Grab The Games: Murdered: Soul Suspect

 A spectacular supernatural mystery thriller told through the eyes of the dead, with some pretty sweet tattoos thrown in as well.

Alright so when I first started playing Murdered Soul Suspect I was a little concerned. Mysteries in games are always a hit and miss scenario, and I'm one of the people who wasn't a fan of the mystery in Heavy Rain because it was too slow for my liking.

Yet when I was playing through Soul Suspect the story got faster paced and I felt more and more compelled to keep searching, to keep looking for more clues and to find the damn fool who put 6 rounds through my chest.

From the start of the game, you're dead. This came as quite a shock for as I'd not done any reading up on the game. So as I frantically tried to get my soul back into my body before something bad happened I was quite amazed when my killer came along and put me down for good.

Upon losing my earthly body I found myself in the spirit world, nothing too big, just a bit of a ghost now, something our protagonist Ronan O Conner takes in his stride.

With nothing else to live for Ronan must pull up his ghostly stockings and embark on a quest to solve this mystery of who shot him, A little hard considering nobody can see or hear him.

The answer to your main question is yes, you can pass through solid objects as a ghost. This was the first thing I tried and when I found myself passing through people, cars, and dumpsters it was such a happy moment for me. You can't enter buildings through the walls, only if windows or doors are left open.

This is actually explained in a rather believable way in that the town has most of its buildings consecrated, meaning spirits cannot enter without a doorway or opening. It's a nice explanation and I'm glad they gave me one rather than just saying I couldn't do that.

The game takes place in Salem, a setting which at first I didn't think I'd like. I'm not such a fan of the clich and when I saw the setting and it said Salem USA in a subtitle during the opening I felt like I was going to be bombarded with witch hunt references and werewolves and all manner of Salem clich.

I was very surprised when Salem actually turned out to be a very calm setting. The heavy spiritual presence in the city does have something to do with the towns supposed supernatural connection but it didn't annoy me, in fact it kind of worked.

The spirit world is like an overlay on top of our own. Ghosts and other spirits wander the world seeking either unfinished business or just lollygagging around because they can. Certain buildings and items in the spirit world are the residue of buildings which suffered or have a connection to a lingering soul, such as burnt out buildings and wagons from the 1800s.

So the setting is great and the spirit world is a great place to explore with lots of collectables to go with it. What about the protagonist though? Again I found myself growing to like this guy a lot more than I thought I would.

So in the opening we see Ronan O'Conner has lived a rough live of crime until he met his wife Julia and he switched sides of the law. When Julia died he was deeply saddened. This already sounds cliché heavy but again he doesn't play like a typical widow.

As soon as the dead wife card was played I expected Ronan to be a broody guy who constantly sees things that remind him of his wife. How shocked I was when he was actually a funny character, he has a laugh and has comic moments. Whenever he's serious it's not always because he remembers his wife, he actually is interested in being a detective and helping others solve issues in their afterlives, so to speak.

Ok, so our protagonist is dead and he needs to find his killer. An odd way to start a story but it kept me enthralled. As a detective Ronan has the option of helping other ghosts find peace in death by helping them find any unfinished business they might have.

Now being dead and looking for clues would usually mean interacting with the environment, kind of hard if you've got no corporeal body. Luckily Ronan has some ghostly powers at his disposal to help him solve the mysteries.

Things like possessing the bodies of the living and allowing you to read their thoughts or forcing them to recall a specific moment can help trigger memories to lead to clues is how you interact with the living. Possession is a key skill for Ronan and a great ability to include in the game, it's one of the most iconic abilities that ghosts can do.

Ronan is still able to read notes left lying around, he's also able to recall spiritual residue from items like murder weapons and potential evidence to help in his investigation.

This, like possession, is a key feature. Recalling the residue of a bloodied machete or even just something so simple as a bouquet of flowers can give insight as to what was happened, what had happened, and help bring together the conclusion of any investigation.

Some clues are a little harder to find though, with moments of the past being imprinted on a building Ronan must guess why incidents happened, what caused them and all in the name of helping others.

When enough clues have been found Ronan can attempt to solve the mystery by putting a certain number of clues in the right order to solve the case, get it right the first time you get a higher detective rating.

It's a great system and searching around for clues and using your own judgement to piece the story together really does make you feel like a detective.
The story is simple and, like any good story and investigation, keeps evolving into something bigger and more extreme.

The spiritual side of the game mixes well with the mystery solving and detective aspects. They blend it so well with a likeable protagonist, a compelling and evolving plot, great ghostly abilities and fun moments to be had with NPC side quests.

There are some minor annoyances like the sheer amount of collectables there are to pick up, and some stealth sections and dealing with the denizens of the spirit world who want to eat your soul is rather annoying.

But overall the game is amazing. A compelling story with a few issues in the gameplay but worth it in the end.

8/10

Pros:

Amazing story

Great characters

Lots of collectable to keep you busy

The first time playing is amazing

Interesting cases to solve

You can possess a cat

Cons

There's no time like the first time

The character of Ronan might not appeal to all

The supernatural might not appeal to those looking for a hardcore detective experience.

Too many collectables

Nathan Dack