Shadows of Doubt, the procedurally generated first-person detective sim from developer ColePowered Games, is leaving Steam early access on 26th September, and it’s getting a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S release on the same day.
Shadows of Doubt entered Steam early access last April, challenging players – in the role of a freelance private investigator – to snoop and sleuth their way around a noir-ish open-world sci-fi city, aiming to complete enough investigations that they’re able to hang up their trilby and retire.
It’s the procedural generation that makes all this so impressive though; Everything – from the simulated city and the daily routines of its citizens to the murders and odd jobs players can tackle – is different each playthrough. And it’s coupled with an immersive-sim-like degree of freedom as players hack, lock-pick, shimmy, snoop, break-and-enter, interrogate, and more in order to solve unscripted cases.
“The biggest [mystery] rattling around my brain right now,” former Eurogamer editor Martin Robinson wrote back in 2020, “is how is this possible? This is a work of staggering ambition and no small amount of artistry, presenting an evocative, fully-functioning cityscape for you to explore, complete with several intricate systems underpinning your sleuthing. I’ve played 20 minutes and I’m simply staggered.”
Shadows of Doubt has continued to expand throughout early access – last September saw the arrival of infidelity investigations, for instance – and there’s still more in the works for its 1.0 release. ColePowered Games is promising a “big update that would make any private Twitch investigator with intrepidation,” with more details due “in the coming weeks.”
Shadows of Doubt will make its console debut on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 26th September, the same day it leaves Steam early access. ColePowered Games notes its Steam price will rise from $19.99 USD to $24.99 USD on 23rd August, so if you’ve been eyeing up a purchase, you might want to do it sooner rather than later.
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