Shadows of Doubt - Film Noir, The Video Game
Minecraft Steve is the new Sherlock Holmes
Among many of the weird interests I have, Film Noir is one of the most recent. After watching The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep on Turner Classic Movies, I found myself enjoying the cynical detective stories of Hollywood’s golden age. The puzzle of “who dun it,” has always been a fun one to watch, and for games like Among Us, even more fun to play.
And yet like many games, video and board, there’s always a heavy emphasis on the social aspects. You must read the other players, create motives out of thin air, extrapolate reasoning from incomplete facts, and more. It’s fun, but what about taking that experience outside of the lobby and table?
That’s where Shadows of Doubt comes in. This noir voxel game that looks like Minecraft had a baby with Humphrey Bogart is a beautiful showcase of what marrying procedural generation and mystery can result in. The game’s robust options for character creation, game modifiers, and player choice is all wrapped up in a package that is begging to be opened and explored.
You can start the game off in the tutorial, or via random seed, where crimes will procedurally generate and you’re tasked with solving them. In the tutorial, you wake up in your apartment, and after investigating a note slipped under your door, you discover there’s been a murder. Get your corkboard out and your red string, we’re going full Pepe Silvia to solve this heinous crime. Pin profiles on citizens, notes, fingerprints, photos, print outs of receipts, YOU NAME IT. Use your conspiracy theory skills you learned on Twitter to figure it all out. Start tailing people, bribing them, breaking into their houses, hell you can even murder other people if that’s your angle.
There’s so many ways to approach the investigation that you could, like I did, discover ways the tutorial doesn’t even clue you in on, like talking to neighbors of the victim.
What I really love about this game is its ability to be a video game and also a serious detective simulator. Open every door, cupboard, vent, and safe. Turn on the TV and faucets. Flush the toilet. Take a shower. Arrest a random person to interrogate them when they have absolutely no fucking clue about what is happening. Shoot. Kill. Steal.
Oh and also the President of the fictional government is called Starch Kola.
Oh and also the victim was murdered inside their apartment for knowing too much.
There’s a ton of experiences within the game that I’ve yet to explore and encounter, like making enough money to buy a new apartment, or retire. But if any of the Steam reviews are to go by, you can find yourself choosing some interesting career paths…
I never investigate murders. I just break into homes and steal money.
Because I can. I love freedom.
- ouamco