Shadows of Doubt by ColePowered Games is a revolutionary game that merges elements of simulation, mystery, and cyberpunk aesthetics. Set in a fully simulated, procedurally generated city, the game places players in the shoes of a private investigator tasked with solving crimes in a sprawling noir metropolis. Combining sandbox gameplay with intricate detective mechanics, Shadows of Doubt stands as one of the most ambitious games in recent years. This review explores every feature in detail to uncover what makes this game a standout experience in its genre.
Overview of Shadows of Doubt
At its core, Shadows of Doubt is a detective simulation game where the player investigates crimes ranging from petty theft to gruesome murders. What sets it apart is its procedurally generated environment, ensuring that every city, citizen, and case is unique. The game unfolds in a cyberpunk-inspired world, filled with neon lights, gritty back alleys, and morally ambiguous characters.
Developer: ColePowered Games
Genre: Detective Simulation, Sandbox
Platforms: PC (Windows)
Release Date: April 2023 (Early Access)
From the moment you step into this world, the immersive atmosphere is palpable. The city is alive, teeming with citizens who have their own routines, jobs, and secrets, creating an unparalleled sense of realism.
Key Features of Shadows of Doubt
1. Procedural Generation
The game’s standout feature is its procedurally generated cities. Each playthrough offers a completely new metropolis, complete with unique architecture, NPCs, and crime cases. This dynamic generation ensures that no two playthroughs are alike.
Unique City Layouts: Streets, buildings, and interiors are randomly generated, offering endless replayability.
NPC Details: Every citizen has a job, daily routine, relationships, and even personal secrets.
Adaptive Gameplay: The procedural system tailors cases to the city’s layout and its inhabitants, creating a cohesive experience.
2. Deep Detective Mechanics
Being a detective in Shadows of Doubt isn’t just about piecing clues together; it’s about how you gather those clues. The game offers a range of tools and methods to solve crimes:
Evidence Collection: Fingerprints, footprints, security camera footage, and personal items can all be collected to build a case.
Infiltration and Espionage: Break into homes, offices, and secure facilities to uncover hidden clues.
Interrogation: Question NPCs to gather information, though their cooperation depends on your approach.
Caseboard System: A visual representation of your investigation, where you connect clues, suspects, and evidence.
This meticulous attention to detail ensures players feel like real detectives.
3. Open-Ended Gameplay
There is no “right” way to solve a case in Shadows of Doubt. The sandbox nature of the game allows players to approach investigations however they see fit.
Freedom of Choice: Sneak into a suspect’s apartment or bribe someone for information—the choice is yours.
Multiple Solutions: Cases can be solved using different methods, whether through brute force, careful deduction, or technological hacks.
No Handholding: The game provides minimal guidance, encouraging players to think critically.
4. Immersive Cyberpunk World
The cyberpunk setting adds a layer of intrigue to the game. The world is a blend of retro-futurism and noir aesthetics, characterized by:
Neon-Drenched Streets: A stark contrast between vibrant neon lights and the grimy underbelly of the city.
Complex NPCs: From corrupt officials to desperate citizens, every character has a role in the city’s ecosystem.
Moral Ambiguity: As a private investigator, you’re often faced with tough choices that test your ethics.
5. Replayability
The procedural generation and sandbox gameplay provide endless replayability. Each playthrough feels fresh, whether due to the unique city layouts, different NPC interactions, or new cases.
Gameplay Experience
Investigation Process
Every case begins with a crime scene. Your goal is to analyze the scene, gather evidence, and identify suspects. The caseboard becomes your best friend, allowing you to visualize connections between evidence, locations, and individuals. The thrill of piecing everything together feels immensely rewarding.
Infiltration and Exploration
Breaking into buildings is a core part of the gameplay. You’ll need to disable security systems, pick locks, and evade guards to uncover crucial evidence. This aspect of the game is reminiscent of immersive sims like Deus Ex or Dishonored, adding an exciting layer of tension.
Dynamic NPC Behavior
The citizens of the city follow their routines, making the world feel alive. However, their behavior isn’t static; they react to your actions. For example, if you’re caught breaking into someone’s home, they may become suspicious and even report you to the authorities.
Combat and Survival
While combat isn’t the primary focus, it’s present when situations escalate. You can use weapons or improvised tools, but stealth is usually a safer option. Balancing aggression with caution is key to surviving the city’s dangers.
Graphics and Sound Design
The voxel art style might seem simplistic, but it perfectly complements the game’s noir atmosphere. Shadows, lighting, and environmental details create a sense of tension and immersion. The sound design is equally impressive, featuring:
Ambient Tracks: Subtle background music that sets the tone.
