Murdered: Soul Suspect

Murdered: Soul Suspect has a lot of great ideas, but none of them come together in a satisfying way.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the many problems in Murdered: Soul Suspect, but if you dig a little deeper, there's an interesting story to uncover.

And it's that underdog likeability that rescues Soul Suspect from the lower reaches of the score table. It's a Good 6, that delightful strata of games that stumble in the technical aspects, but compensate with personality and charm, somehow all the more enjoyable for their imperfections. I can't pretend that Soul Suspect is a particularly great game, but I do know that it's the sort of game I'll still remember - and remember fondly - in five years' time, which is more than can be said for most of its glossier rivals.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is awash in tropes, but somehow, that's part of the charm. It's a pulpy detective tale remixed as a classic ghost story, and it works as a sort of playable B-movie.

There are a few notable characters and story beats in Murdered: Soul Suspect, but they're completely overshadowed by unremarkable gameplay and shoddy production values.

Figuring out the identity of the Bell Killer is a mission well worth taking, even when the gameplay is trying to pull the experience down into hell

Like its protagonist, Murdered is dead on arrival. But if you do play it, gather an audience and have some fun. Sure, you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but it's the best way to endure this particular afterlife.

I truly wanted to like this game. It combines several of my favorite tropes and ideas into one cohesive whole, and I respect what it was trying to attain. But combining an underdeveloped hide-and-seek operation with a ghost story that seems ripped straight from a casual game isn't the way to hold my attention. It's a half-baked concoction full of lofty ideas that don't quite mesh well together topped with a fedora. And I don't think that's a confection anyone really wants to devour. Save this one for a rental.

The game tells an uninspired story by forcing you through a series of repetitive, bland, and unrewarding puzzles.

Less game and more interactive story, your enjoyment of Murdered: Soul Suspect will be directly proportional to how much you buy into the tale that it tells. Those looking for a title with engaging gameplay will be sorely disappointed by the lack of challenge, boring stealth, and hunt the clue investigations. But if you can overlook its shortcomings and throw yourself headlong into the fiction, you might just find a detective yarn with a supernatural twist that'll keep you engaged until justice is done.