The more I play this game the more frustrating it gets. A lot of systems don't function because of how the game is made. One little grain of sand can completely brick you and good luck finding it without spending a full day teaching yourself how this game's backend works. Then now that you understand it, you're disillusioned. The dev seems to prioritize emergent behavior rather than being willing to abstract things. So passing time happens like 3x faster than just watching paint dry. So if you're sleeping for 9 hours, you're gonna run out of paint. Reviewing your case data during this window pauses time. So you pretty much have to just stare at the black screen or else time won't move. That's just a small gripe. The biggest gripe is how fucking impossible it is to get a city that actually functions! I've made five cities and every single time I've needed to open up notepad to dig in the world and save data to resolve an impasse. It's insane. I will say though, you've heard of spaghetti-code? Well buckle up. This is what I would call rice-code. By all logic this should be excellent. But it just doesn't work. Idk. When it does, it's great. But the success rate is something like 30% and it's only a matter of time before you lose. I've never even retired on a save because I have to keep abandoning cities when the game breaks. And here I always thought I just lacked the stomach for detective work. Turns out I suck at it too. But this game is a lot of fun for the detective stuff. Alternatively, you can be a thief, or a thug, or you could even be beholden to the evil mega-corp again and sell soda while you arrest people on their behalf. Who cares what they did, these jobs are $$$. You want to play a pacifist detective? You got it. Loose cannon detective? Go do it. Violent burglar? Don't let your dreams be dreams. Sneak Thief? JUST DO IT! A street rat? Idk why but go for it. Hell you can even just walk around and beg for change while homeless. There are no rules! Oh wait, yeah there are. You can't defend yourself from a mugging or everyone will draw guns on you. You can't use a gun yourself because the devs said so. You can't go to the police station, that's a terroist attack. new closing: Honestly, dude. I wanted to love this game and I gave it an insane amount of time. But I wouldn't even say I got my money's worth out of this because literally 70% of my playtime has been troubleshooting, generating maps, and cross referencing data from world/save files. You might say "well, Jimmy. That's actually still 30 hours." and I would say "here's my wig guy, knock yourself out."

I have closer to 35 hours offline on steam deck, playable but should not be verified. On lower settings under certain weather conditions the frames drop to teens and 20s. So be warned. It needs optimization. The game itself when it works is great. There are a ton of ways to solve cases and play how you want but I've heard of lots of bugs thankfully that I haven't had to deal with. It scratches an itch that I didn't realize I needed scratched. Patience, Investigation,Puzzle solving and Shananigans. With old school stealth gameplay and light rpg elements with a touch of hobo simulator. They need to add the ability to kill npcs and a hard-core permadeath/prison mode to make it a bit more exciting. IMO.

I rarely write reviews but this game warrants it. Imagine if Minecraft, Guess Who, Cluedo and L.A. Noir had a lovechild. That will give you some idea of what this game is about. If you were a big fan of L.A. Noir but disappointed by the obvious flaw, replayability, then this might be the game for you. The game has you play in a procedurally generated voxel city with a variable number of inhabitants all with their weekly routines involving work, R&R, illicit activity and in the case of one - murder. You're tasked with investigating the crime scene and putting all of the clues together to finger a likely suspect with an aim to eventually leave the dystopian city. All events happen in real-time, which means you have to respond in real-time and can use that to your advantage to establish or eliminate alibis. Hopefully the devs continue to expand and elaborate on scenarios in the future.

i want to play this game but no matter how many times i try it never opens i have played this game before but havent been able to in months

Without a shadow of a doubt, Shadows of Doubt has scratched the procedural mystery-solving genre itch I never knew I had. Is this game finished? No, there's absolutely potential for more content/features. Can the gameplay loop get repetitive? Sometimes; I played the majority of my hours when it was in EA, but I revisit the game once in a while because every procedurally generated city has its own story to tell. I am giving it a thumbs up regardless because this is truly a unique game.

It runs like butty cheeks for a game made out of pixels, can't recommend it in it's current state

Game is unplayable, the performance is so bad that this game is basically useless. I really loved the game when I first played it and the performance wasn't absolute crap. Do not waste your money.

Got beat up by some lady with a shotgun while waiting for a suspect to arrive, 10/10 would recommend, put me into incredible medical debt.