Realistic Sound Effects: From footsteps to breaking glass, every sound enhances the experience.
Voice Acting: While minimal, it adds personality to key characters.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Unparalleled Freedom: Approach cases however you want, with no strict guidelines.
Highly Replayable: Procedurally generated cities and cases ensure every playthrough is unique.
Deep Detective Mechanics: The attention to detail in evidence gathering and clue analysis is unmatched.
Immersive Atmosphere: The cyberpunk world is rich and engaging.
Dynamic NPCs: A living, breathing city that reacts to your actions.
Cons
Steep Learning Curve: The lack of guidance can be overwhelming for newcomers.
Repetitive Tasks: Some mechanics, like breaking into buildings, can feel repetitive over time.
Performance Issues: Large, procedurally generated cities can strain lower-end systems.
Limited Combat: While functional, combat lacks depth compared to other aspects of the game.
Final Verdict
Shadows of Doubt is a groundbreaking game that pushes the boundaries of what detective simulations can achieve. Its procedurally generated cities, intricate detective mechanics, and immersive cyberpunk world make it a must-play for fans of mystery and sandbox games. While it’s not without its flaws, the sheer ambition of the project outweighs its shortcomings.
Whether you’re a seasoned detective or a newcomer to the genre, Shadows of Doubt offers an experience unlike any other. Its blend of freedom, challenge, and immersion ensures that you’ll be hooked from the very first case.
got a call telling me a murder happened on the top floor of a sky rise hotel. murder walks past me covered in blood and may as well of been wearing the victims face, i arrest the perp where everyone in the surrounding area decides to beat ten tons of sheeeeeeeet out of me 10/10 will play again
Very fun game, but the performance on bigger maps could be betterSadly, there are many ways you can cheese your way through an investigation, but if you play immersively it can be quite exhilirating trying to figure out who the culprit of a case isGot lots of hours on it, and I expect myself to get more as it is definitely a game I will boot up every now and then
Very good idea for a game. The execution was mediocre at best, and every time I tried to play it I ended up walking away from it frustrated.The game is riddled with bugs that never get fixed. There are lots of design decisions that are questionable at best. Cases re-use the same evidence, so when you've solved a case once, you already know how to solve it the next time in minutes with the fun ripped out of it. There are leftist identity politics in what is meant to be a film noir setting. Updates are unsubstantial with half-baked content that would take less than a month to implement, yet end up taking multiple months with delays on top of that.The game is as wide as an ocean, and deep as a puddle. I do not think these people are competent game designers [i]or[/i] developers. They are good at presentation, but you cannot save bad gameplay with good graphics. I'd be very happy if someone else made a better version of this game, but as it stands this game is not worth playing at all.
Only recommended on sale: while it's got a strong core idea/style, it's clear the early access success allowed them to simply stop working on the game early. First ten cases maybe max are really fun but the anemic and terrible dialogue, nonsensical motivations and etc end up making it unsatisfying and has little to no replay value.It IS funny realizing you can solve every mystery by being a coffee addicted hobo kicking in doors and hurling trash cans at everyone the victim ever spoke to, but that just makes for a funny moment in a youtube video and then it becomes kinda hard to ignore the jank.I hope the devs use the cashflow from this to make a "proper" successor since this has much bigger potential and if they don't make use of it, someone else certainly will
Love the idea, but the exucution isn't great. Only worth buying when it's on sale, unless you're fine with repetitiveness, bugs/glitches, and lazy modifiers. The game does visually look very good, though
I really want to like this game as it's such a promising idea but the execution is so half-baked it's impossible to play without getting frustrated. The developer made some terrible design decisions early on and rather than taking the time to resolve them, they rushed 1.0 so they could cash out and walk away.While there has been a few updates since 1.0, they are highly gimmicky and reek of the developer doing the bare minimum to meet contractual obligations with their publisher. I hope one day this game is actually finished and I'll be keeping my eye on it, but I can't recommend anyone waste money on it in it's current form.
Amazing game, but the "inventory full" bug has apparently been a notorious problem since like 2021 and has made me restart the game like five times, losing tons of progress each time. Fix that and I'll fix the review.
A game with this kind of atmosphere and ambitious gameplay only occurs every once in a while - which makes it all the more disappointing as to how this turned out.Throughout early access it was a promising, if buggy, piece of art. But then the developers rushed a 1.0 release - and not only did not fix many game-breaking bugs, but introduced new ones, completely ignored their promise of integrating Steam Workshop, and over night this game went from "keep on your radar" to "basically abandonware".I truly hope that some day, a more competent team of developers will take the idea of a procedurally generated sleuthing game and actually finish it.
