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Shadows of Doubt - detective stealth game set in "fully simulated" sci-fi city

Zombra

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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.
In the tutorial mission (and only the tutorial mission), once the game shows you how to scan for fingerprints and dig in the trash, the cops magically show up so the tutorial can teach you about situations where you suddenly have to run or hide. Any other time people showed up it's either because everybody naturally comes home sometime, or if the enforcers came you probably fucked up and got caught on camera.

I think the stealth is fine in the game, it's more that "learning the language" is very weird. In earlier betas I had no idea why the fuck things were going wrong but in these later versions it seems to actually make sense. Don't feel bad if the game doesn't seem to communicate well, it's not just you. But there is a sensible system to it all.
 

sosmoflux

Educated
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I was extremely impressed with this demo. A fairly overwhelming amount of gameplay elements and things to consider. I haven't felt that way in a long time. There's a whole bunch of UI/UX that needs work, the whole clipboard menu in particular just seems so all over the place. But I'll be keeping an eye on this for sure. Great to see an indie that is actually innovating rather than making bare minimum 2deep4u boomer shooter clones.
 

HoboForEternity

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I actually had fun with the demo. It showcase great amount of fun mechanics and promise. I do wish the NPCs aren't so trigger happy. I accidentally threw an object in the clinic and the receptionist stabbed me into tomorrow in hospital.

The performance is horrendous. This is probably due to how much is simulated, but at some point, it dropped to the teens FPS.

The game really has tremendous potential, and i hope they ironed the problem out.
 

Gerrard

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12,654
The performance being shit has nothing to do with simulation, my CPU isn't even maxed. It's the GPU that's running at 100% all the time.
 

Zombra

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Probably everyone interested already saw the demo, but just in case some of you lost track of time, the demo has been extended another three days - you have until Thursday Feb 16 to try it out.
 

Zombra

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Early Access release date April 24th.



Developer blog answering the question no one asked, "Why early access?"
Very little new info about the game itself but link included here for completeness.
https://colepowered.com/shadows-of-doubt-devblog-32-early-access/
The only things important for gameplay purposes are:
  • no new story missions have been added; there's just the one long introductory tutorial and after that it's only procedurally generated cases.
  • city generation now allows for larger gameplay spaces
 

Cyberarmy

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This one really looks interesting, shame I didn't know about it when demo was on air. Characters looks a bit off for me but other than that I'm intrigued.
 

Zombra

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This one really looks interesting, shame I didn't know about it when demo was on air. Characters looks a bit off for me but other than that I'm intrigued.
You got lucky. Some of us have been waiting by the phone for over three years. You'll have a chance to check it out in less than a month.
 

kangaxx

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I am still leaning towards waiting until it's further down the track. The concept sounds fantastic but I don't want to experience it before the issues have been ironed out.
 

Zombra

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I am still leaning towards waiting until it's further down the track. The concept sounds fantastic but I don't want to experience it before the issues have been ironed out.
Yeah. We have a lonnnnnng way to go until the game is in its best, final state. The last test build a couple months ago still had severe bugs, and apparently the scripted main mission line simply doesn't exist yet .. which in a way is good news because it means the procedurally generated stuff has received a lot of attention. I felt like I didn't come close to seeing all the different proc mission types available.
 

Latelistener

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I've enjoyed the demo very much, shame about the time limit. It's very unique and atmospheric. However, such project should not be undertaken by a single dev and definitely should not be built on Unity.

I'm not even talking about opimization, which is horrendous and not because "a lot of stuff is going on in the background" as he claims, but because it doesn't utilize hardware properly (I read that he's going to invite some Unity specialist to help him with optimization).

I'm talking about cases such as: two employees leaving a cafe they're working in, so naturally one of them turns off the lights and leaves. But the other one does the same and instead of just ignoring the switch, he turned the lights back on and left. There are probably hundreds and thousands things such these. He will never be able to polish it all alone.

I get the feeling that the publisher is asking for a release already and Early Access is a nice alternative to that, as making a full release in such state is a suicide. We'll see if it helps.

Of course whether I will get it on not on release depends heavily on the pricing.
 

Zombra

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1680725082847.png

https://steamcommunity.com/app/986130/discussions/0/3764482829415816680/
Elsewhere he also mentions the possibility of variances by region but that should give you an idea.
 

StrongBelwas

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https://colepowered.com/shadows-of-doubt-devblog-33-early-accessing/

SHADOWS OF DOUBT DEVBLOG #33: LAUNCH HYPE AND WHAT TO EXPECT​

Shadows of Doubt is a detective stealth game set in a fully-simulated sci-fi metropolis! There’s been a murder and it’s up to you to solve it by any means necessary, with the condition that you keep a low profile. A unique mix of procedural generation and hand-crafted design enables every room of every building to be explored. Be sure to wishlist on Steam, join our Discord or read previous dev blog entries here!
Hello detectives! There’s just under a week left to go until we launch on Steam Early Access on April 24th! Things on the dev side have been what you would probably expect; hunting down as many bugs as possible before we press the big green button on our first publicly available version of the full game. We’re really excited to share it with you!


