Shadows of Doubt - detective stealth game set in "fully simulated" sci-fi city - now available on Early Access

[rusty_shackleford]

Seems like another game that went too far into the PCG rather than striking a balance. I don't see the fun in solving randomly generated crimes, but handmade crimes where the systems would work backwards to create clues and such could be interesting.

Am I misunderstanding?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Far as I know there is supposed to be some sort of main campaign where you hunt some serial killer or w/e, but you can/have to take lots of randomly generated cases to cover your expenses along the way.

 

[SlamDunk]

 

[Zombra]

New trailer. So much mood!

The game is in better shape than I thought it was in my previous post. That issue about the broken waypoints was actually a question of the tutorial triggers not being flagged correctly which is a much easier fix.

Also I spent some time during the beta weekend going around knocking on doors and questioning suspects. I still don't really "speak the language" of the game, meaning I don't feel confident in what the activity loop will actually look like to close cases, but it was very cool to see those systems in place.

I am optimistic again. I am still skeptical about an "early 2023" release date, or at least a bug-free one; but a final, fully playable in 2023 does seem within reach!

 

[kangaxx]

In your experience so far Zombra is the combat completely avoidable? I really hope so...

 

[Zombra]

In your experience so far Zombra is the combat completely avoidable? I really hope so...

I haven't seen any combat at all in the alpha or beta, but I've really only played a few hours just trying to get the basics to work. I've never come close to solving the tutorial case for example.

There's not a lot of talk about combat on the discord. At least one person reported being "jumped" at one point (and complained that the player isn't allowed to have a gun). The design is very very intentional about not letting the player have a gun and not letting it turn into anything like a shooter but there are fistfighting mechanics in the game and they're not going anywhere. I have never used those mechanics and don't know at all what it's like when a fight breaks out.

My feeling is that if you're great at stealth, combat will almost never be an issue. I can imagine that there may be some combinations of elements where you can't avoid pissing someone off though, and there may be scripted sequences in the main storyline (which will not be 100% procedural) so who knows what is and isn't completely avoidable.

My personal goal is to play the game without ever once climbing through an air vent, so I hope it's as flexible as it seems about achieving goals in multiple ways.

tldr: I don't know.

 

[Zombra]

The game is having another beta! It's officially 'closed' but just anyone can sign up for a randomly assigned spot, and by just anyone I mean you jerks.

[6:00 AM] ColePowered:
Hey @everyone, awesome news, after all the amazing and super useful reports/feedback/data we received in the November Closed Beta we’ve decided to give you all another chance to check out Shadows of Doubt ahead of release!

About the Closed Beta:
• Shadows of Doubt Closed Beta sign ups will be open from today through to January 13th, you can sign up on the Shadows of Doubt Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/986130/Shadows_of_Doubt/
• Participants will be chosen at random using the Steam Playtest functionality and if you were part of the last Closed Beta you don’t need to register again as once the playtest is live you will still have access.
• Whilst playtesting, we would really appreciate it if you could take the time to check out the in-game link to the feedback form and let us know your thoughts on the progress of Shadows of Doubt, it has been really helpful! The in-game bug report will also make a return.
IMPORTANT:
• The Closed Beta will run from January 13th at 10:00AM GMT until January 16th at 10:00AM GMT, if you are selected to participate we would love to hear your thoughts on the progress of Shadows of Doubt, and you will find a link to a form to give feedback within the game.
• You are welcome to stream and share content using footage captured through the Closed Beta, though please be aware that this is a beta version of the game, so bugs will be expected. Please also respect other players' wishes to remain spoiler free so they can play through the game blind when it releases early this year.
• If you don’t get selected to participate in the Closed Beta, don’t worry! There will be another chance to play it in the future, ahead of launch!
• During the Closed Beta, we will once again be using the spoiler warning channel on Discord, where you will be asked to keep conversations regarding the beta restricted to that channel to avoid giving away too much to the rest of the Discord server.

Again, to register, go to the Steam page here and look for this button, any time before next Friday:

EDIT: I just asked and it will be another weekend beta, starting the morning of Friday the 13th and ending a few days later on Monday.

 

[kangaxx]

I will sign my arse up for this.

 

[Gerrard]

It's an incredible technical achievement to make a game that has the polycount of a 20 year old game yet runs 5 times worse than any modern game at the same time. Ah, the wonders of Unity!

I like how the NPCs reaction to seeing you trespassing anywhere is attack immediately. Some NPCs saw me coming out of someone else's apartment, they ran up to me and started punching.
You cannot block doors with objects.

 

[kangaxx]

That's the opposite of what I wanted to hear... I was hoping combat would be a very rare occurrence. Hopefully they fix that.

 

[Zombra]

I like how the NPCs reaction to seeing you trespassing anywhere is attack immediately. Some NPCs saw me coming out of someone else's apartment, they ran up to me and started punching.

PLEASE complain about this on the feedback form, as I intend to. They really are reading those.