Concept 10/10
Visuals 7/10
Ambience 9/10
Gameplay 6/10
├NPC interactions 2/10
└Difficulty 4/10
Updates 3/10
Replayability 6/10Generally a great game, but I can't say solid. I feel it lacks dialogue, some sort of "interrogation" or putting in the spot, maybe the ability to present evidence to get a reaction or a place to note when they were last there. Asking where someone was at some point. Anything like that.On the other hand the behaviour on violence can be quite weird, like police shooting you for taking a photo that they appear on, or the neighbours ganging up on you for trying to defend yourself from a mugger.
A lot of this absurd jumping to violence it's compensated with a lot of "must have been the wind" kind of reaction, this being a negative.On the investigation side things can be weird, like finding mugshots giving information that makes no sense like build or height. Or some evidence being automatically linked like fingerprints, making some cases moot if you had previous information.I feel like there should be two sets of difficulties, one for combat (the one in place already), and another one for investigation. Making the current investigation difficulty probably easy and adding some kind of security on information in a normal setting, not having as many passwords, or fingerprints in that many documents. Most of the current difficulty comes from the NPCs limitations to help (or unwillingness to do so) rather than the actual mechanics of the investigation.One of the best mods for a more logical difficulty is partial prints (so you can't just automatically match a single fingerprint in a letter left from the murderer to an immediate person for example).I fear it may become mod dependant if they don't put some love on some of these points.On a final note I believe these game is quite unique and deserving of patience if the devs are willing to put some work into it. But the lasts updates (the last one fixing bugs it's okay) makes it look like the core mechanics might left to be, I really hope this is not the case. Cheers.I'm going to leave a negative until some actual updates drop.
As someone who works as a real-life detective for a law enforcement agency, I can confidently say that Shadows of Doubt is one of the most accurate and satisfying detective experiences I’ve ever seen in a video game.This game doesn’t rely on hand-holding or artificial “game logic.” It trusts the player to think, observe, document, and deduce — exactly how real investigations work. You’re not chasing glowing markers; you’re building timelines, identifying patterns, cross-checking records, and following leads that you uncovered.The procedural city is incredibly well designed. Every citizen has routines, relationships, addresses, work locations, and digital footprints. Crimes feel organic, not scripted. Evidence matters, time matters, and bad assumptions can lead you down the wrong path — which makes solving a case legitimately rewarding.Despite its ambition, I’ve encountered very few bugs. The systems are surprisingly solid, and the game rarely breaks immersion. For a title doing this much simulation under the hood, it’s impressively polished.The atmosphere is excellent — moody lighting, noir soundtrack, and a sense of isolation that fits the job. Case boards feel natural, tools make sense, and the freedom in how you approach an investigation is outstanding. Whether you’re interviewing witnesses, pulling surveillance footage, or quietly searching a suspect’s apartment, it all feels purposeful.Pros:
✔️ Authentic detective work — observation and deduction first
✔️ Minimal bugs and strong system stability
✔️ Living, procedural city with believable citizens
✔️ No hand-holding or forced solutions
✔️ Extremely satisfying case resolutionCons:
❌ Minor UI awkwardness at times (very minor)Final Thoughts:
Shadows of Doubt understands detective work better than almost any game I’ve played. It respects the player’s intelligence and rewards careful thinking. From a real-world detective perspective, this game is practically perfect at capturing the core of investigative work.If you enjoy true investigations and solving cases through logic rather than tutorials, this is an easy recommendation.⭐ Highly Recommended ⭐
A pretty good thief simulator with a really crappy detective minigame bolted to the side. The fingerprint that you need can spawn on a surface of an object that is not reachable due to the random configuration of the room. The map being random was sort of a selling point but they never got it working. Vents that lead to walls, coffee machines spawned in walls, overall the random maps are not really worth playing in my experience. You know what never spawns at an angle that you cant reach? The loot in a safe.The actual detective work itself is inconsistent. Evidence randomly spawns. So a murder can occur in a building and absolutely nobody went into that building, you can tell because of the street camera. The street camera isnt the evidence that spawned for this case so the street camera having no evidence isnt an indication or any way to narrow down a list of suspects. The entire experience is full of counter intuitive shit like that. It took them like a year to add "suspected infidelity" to the list of jobs a private detective gets when that is how private detectives make ALL of their money. Even if you solved a murder case as private detective in real life, you wouldnt actually make any money because you werent hired for that job. Kind of like a carpenter making a chair he wasnt paid for. This is sorta hand waved as it being a dystopian wasteland with privatised police but in a world of governments investing in the stock market we already live in a capitalist dystopian wasteland and the current system, where you can pay a guy to breach someone else' privacy, is already dystopian.If you want the best experience playing this game, boot it up, ignore all murder cases, take corporate espionage cases as well as any other side quests you feel like doing, get to level 8, uninstall. You will have experienced the best the game has to offer and youll be sick of the building system that has a crap interface and doesnt allow you to make a cool noir detective room anyway, which I would argue that putting in a smokey detectives office full of filing cabinets was the only reason to include a freakin building system. Have fun trying to do something simple like put a case file box on your desk. If you get it all to LOOK good it will never even function. What a punch in the gut. The community asked for snail mode and not for a decent build system I guess.
