The first thing we do, in our pre-alpha build of Shadows Of Doubt, is delete the entire world. On starting a new game, you’re given the option to generate your own rainy cyber-noir city, with size and population density sliders to choose exactly how big a haystack you’ll search for your murderous needle in – but project lead Cole Jefferies suggests we begin with the provided demo world (four blocks by five, population: 146). Which, with a single stray keystroke, we remove from existence. Oops.
This accident does, at least, give us chance to generate a new world. A loading bar spools through tasks – lays out blueprints, creates life, plants evidence – and in doing so, weaves an entirely new murder mystery for us to solve. “In my game, the killer might be in a certain apartment, and in another game, it might be a completely different person, in a completely different part of the city,” Jefferies explains. “But the basis of the storyline, the key beats, are the same.”
In this game, we find the victim – one Charles Sesay – upstairs in our own apartment building, his blood spattered all over the tiles of his bathroom. But first we have to reach that room. As a private eye operating on the fringes of the law, accessing most crime scenes will involve a little criminal activity of your own. (Get caught, and after taking a beating you’ll wake up back in your apartment, with a fine depending on your current felony level.)
This story is from the February 2021 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 2021 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
Anyone familiar with the concept of kitbashing is already halfway to understanding what Tomas Sala’s open-world builder is all about.
Children Of The Sun
René Rother’s acrid revenge thriller – an action game with its limbs broken and forcibly rearranged into the shape of a spatial puzzler – is at once a bonafide original and an unlikely throwback. Cast your eyes right and you wouldn’t blink if we told you this was a forgotten Grasshopper Manufacture game from the early PS3 era (we won’t be at all surprised if this finds a spot on Suda51’s end-of-year list).
Post Script
What does Rise Of The Ronin say for PS5 exclusivity?
Rise Of The Ronin
Falling in battle simply switches control to the next person up, and then quick revive fixes everything
Post Script
The pawn and the pandemic
Dragon's Dogma 2
The road from Vernworth to Bakbattahl is scenic but arduous. Ignore the dawdling mobs of goblins, and duck beneath the chanting harpies that circle on the currents overhead, and even moving at a hurried clip it is impossible for a party of four to complete the journey by nightfall.
BLUE MANCHU
How enforced early retirement eventually led Jonathan Chey back to System Shock
THE MAKING 0F.... AMERICAN ARCADIA
How a contrast of perspectives added extra layers to a side-scrolling platform game
COMING IN TO LAND
The creator of Spelunky, plus a super-group of indie developers, have spent the best part of a decade making 50 games. Has the journey been worth it?
VOID SOLS
This abstract indie Soulslike has some bright ideas