I recently had a chance to play through this game that I was looking forward to so much. I was unable to buy Murdered: Soul Suspect upon launch, however this was a good thing.

Murdered: Soul Suspect reminded me a lot of L.A Noire except… not as good. If you look at L.A Noire and take the beautiful environments, the great action game play, and the nicely rendered crime scenes down the facial expressions and throw it all out the window you have Murdered Soul Suspect.

The basis of crime scene investigation consists of viewing objects. The objects then give a very brief description (sometimes so brief it is humorous.) The most interaction you will have with a character is a moment of possession. In this small time you must influence their thought process by selecting a previously found piece of evidence.

Murdered: Soul Suspect has minimal action. There are a few sections of the game that have demons you must approach in a stealth way and kill from behind. If you are caught by them it is easy enough to escape and try again. The other portion of action the player will run across isn’t much action. This consists of not stepping on a certain part of the ground. If you do demon’s hands will attempt to pull you to hell. SPOILER…. Don’t worry though you get a teleport ability later in the game that allows you to… not teleport over these hands.

Aside from the demons you must kill there is no action. This brings me to the point; you are just walking around crime scenes, walking not driving. There are a couple of times in the game that you are able to move around the map in a different way, a way of a cat. That is right, you are able to posses a cat for a couple different scenes of the game. This really offers no benefit other than fitting you into smaller portions of the map. 

Also note that I have said this game is appropriate for 13 and up not 17 and up. The ESRB has rated the game “Mature” but I disagree. There is no gunplay in the game. There are a couple of scenes of violence, but nothing too graphic. 

I also ran into a couple other issues with the game. Controls seemed to be solid when they worked. However, at one point in the game I lose full control of my character. I could not walk, teleport, or even interact with an object. I had to close the application and reboot. The other downfall I had run into was at the end of the game. I failed the final quick time event AND passed it at the same time. The game showed me both cut scenes for failing and succeeding however it did result in me having to reset from the earlier checkpoint.

So, with no guns, no cars, no beautifully rendered character, and horribly designed crime scenes you have Murdered: Soul Suspect. This game missed the mark completely and was a horrible disappointment. I was able to bear through the entire thing in eight hours of lackluster gameplay.