Can't currently recommend it, as it's still functionally in early access. There are only 5.5 killer AI types and you can usually immediately tell which one it is after their first murder. The [spoiler] government database computers in the city hall [/spoiler] come across as a band-aid fix for the NPCs' lack of depth. The NPCs tend to team up against you when they see you doing something 'bad' even if they would ignore another NPC doing it. They're also fairly oblivious to the killer's actions, as far as I can tell they only notice actions outside of [spoiler] murder/fleeing after murder [/spoiler] when the killer's AI triggers an event, rather than actually noticing whenever another NPC is doing something else suspicious in front of them.
[h3]In short:[/h3]
The game is built around procedurally generated murder mysteries. The tech is extremely impressive and the atmosphere is strong, but it isn’t actually fun to play as it quickly starts to feel repetitive and hollow.[h3]In long:[/h3]
The game is a technical marvel. The fact that it can generate a large, fully explorable city where you can enter any building, walk into any room, and interact with NPCs who all have their own routines and relationships is genuinely impressive. Building a procedural detective system of this scale that mostly holds together is an incredible achievement for such a small team and deserves a lot of praise. On top of that, the atmosphere is excellent and the art direction is very fitting and feels mostly cohesive.So why am I not recommending the game? While a procedurally generated murder-mystery sounds interesting on paper, and pulling it off at all is very impressive, it doesn't really work in practice. Once the novelty of it wears of ([i]which, for me, happened after just a case or two[/i]) the cracks start to show. Making a system like this function requires a lot of compromises, and those compromises make the experience feel shallow and repetitive. Whenever things seem to connect in a meaningful or organic way, it often turns out to be little more than random coincidence rather than intentional design.By far my most enjoyable time with the game was the introductory tutorial case, because it actually felt hand-crafted and deliberate. It showed the potential of the underlying systems when they’re guided by thoughtful design. They’ve built a very cool framework, and I can’t help but wish it were paired with curated, hand-made cases that could offer more variety, stronger pacing, and deeper, more engaging narratives.
Shadows of Doubt, in a way, is a cozy game. You're running through foggy rainy streets with ambient lighting, breaking into nice apartments with these gorgeous stain glass lamps on the tables, you get to design your very own apartment, AND eat fancy little sandwiches out of vending machines; must I go on?This game seems to get a pretty hard wrap with some of the reviews and community posts, but all things measured up ~ this game rocks. It can be a challenge to find the criminal and figure out the mechanics, but that's the whole point. Are you brains? Or brawns? Either way there are bodily upgrades for that ~ don't you even worry.Truly it's a fun challenge and the game is in the process of being polished up by the small team of devs with a glimmer of hope at a sequel. Enjoy getting shot by enforces while you pickpocket the victim, I know I do.
Game is terrible! NPC's Don't help with any cases, furniture still falls through the floor, you can get shot multiple times but you can't use a gun but gernades are okay for some dumb reason. barely any updates and when there is nothing is actually fixed. 99% of cases can't even be solved, and the creator is retarted and blames everything on a busy life. Don't waste your money on this junk!
