Shadows of Doubt Review – Indie gaming at its finest

Shadows of Doubt has released into 1.0 from a reasonable stint in early access, so how does it measure up as a finished product? Short answer: it absolutely rules. Read on to hear our thoughts in this Shadows of Doubt review.

Gameplay

Shadows of Doubt has a totally unique gameplay loop, and a host of well implemented gameplay mechanics that really tie the entire experience together. Shadows of Doubt is, at its core, a mystery game. But unlike your Painscreek Killings or your Nancy Drew's, Shadows of Doubt is an open world sandbox set in a procedurally generated cityscape, with procedurally generated... everything.

The citizens themselves, the layouts of buildings, the businesses, and of course, the murders. Not a single thing in the cities of Shadows of Doubt is the same between generations, unless you elect to play the pre-generated mystery 'Dead of Night', which serves as a tutorial. This generation isn't always... perfect, and there are plenty of bugs associated with this system, but it's generally solid for the most part.

Murder investigations are the 'main' objectives you'll be doing in Shadows of Doubt, and there are several types of murders that can be committed. There's everything from your classic corporate ladder climbing murders, to the public statements, to the apartment and rooftop snipers. Each of these murder types have slightly different ways of approaching them, but ultimately the loop tends to be relatively samey.

Whilst the slight variations can help prevent the game from feeling stale too quickly, after 60 hours or so, you can sort of... run out of things to be shocked by. Thankfully, the side cases really help lift Shadows of Doubt out of these repetitive moments, and there's some great variation with them. Investigating cheating spouses? Public humiliation? Outsourced arrests? There are loads on offer, and they can feel just as rewarding spiritually and materially as the murder cases.

Shadows of Doubt also has a sort of... extra gameplay path that happens to be my personal favorite. It's the grand larceny and grievous bodily harm path, in which you break into people's apartments, rob them blind, and if someone dares try to stop you, you knock 'em out by throwing a fire extinguisher at their head.

But seriously, the stealth, hiding, lock picking and theft mechanics here are stupid fun. If you want to decorate your apartment with some clutter, like a teapot, why not just go and rob one of the hundreds of apartments for one? Aside from that, you'll be breaking into apartments and businesses a lot for murder investigations, so having challenges like evading cameras, climbing through vents, hiding under beds and desks, and finding codes to open personal safes really elevates the investigation process above simply scanning for fingerprints.

There are even more mechanics to change the way you play, such as the social credit perks you earn for completing cases, or the Sync Disks you can buy, steal, or be rewarded for jobs with. Sync Disks are a super unique and complex system, in that they act less like flat out 'upgrades' and more like modifiers. There are some that grant flat buffs of course, such as increased inventory space, or melee damage, but there are also stranger ones. One allows you to, I kid you not, commit insurance fraud; another increases your height, providing zero benefits whatsoever; one gives you a few Crows every time you throw your trash into a dumpster. This system doesn't encourage wildly different play styles as you'd expect from a traditional RPG, but it does encourage you to get into new, albeit quirky, habits. And personally, I think that's a far better way to immerse the player in the world. (I'd strongly suggest finding the Sync Disk which increases your height, and upgrading it all the way. You'll be too tall for virtually every door frame, so you'll get into the habit of crouching everywhere like some weird detective golem.)

Shadows of Doubt is simply too expansive and wildly immersive for me to discuss everything you can do in your time as a Private Eye, and that's a good thing.

Score - 4.5/5

The World

Whilst each of your runs on Shadows of Doubt may take place in a procedurally generated city, the general vibe of each city remains the same. Shadows of Doubt has a very retro-futuristic feel to it, like something straight from an Asimov or Kuttner novel.

Sync Disks aren't your Cybernetics à la Cyberpunk, but they are proof that in the world of Shadows of Doubt, we've mastered the genome. Computers exist (they're called 'Number Crunchers'), but the v-mail system you'll see used isn't the e-mail you know and love, it's a series of pneumatic tubes that send printed messages to other Number Crunchers.

