Shadows of Doubt Preview (Steam Early Access)

by Jim Smale · Published May 5, 2023 · Updated May 5, 2023

For our Shadows of Doubt Preview, we don our Columbo coat and set out on an immersive sandbox detective stealth game set in a fully simulated sci-fi noir city of crime and corruption. Think like a private investigator and take on jobs to earn cash on your path to catching a serial killer. If you don’t catch them – they will kill again…

Shadows of Doubt Preview Pros:

Beautiful pixel art graphics.
1.25GB download size.
Controller support.
Graphics settings – resolution, display mode, v-sync, enable frame rate cap, frame rate cap, anti-aliasing mode, anti-aliasing quality, dithering, a field of view slider, rain detail, motion blur, depth blur, film grain, and bloom.
Steam mode is to turn off licensed music tracks.
Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
Mouse and keyboard settings – can rebind controls and Invert axis and sensitivity sliders for the mouse.
Interface settings – language, text speed slider, directional arrow, and awareness indicator.
Twitch Integration options – channel name show, and enable Twitch audience citizens.
Four game difficulties – Easy, Normal, Hard, and Extreme.
Game length can be set to Very short, short, normal, long, and very long.
Procedural murders on/off option.
Weather change slider.
Status effects can be individually turned on/off (cold/smelly/injuries/bleeding/hunger/tired/numb/sick/wet/drunk/headache/energized/hydrated/focused/well rested).
Two ways to play – The Dead Of Night (crafted case scenario) and Sandbox (play how you want)
Cities are both pre-made or randomly generated.
Share code for cities.
Character creator – name, gender (Male/Female/Non – Binary), and skin color.
The tutorial is optional.
First-person view.
You can interact with a lot of objects, pick them up, throw them, interact, and rotate them.
Markers can show for mission help.
Case board – a menu you have where you put evidence found, you can connect them together by string, move them around freely and click any of them to get a pop-up of said evidence.
Hair pins and paper clips can be used to lock pick.
The inventory is split into groups of items, the top part takes up no space and the bottom group is things you pick up in the world.
You get total freedom to play and do what you want.
If you break the law or trespass you can hide u der beds, in vents and so much more.
The law will either tell you to leave or have weapons and shoot.
Clear markers on the screen.
Does the cool thing of when you advance the case you get the typing text down the bottom.
Your watch can be interacted with including setting alarms etc.
Combat can be stealthy, melee, or with weapons.
Using the Gadgets like scanning fingerprints, taking photos, etc.
To end the case you have to fill in a resolve form by either manually inputting info or by selecting it from the case board.
Not all cases can end and instead be a dead end.
You can be shot and bleed everywhere.
Citizens will react to you.
Speak to anyone and learn about them.
Save when you want.
The bottom left shows your current location.