Before that day arrives, for the sake of clarity with our awesome community, as well as prospective players who may be reading this, I want to give an overview on exactly what you can expect from this initial version.

image-1024x575.png

Those of you who played the demo over NextFest, or watched others stream it should have a pretty good idea already: It’s an open-world detective game that drops you into a living, breathing city. Player agency is the name of the game; you can investigate cases how you see fit using a variety of different avenues. The game features an initial starting case that is more scripted than the rest of the game to teach you the fundamentals; the length of which can range from about an hour to a couple of hours, and from there it pretty much lets you loose in the city.

Procedurally generated murders will happen, and you have the opportunity to track down the killers for rewards, or you can take on side cases that will ramp up in difficulty over time… Or you don’t have to do any of that; you can go around breaking into people’s apartments and generally being a bit of a menace if you so choose!

There’s a variety of player upgrades available; these will ask you to make a decision on how best to spec your player. You can also purchase an apartment and customize it to how you see fit with dozens and dozens of options. The ultimate aim of the game is retirement from the city, and you can do this by earning enough social credit from jobs.

image-1-1024x575.png
We’re particularly pleased with the atmospheric environments in the game.
Lots of the above is tied to the city you play in, and this can be generated before you start. Each city will feature different citizens and locations, so all of the cases above (including the introductory case) will change based on this. The density of Shadows of Doubt’s cities and creating living worlds populated by citizens each with their own lives and routines has always been our ambition. One crucial difference between this and your typical open-world game, for example, is that every single room is explorable. See a light on in a skyscraper? That means you can go there and somebody is home.

Your end goal for each city playthrough will always be to become a renowned private detective and retire, but because Shadows of Doubt is an open-world, sandbox game, it’s hard to put a figure on what you should expect from that in terms of playtime. In playtests, we have found some players becoming engrossed in the game world and playing a city for dozens of hours, while others can hit their retirement after around 10 hours. The playtime is ultimately driven by each individual – and of course, you always have the option to start again in a completely new city. To clarify, please don’t expect multiple questlines and story arcs that you might find in AAA open-world RPGs. This is an immersive sim driven by AI and systems, and the overall playtime is ultimately driven by your decisions and engagement with the game world. Getting to discover and explore your unique city, before generating a new one and starting afresh with different citizens, layouts and cases (and if you’d like to experiment with new playstyles – different detective builds as well) is important to the overall experience, and we really hope you’ll want to play through again with different cities.

image-2-1024x575.png
“Oi! Is somebody accessing the game early?!”
There has been some good progress on squishing bugs, (in fact you can read the change log for the game since the NextFest demo right here). Even so, it’s worth being upfront with the fact that this is an early access launch, and as detailed in the previous dev blog we are expecting bugs and various bits and bobs to need some TLC. You’ll hear more about what new content you can expect pretty soon also; but I can tell you it’s going to be a combination of improvements and brand-new stuff.

We also have a bit to go in getting the game’s performance running to the standard that we would like for the final release; I’d recommend at least a GTX 1060 for 1080p at present. Screen resolution in particular is a big performance factor in the game’s current state. Performance optimisations are a particular focus for us once the early access period begins, so we hope to bring you more news there soon.

As with any early access title, if you’re truly not okay with potentially experiencing the above, I would advise waiting until our ‘1.0’, ie non-early access launch. That said, we’re very eager to improve the game with feedback from the folks who are.

I think that about sums it up, and gives a good idea on what you can expect on Monday. See you on the other side!
 

Zombra

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Launched in Early Access.
Retail is $19.99 USD, with regional pricing variations. 10% off introductory price until May 1st.
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
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I have a few hours on the current build and have been impressed with how well it's coming together. All the gamestopping bugs I encountered from the previous demo have been fixed. Framerate is smooth, maybe not 120FPS but very playable. My only gripe so far is that citizens still get violent VERY quickly. I was trying to cuff a suspect and a guy who ran a nearby hot dog stand shot me in the face with a shotgun literally the same second I clicked the button.
 
Last edited:

Longes

Augur
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Jan 13, 2013
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The game is so goddamn buggy. Playing through the tutorial case, I got softlocked three times. And then the game crashed when I tried saving.
 

Skinwalker

*teleports inside you*
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It looks hideous and like something from 20 years ago, therefore it's an instant Kool Kodex
Klassic.
 

Gostak

Educated
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Jan 10, 2022
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244
Guy made an entertaining video, though wtf is up with that last case?


I shall love this game.
Have been hyped since the first day.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
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Oct 7, 2019
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Ooooh, this shit's right up my alley. Fully simulated eh?

We'll see how simulated this is.
 

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