Murdered: Soul Suspect

A few months back I’d bought Murdered: Soul Suspect, but with work and such getting in the way, I rarely have the time to play my console titles for more than a few hours at a time – save for weekends. I’d decided to start giving myself a bit of a schedule and focusing on one game at a time during the weekends, given my rather larger list of uncompleted games. The first on the list was Murdered: Soul Suspect.

To get this out of the way first, I did enjoy the game. It has an interesting premise, I like the location and its sordid real life history. But there are some major issues that hold it back from being anything more than an interesting idea.

For starters, the game has one of the most sputtering frame rates I’ve ever seen; constantly dropping down to like 10-15 frames a second. The laughably bad Colonial Marines frame rate was more consistent than this. While it’s not a game breaker, it is frustrating when the frame rate constantly takes a shit, making exploration quite disorienting.

The biggest issue really is the gameplay itself. It’s not that it’s bad, I have no problems with a title that focuses more on investigation and less on combat. L.A. Noire succeeded in that regard just fine, and honestly I think the game would have been better if there wasn’t an occasional high octane action scene. Problem is, while Murdered is basically L.A. Noire with ghosts, the game treats the player like a moron, which in turn, makes main character Ronan, look like he’s got the cognitive abilities of a small child. Even when all the information is spelled out to him, Ronan needs it spelled out some more, just in case the audience doesn’t quite get it. For instance, the obligatory twist is made obvious about a quarter of the way through, but Ronan’s surprise is understandable. The problem is, the twist comes and he kind of forgets it later on. He knows who the killer is, but then forgets who the killer is, blaming someone else instead.

The clues and answers are far too obvious. It’s less about deduction and reasoning and more like “put circle in circle.” Many of the clues are spelled out to the player, 10 times out of 10, you will find yourself clicking on the clue that the game already said is the relevant clue. The girl escaped to the church, what is the most relevant clue? The church of course. I get the feeling that it was either a developer or publisher decision to make the investigation/deduction stuff as simplistic as possible. Wouldn’t want to challenge the audience and make them think. No, it might scare some people away. It’s insulting how little respect the game has for its audience’s intellect.

In the end, the real crux of the game is the story. And while serviceable with some nice character moments, it’s mostly kind of forgettable. The plot is borderline Quantic Dream bad, complete with the signature David Cage narrative nosedive. For all of its interesting ideas and the grounded historical premise, it’s all very run of the mill.

Hero character Ronan is the most cliché of detective clichés. He’s got a bad past, has a lot of tattoos, is cynical, world weary and wears a trilby/fedora. While I appreciate his design, he’s, well he’s overdesigned. It looks nice, but the design feels like a caricature, he looks like he’s going to a Halloween party as an Irish gangster from the 1950s. He’s got the vest, the pocket chain, a button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a trilby to complete the look. It’s just dishonest. If the game maybe took place in the ‘50s I’d let it slide, but it’s got a modern day setting. Ronan looks like he just stepped out of a time capsule. It’s not like it would’ve been hard to give the guy a modern day design, but instead of going for a modern fedora/trilby w/ suit get up, they went for the classic old school noir anti-hero look. It makes Ronan look like a douche, a poser. Someone pretending to be this cynical chain smoking badass.

His design also isn’t helped by his dreadful monologues. It sounds like Max Payne fan-fiction at points. Like someone with no writing ability thought “man this sounds so deep” and rolled with it. It feels forced, false and dishonest. Max Payne may have had some cheese ball monologues and moments, but there was an honesty to it and a poetry to the prose. You can tell Sam Lake loved and understood the genre and had fun with some of its sillier tropes. That’s where Max Payne worked, it was an honest pastiche of the genre and while it had a serious narrative, it didn’t always take itself to seriously.

Murdered just feels like someone who thought the noir idea and tropes sounded cool, but had no understanding or love for it. It’s hollow, a cheap imitation. It’s less Robert Mitchum and more Christian Slater in Alone in the Dark.

And while the dishonesty and clichés really bring the game down a couple notches, the best parts are the characters. Both Ronan and Joy are quite interesting to watch. While they’re both overdesigned clichés –he’s the tough guy and she’s the rebel teen- their banter between each other gives the game some heart. Maybe it’s the performances or the writer is better at lighthearted dialogue than noir pastiche. Whatever it is I enjoyed every moment of their time onscreen together.

There’s some nice lighthearted moments such as his inability to pass over a puddle of tortured souls.

Joy: “Can’t you just fly over.”

Ronan: “Fly? I’m a ghost, not a plane alright?”

Not quite as funny in text, but you get the point. The actors really get into their roles and their lighthearted sarcastic banter brings some character, to an otherwise characterless story. Honestly, if the game just focused more on their relationship I would’ve been much more satisfied with the overall experience.

The whole thing feels like a lost opportunity and it feels rather rushed. There are little seeds planted throughout the story that never amount to anything and the final act is anti-climactic as they get and comes straight out of left field. You get the sense that they had more they wanted to put into it, but had to rush to meet a deadline. Especially with the ending. There was so much more story that could’ve been explored, but then, out of nowhere it just hits you and it’s over. And it wraps everything up as quickly as possible. We never see Ronan and Joy give their goodbyes, just some narration and a short montage to give the audience some semblance of closure.

I really feel bad about being so critical of this game and this review turned out harsher than I anticipated. I really do like it and what they were trying to do. But Murdered is a half a masterpiece. All the pieces are there, but most of the puzzle is lost.