 

[Gerrard]

Nice bitcoin miner I guess?

 

[Zombra]

It really is bizarre how much of a clunker this is. I wonder how much level of detail is done on the simulation of 1000 citizens at once. Is it like calculating the angle of each one brushing their teeth, all at once, 100% of the time? No scaling for distance?

 

[Gerrard]

I give up, after 6 hours I have achieved exactly nothing.
Can't do anything with the weapons dealer clue, knocking on the door does nothing so you can't use the password in any way. Can't go in through vents because there's some impassable black void over that room. And also somehow an arms dealer shop security is connected to the general security of the building and everyone attacks only you because that makes sense.
Tried investigating the phone calls, but I guess I fucked up and should've done that immediately because now there are no records of any incoming or outgoing calls from that apartment, and the apartment itself was half-cleaned, the bedroom and living room are emptied but the kitchen isn't, and there's an "investigate" symbol floating in empty space so I guess it's probably also a bug.
The lead for the dinner is also fucked because I checked the table and found the paper, and found the second guy who was also killed but it still keeps saying to check the table. Oh and I could not open the suitcase in his room because it's bugged.
Also something's fucked because when I ask "Do you know this person?" about Jose Arcadio or whatever the fuck his name is there's no photo even though I have it on the board.
Also the game randomly just starts running like absolute shit as on the screenshot above.

 

[Gerrard]

I started a new game, and decided to go for the phone lead straight away this time. I also went back to Vincent's apartment after the police was gone to check everything.
Went to the apartment the call was from, the person who opened the door didn't want to cooperate. As I was leaving to find an air vent I thought "Wait a moment, I can check the fingerprints on the door handle" and what a surprise... Found a vent and had a bit of a look around he house. The vents make no fucking sense by the way, and the cold mechanic is dumb. If the buildings themselves are generated fairly sensibly, why can't the air ducts also follow some sensible pattern?

I assume the person who is the killer is random every time, would be pretty dumb if it wasn't even for a tutorial mission, but just in case

Spoiler

I'm the motherfucking Columbo over here.

 

[Zombra]

I spent a lot more time with the beta this weekend and I'm starting to get genuinely excited. There is still a ton of bug and jank BUT you can see now how the systems are supposed to emerge and interact. I had an amazing experience on a randomized job board mission - thinking about the NPCs as (simulated) people rather than numbers on a spreadsheet felt genuinely helpful in getting me through the case.

bullet points of the case (long)

1. I saw a want ad posted on a bulletin board in a diner. It said something had been stolen, and listed a phone number to call for a reward.
2. I called the number and spoke briefly to a Kong Peng. He said a valuable commemorative baseball had been stolen from his apartment and would I stop by and examine the scene. He gave me an address and hung up.
3. My mission screen filled out the completion details of the case:
   (Required) Recover the baseball and put it in Kong Peng's mailbox (cr850 reward)
   (Optional) Name the thief (cr550 reward, cr150 penalty for naming the wrong person)
   (Optional) Beat up the thief (cr350 reward)
4. My clue board added Kong Peng himself, with very few details. I had no idea what he even looked like; all I had was his name and the address.
5. When I arrived, no one was home; so I let myself in. This was illegal and would have been a problem if I'd been caught.
6. Kong Peng apparently lived alone.
7. Searching the large apartment, I found a corporate ID for Peng and learned that he was the Company Director for a place called Sync Limited. The information was automatically added to the clue card for Peng.
8. I scanned the apartment for fingerprints. Mostly they were all the prints for one person, but on a heavy floor safe I found one fingerprint that didn't match the rest. I pinned more clue cards for the prints.
9. I didn't find any other clues and reasoned I could come back later if needed.
10. I wondered why someone would want to steal from Kong Peng. Without knowing about any other people in his life, I speculated that a company director might have disgruntled employees. He might brag at the office about owning a valuable piece of sports memorabilia.
11. I didn't find a city directory in the aparment so I went to a phone booth in another diner nearby and looked up the address of Sync Limited, the 16th floor of a nearby skyscraper.
12. The front door of Sync Limited constantly had employees streaming in and out. None of them would talk to me until a distinguished, elderly man in an expensive suit introduced himself as Kong Peng. He allowed me to take a fingerprint sample and I confirmed that most of the fingerprints in the apartment were his. This automatically linked the Peng and Fingerprint (A) clue cards.
13. Sync Limited was private property and I couldn't just walk in and snoop around. The receptionist wouldn't even come to the door so I had no chance to bribe her to be allowed on premises. I chose to sit on a bench in the hallway and wait (using the game's 'pass time' feature).
14. Employees continued to stream in and out for hours. At 5pm most of them went home but a few worked late into the night.
15. At 10pm I was convinced that the office was empty. I broke in and began to search the offices, avoiding security cameras and night vision turrets along the way. (It's normal in the city for businesses to have security turrets that shoot rubber bullets.)
16. To make it harder for the cameras to see me, I left the lights out, briefly shining my flashlight as needed to navigate the dark room, which was otherwise only lit by the glow of a few computers (aka 'crunchers') the employees had neglected to power down.
17. I wanted to find that unidentified fingerprent from Peng's safe.
18. I scanned over the office, playing cat and mouse with the cameras the whole time, and found lots of different fingerprints. Peng's prints were everywhere. Eventually I found a match to the print on Peng's safe - on a desk that had been touched by half the office staff recently. It wasn't enough but now at least I knew for sure my culprit worked here.
19. In one office I found personal storage lockers for the staff. My guy had fingerprints all over a locker with a name tag that said E. MAES on it. Now I had a name ... and I wanted to see what was in that locker.
20. As mentioned before, some workers left their crunchers on when leaving for the day. Some didn't even bother to log out. Going desk to desk, I soon located the workstation of one Evelyn Maes. I found some juicy emails from her live-in lover, but was more interested in her user profile which gave me her home address ... and the code to her locker.
21. Almost getting spotted by the turrets twice, I snuck back to the locker area. Maes' locker contained nothing of value.
22. It was time to get out of there. I went home.
23. The next morning, I went to a coffee shop, choked down coffee and a donut (each of which provided a minor buff for the day), and passed the time until 10am. I knew from Maes' employee profile that she worked 9 to 5. I hoped her lover did too so the apartment would be empty (he did and it was).
24. Maes' apartment was easy enough to break into and was surprisingly spacious for the home of an office drone. Maybe her 'roommate' made better money. None of the living areas held anything of interest. Eventually I found a walk-in closet that contained every household's bulletproof floor safe. Maes used a different passcode on the safe than her locker at home. For the moment, I was stumped - then I found the baseball out in the open on a shelf nearby. Why not lock it up for safekeeping? I wondered if perhaps the safe belonged to her lover and he didn't share the code with her. Maybe she didn't tell him how valuable the baseball was. Anyway, not my problem - I pocketed the prize and quietly let myself out.
25. At the very end, a bug stopped me from completing the mission. I put the baseball into Peng's mailbox, but it didn't register as complete. Still, the journey to get there was fantastic and I'm so excited at how the game is shaping up.