I really gave this game a solid chance. I went through about 7 cases and not a SINGLE one made me feel like i achieved anything due to my skills and deduction, and after going through the notes and evidence the whole case never made any sense. Guides tell you to look at the crime scene, then ask locals and then look at camera footage. Not a single time any of that gave me any idea what to do. Sometimes the murder looks like the culprit just spawned the bullet inside the victim while being on the other side of town. Every time the case was solved by checking who bought the weapon with ammo last and then, without any other suspicion of them being the killer, that is no motive, no connection to the victim, they end up being the killer, even though i never had any idea where were they so there are not a single trace of them. For 3 cases in a row. Kidnaping case was the start when i regreted buying this game. Seriousely, how the hell they kidnapped the person, left a note and there is NOT A SINGLE FINGER OR FOOTPRINT?! I looked through every single camera footage and there is NOTHING. I ended up just stripmining every single basement to find them because there is nothing that would make anyone do that crime.The good part that is actually somewhat enjoyable for 1-4 times are the side jobs. They are simple and they make sense. You are given 3 clues on a person and some specific task you need to do with them, which is honetly well made, but goes a little stale because it's pretty easy to just repeat the best working solutions to do those jobs. By the way they even pay twice the amount you can get from a fully successful case.There is also the social aspect to the game i feel like the devs should've expanded upon, the NPCs feel braindead, you can just go somewhere and just beat up a person and get away with it 1-1000 times in a row, nobody will remember, nobody will report it. Just leave the building and put the newspaper up, everyone will magically forget you ever existed, and i mean... Where is romance? Why can't i gift someone those flowers? The perfume, the rings? It could be awesome having some detective romance on the side, maybe having some trouble with some criminals blackmailing me with my lover's death? But no, every single NPC has literally 2 words to say, even if you ask about the victim the best they can do is "Saw them at <Place>"And now i realise it's not even an early access, the developers really think this game is done. I regret purchasing this.
I have loved watching youtubers play this game for a while, but was running out of content, so I decided it was time to finally buy my own copy.I love this game and what it tries to do, but oh my god are there some glaring bugs that need fixing, and many that should have been fixed long ago. Too many cases were ruined by a bug, like a briefcase dropped at a drop point falling through the map. Too many of the cases are pretty much unsolvable or only solvable with an insane amount of work that is not equivalent to the pay out. An easy solution would just be to have checks and balances for what evidence is provided, rather than allowing it to be super random. Like clubs, eye color, etc. on their own with nothing else are useless. There is challenge, and then there is boring. I've also had to give up on too many cases because there is just no evidence whatsoever. Either something didn't spawn or what was provided doesn't actually help.Also, why is moving a body so damn hard? Can't even lift it to toss it out a window. My guy got noodle arms.Also, I'm surprised there aren't mods to solve most of these issues by now.I still heavily recommend it with everything.
I brought the game and started playing the tutorial after completing the diner I went to check the city directory and the tutorial wouldn't move forward meaning I was stuck even if I continued the story of the tutorial it wouldn't move forward I tried 3 separate save files to move forward and I have be unable to progress or even play the game not worth it
[ My girlfriend bought this game for me <3 ]Gameplay-
☑ Very good (Freely Gameplay)
☐ Good
☐ Nothing special
☐ Okay
☐ BadGraphics-
☑ Masterpiece (In the Voxel style, rains are beautiful and also kinda laggy)
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Will do
☐ Bad
☐ AwfulAudio
☐ Amazing
☑ Very good (Could be more sounds for NPCs or things)
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Not too bad
☐ BadAudience
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☐ Adults
☑ Everyone (Graphic Contents is not that intense but gameplay took a little bit of brain)Story-
☐ Lovely
☑ Good (Every NPCs have their stories)
☐ Average
☐ Not great
☐ NoneDifficult-
☐ Just press a bunch of buttons
☐ Easy
☑ Significant brain usage (It's a Detective game, so why not?)
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Not so easy
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark SoulsGrind-
☐ Nothing
☐ Only if you care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isnt necessary to progress (You just grind for items and new apartment, thats it)
☐ A bit grindy sometimes
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ InsanityGame Time-
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ Depends on you
☐ EndlessPrice
☑ Just buy it
☑ Worth the price
☑ Wait for sale
☐ Maybe if you have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
Good game for the price, especially on sale. It isn't updated too often, and has a bit of bugs. Other then that if you like detective games where you are free to roam the city, and complete the jobs as you please, this game would be great for you!
I love the game, but it is so infuriating when everyone has a gun, It is so hard to arrest someone when they just whip out a gun and one bang, and even if you survive that, everyone else around you will also whip out a gun. I wouldn't mind this, if it wasn't for the fact it felt like everyone had one. Try to arrest the suspect? nope. now your in a pool over your own blood because they whipped out a gun. Try to use a saber? Well now it take 3 hits and only one hit for them. its just feels like bullshit. There is no outplay, the ai just aimbot you and you go bye bye. and It wouldn't be that bad of not everyone was carrying a gun. Police. Security. understandable. the shopkeeper in the laundry mat, not so much.
- 90% of "game breaking bugs" are just skill issue
- like irl, not every case is to be solved
- some murderers you will only be able to catch after their third, fourth, fifth body
- there are still some rough edges, especially outside the main gameplay loop (e.g. the apartment editing is ahh, but it mostly gets the job done)
- the game indeed cries to be so much more, but even in this state it is well worth your time
- would recommend to any Batman and Sherlock