Knocked someone out with a door, the other with a hammer, stole their milk, then got killed by enforcers in a shoot-out. 10/10

Played it for multiple hours wasn't able to solve a single case however I was able to consume drugs and alcohol 10/10 game.

[h1]Profoundly dogshit optimisation[h1] This game cannot provide a smooth experience even on top-level GPU's (tested on RTX 2080 and 4090 separately). You would expect the voxel-like graphics to (hopefully) keep the game optimised, but in truth I believe the issue is due to light baking being totally non-existent within the scope of a fully generated map, a hurdle which I can appreciate. However, if that is the case, then why not add an option to disable this shitty lighting and shaders to begin with? This game won't just lag or slow down - it will geniuelly freeze for half-a-second every time you even think of holding the shift key outside; As if the game literally has to come to a momentary stop to think "Uuuh... where the fuck do I put the lights now?". In truth, I might be very wrong. Both about the piss-stained optimisation and about the origin of why the game actively chooses to freeze on good hardware. Despite this it ruins a lot of the experience I can have with a game. It is very unique with how much it allows you to do, and it is cool. Add sex and I might call it peak.

That's cold, throwing my office chair out the window. Just picked my chair up and threw it out the window.

· Picked up a job specifically asking for a discreet individual to recover a stolen item and destroy it · I accepted due to the large reward and personal upgrade it would give me · Go to a drop zone where I found a brief case, inside was only a phone number and the letter a for their initial · Screw it. I look through the phone book · There are 23 Individuals with the first initial · I mark down their addresses and call the number, the thief picks up which tells me they are home · I go to my first address and bust down the door after nobody answered · Lights were on but thought nothing of it so I started searching the kitchen for some sort of identification · The inhabitant opened a door, the bathroom door, to find me like a deer in head lights · A fight ensues that escalates out into the hallway of the apartment to where an alarm was set and i knocked the tenant to the floor blood and teeth everywhere · With sirens blaring i haul the unconscious body of this unlucky lass to her apartment and id her as my thief. · Just my luck. 10/10

I've always wanted to rob someone, beat them up and then report them to the police. 10/10

best gimmick ever, worst execution ever Edit: nvm there's steam workshop now nvm i was looking at a different game there is no workshop

Completely lost interest after just 3 hours of gameplay. The case invastigation deck is more complicated then should be, doesn't really aid much. I was totally lost when after entering and leaving a personnel room of a restaurant, all the people eating there started to shoot and beat me. wtf Gave up on this after the 15th time cameras shot me down for unknown reason. Turned off sec, started to investigate, cams just turn themselves on and shoot me. so stupid

Actually great if you can get past the roblox graphics

Game controls like a brick and has fps issues on my 4060ti for what it looks like.

runs like shit, plays worse, save your cash.

Found some random store, robbed it then the owner started attacking me with a bat. So i found their address robbed them, threw all their chairs out a window and broke their door down 10/10 only solved the tutorial murder

- Voxel gfx might appeal to you or they might not. - Soundtrack plays rarely so there are long stretches of silence. - Gameplay is quite shonky with numerous item related bugs and very strange rules around case success criteria (e.g. I arrested a murderer but never got the 'tick' for it). - NPCs act in head-scratching ways that make it impossible to predict behaviour. People who've reported crimes and ask for my help then argue with me when I ask for their names or to access their homes to look for clues. Kidnap victims that won't tell me their names even as I try to save them and offer no dialogue options to discuss what happened to them. It's just all too random and that's not what you want when you're looking to solve crimes in a logical and methodical manner. - Quick save scumming can help to handle the randomness, but there's no Quick Load and reloading takes about 45 seconds to a minute given how badly the game seems to load into memory. - Nonsensical rules around how to behave. For example, want to search someone's home with them in it? No problem, knock door, wait for them to answer, hit them with a "sword" a few times to...knock them out (smh), search home, hit them a few more times every time they wake up, walk away when done, leave building and everything is forgiven and forgotten...go back, say hello and they completely forget that you were the maniac home invader from 5 minutes ago. - And on top of it all, the inventory system is incredibly painful: + Very few slots at start or even after upgrading. + Drop this to pick up that. + "Wearing" body armour takes up an inventory slot. + Every item regardless of size is one slot (and with so few slots, this is so annoying). + Disks and upgrades simply shouldn't take up slots. I know this appeals to some people and if you're one of them that's great, but for those considering whether to buy or not, know what you're getting into before you make a decision.