Maybe it was the wrong baseball? Maybe the crucial fingerprint was someone else's? I never even met Maes, never checked her fingerprints directly. I'll never know and the case will never be closed since the beta is over and that save game won't be usable again.

Still, it all adds up and doesn't make sense any other way, and that's the best a dick can hope for in this dirty business.

 

[kangaxx]

Sounds like fun gameplay, not gonna lie.

 

[gerey]

One thing I didn't like from what was shown is the whole "detective vending machine" where you can buy all your gadgets, and the fact policing is apparently all privatized in the city (?).

Kinda ruins the whole vibe the game is going for by having vending machines that dispense lockpicks and hacking tools. Could have just as well included specialized traders for this kind of stuff.

 

[Bester]

and the fact policing is apparently all privatized in the city (?).

 

[Gerrard]

Play Shadows of Doubt Demo at Steam Next Fest

Hey Detectives!

You read that right. We are going to have a public demo available for everyone to play from the 6th to the 13th of February as part of Steam's Next Fest!

You will be able to play the first 90 minutes of the game and take your first steps in the investigation!

We hope you've got your detective equipment ready to take on your first case as you try and stop a serial killer!

I don't know about this "first 90 minutes" thing.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

My personal goal is to play the game without ever once climbing through an air vent

Funny, when I saw the air vent that's all I wanted to do, well, that and listen to the sweet synth vibes.

Spoiler

 

[Zombra]

Public demo available for Steam Next Fest, that's now until next Monday the 13th.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/986130/Shadows_of_Doubt/

Note, the demo only lets you play for 90 minutes on a single save file so you can't make a ton of progress, but you're allowed to restart all you want to mess around and try different things.

Also, game is still buggy as fuck, please do your part and use the bug report function, it helps

 

[Bester]

I like it, it can become a great game. It's not now.

AI is annoyingly stupid. No freedom to retrospectively look around people's apartments. I take pleasure in it, yet in here you're always on a timer. Annoying.
No sounds for most stuff. Nothing is voiced.

Apparently while solving murders you can just go murder hobo on the city... for the sake of solving crime.

 

[Zombra]

No freedom to retrospectively look around people's apartments. I take pleasure in it, yet in here you're always on a timer. Annoying.

Eh? Not sure I understand this part. What timer? People coming home from work?

 

[Bester]

What timer? People coming home from work?

Is that what it was? The tutorial implied that I'm on a timer and someone did walk in eventually before I could find all the clues. Then I broke into another house and some cops walked in eventually too and started shooting. Was I caught by a camera or something? I don't think I was.
At one point there were 3 different messages on the screen with instructions, and I only had time to read one, before the others disappeared.
I'm bad at understanding this kind of stuff, so I'm not surprised if I got this wrong.
Regardless, stealth has a long way to go in this game to become good.