Frankly, touches like these don't get discussed enough with Shadows of Doubt. It's hard for people in our modern age to imagine retro-futurism like Asimov used to, because we're in the future he imagined. But Shadows of Doubt really does manage to capture that unique and sadly underused setting.

Alongside this, the way the world exists around you sells this outstanding vibe even more. People live their lives, regardless of your input. They go home, they watch TV (which themselves have written and voiced TV segments which are great to listen to in your downtime), they go to bed, and they wake up and go to work. They'll shop for groceries, go to drink at bars, and occasionally commit light murder. The city feels alive because it simply is; there are hundreds of citizens in each world generated, and you can listen to all their conversations and arguments as you sit in vents waiting for them to go to bed so you can arrest one of them and beat the other with a hammer.

In addition to this, there are just little pieces of personality in each home, or business. Shopping lists written on fridges; love letters left for their partners; bouquets of flowers from mysterious individuals hinting at a darkness in the walls of that home; knives and rifles. Each apartment, each staff desk, is packed with the personality of the person it belongs to.

Sure, eventually you'll start to see patterns, but with this much variety on show, it'll be a while before you do. Overall, the world of Shadows of Doubt only boosts the already strong core loop by being genuinely engaging to walk around in.

Score - 5/5

Visuals & Performance

Shadows of Doubt takes a voxel art approach to its setting, and much like Cloudpunk, another gritty mystery indie title, it's a great fit. This isn't to say it's doing something extremely new here, I just find it to be the best choice for a game of this caliber. The assets, citizens, and set dressing all looks splendid, despite being made up of pixels (or at least appearing that way).

The atmosphere though is different, and really sets this game apart. Lighting in this game plays a big part in that, portraying the moodiness wonderfully. There is a really simple joy in turning off every light in a home, closing all the blinds, and turning on the TV. The dull white glow combined with the distant ambience of humming refrigerators and clocks really do sell the vibe of a gritty, sometimes silly, detective game.

Performance wise, Shadows of Doubt can struggle at times, especially early or late in a play session (saving and reloading can help with the latter). Honestly, it has a shocking lack of graphical settings, but it does have full DLSS support, which is a really nice touch here as it can really aid some of the chop.

With an RTX 3060 12GB, i7-4790K, 32GB DDR3 RAM at 2133MHz (I know, I know), and Samsung SD 980 SSD, on average, I was rocking 60 frames per second (with V-sync on), playing in 2K, with DLSS set to Balanced. (Graphics settings don't matter much here, having little to no impact on performance.) When the game did start to chug along a bit, it would often drop to around 45-50 frames per second (fps), and had quite notable stuttering. This was mostly in areas with a high amount of NPCs and interactive objects (i.e. city streets). I imagine this is due to the simulation complexity, and my aging CPU may be the culprit here.

I also tested with V-Sync off, with DLSS set to performance mode. This boosted my frames up to around 70fps indoors, and around 55-62fps consistently when in areas with high numbers of NPCs and interactive objects. This did mitigate some of the more notable frame drops, but DLSS in performance mode can make this game look rather blurry, especially because of the voxel art style. Playing in higher resolutions can certainly negate this issue, but 2K was what my system was comfortable with.

Ultimately then, Shadows of Doubt performs well, especially considering the simulation complexity running in the background here. The occasional stutters and frame drops don't really take from the experience all that much, and for it to run this well on an aging system is a good sign indeed. However, some additional graphical settings might not go amiss.

Score - 4.5/5

Final Verdict

Shadows of Doubt has been one of my favorite indie releases ever. I have sunk a great many hours into this title since its launch into early access, and I've already sunk many more in with its full release version (with a lot more to come). An extremely addictive and satisfying core gameplay loop combined with exceptional gameplay, immersion mechanics, an outstanding setting, and a strong, fitting visual style make this an indie title for the history books. There is nothing like this out there, and I'd be shocked if there's anything like this again.

[Disclosure: A free copy of the game was provided to PGG by the publisher for review purposes.]

If you've enjoyed this review, and you're looking for some more detective mystery goodness from us here at Pro Game Guides, check out our Nancy Drew Midnight in Salem Walkthrough!