Murdered Soul Suspect - Review

January is a tough month for all of us. Some of you will have made New Resolutions which you have already broken, there are not many new games out & our wallets are feeling light after Christmas.  So what is a gamer to do?  I guess it is time to play one of the Playstation Plus or Games for Gold titles.


Hands up if you have ever eaten Koka Noodles, I have.  According to the Daily Edge "Koka Noodles are the food that keep Ireland running".  They are not super tasty, filled with chemicals & don't look very appealing but they help fill the void in your stomach during tough times.  There is no point complaining about all they could be because you know what you signed up for, this is sort of how I felt about Murdered Soul Suspect.

The game is set in modern day Salem Massachusetts, you play as Detective Ronan O'Connor, a rogue cop with a murky past.  In the opening moments of the game you are thrown through a third-storey window by the Bell Killer, unfortunately you can't fly so you can imagine how that works out.


I really liked the introduction to Ronan, you are given a back story by way of tattoos appearing on his body marking major events during his life.  The most notable of these is meeting his wife Julia which helped make him a better person, naturally her murder throws his life into turmoil.


Ronan loved being a Detective when he was alive & decides to continue being one now he is dead.
His mission is to figure out why he was killed, stop the Bell Killer & find Julia in the afterlife.  Don't worry you are not completely alone, you have Joy, an angst ridden teenager who looks like how I would imagine Triss Merigold's daughter to look like, oh & a cat.


There is genuine heart & emotion in Murdered Soul Suspect along with an interesting detective story with a paranormal twist.

Visually speaking the game does not look awful but does not look great either, considering Square Enix rubber stamped their name on it I hoped it would look better.  That being said there some great character designs, especially the Demons & some of the more random ghosts in the background.  One thing I really liked was that parts of old Salem often come through into modern day Salem which gave a really eerie feel.


The composer for game is Jason Graves who's works include; Fear 3, Far Cry Primal & The Order 1886.  The music lingers in the background & is never really intrusive,  unfortunately it so much so that the soundtrack is not very memorable.  There are only a few pieces that stood out for me; 'Main Theme', 'Julia' which has a very somber sound & 'Devour Your Soul' which is a rather chilling piece.
Due to the nature of the game it instead focuses on sound effects which being honest maybe was a better choice.

Onto the meat - the gameplay.   There are multiple cases to solve in the game, each one requiring you to find clues.  Once you have most or all of the clues you can answer the question being asked of you. While for the most part I enjoyed this I never quite understood what difference the order of clues you picked mattered especially as you were only asked one question. Picking the wrong order penalised & you would lose one of your three shields but being honest it never seemed to have an impact on the overall result of the case.


There are a number of trapped souls in Salem all who are looking for your help.  If you can successfully help give them closure they will pass on to the afterlife.  It made me feel good watching them float up to the sky all happy.


You have a host of ghostly abilities that you gain in the early part of the game.  One of them is called 'reveal' which helps reveal (funny enough) something from the past or something that was hidden. When you find something to use your ability on it actually looks like a glitch in the game.  I wonder was this originally an accident & someone in the studio thought this would be a great way to cover up a glitch?  Another ability you will use frequently in the game is 'Poltergeist', it works well for the most part but other times you have to be at a very specific angle to get it to recognise there an item to interact with.


There are few Easter Eggs in the game; in the Police Station almost all the computer screens have the main menu for Deus Ex Human Revolution & there are Just Cause 2 posters randomly put up in the station as well.


As a whole the gameplay was okay but was never very exciting, it could of been an action horror like Fear 2, or a pick your own path game like Telltale's Walking Dead but instead never really committed to being either & went for something sort of in the middle that did not really work.

So after less than 10 hours how did I feel about Murdered Soul Suspect?  If I take it as budget title, with a good story & some interesting characters I could almost say it was good.  Being honest though that was not what it was supposed to be & if I had to pay full price for a game that offered under 10 hours of gameplay & no real replay value then I would have to give it a 'meh' rating.  If you have nothing else do & want something to play while eating your Koka Noodles this might fill the void.