Murdered: Soul Suspect First Look

Murdered: Soul Suspect is one of the more interesting games we’ve seen. The Square Enix third-person action-adventure title sees players controlling Ronin O’Connor, a police detective killed in the line of duty. That may sound pretty standard, but the catch is that you begin the game as soon as Ronin is murdered. The entire game takes place with the player controlling what is essentially Ronin’s ghost.

The adventure takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. It’s the perfect setting for this type of game, because Salem is already rich with history of ghost stories and tales of the afterlife haunting the living. As Ronin, your main objective is to find out who killed you and why. You’re basically solving your own murder from beyond the grave.

As a ghost, Ronin can’t interact with most objects (he passes right through them). He can also posses people in order to see through their eyes, read their minds and influence them in other ways. You can walk through walls, but Ronin can’t enter buildings unless they’re already breeched (open door, hole in the wall, etc.). As you unravel the mystery, various side quests will be presented that add more value to the game, giving Ronin more chances to explore and use his newfound powers.

During a closed door demonstration, we encountered a 300-year-old woman. We also discovered that we can mess around with the living to get humans to do what we want. In addition to possessing a person to influence them, Ronin can turn on a stove or make a noise in the corner of a room to get someone close by to investigate. 

Ronin can see traces of humans who were once in his general vicinity through memory residue. This helps him gather clues to solve the case at hand. Once you have a good amount of evidence, you must put it together in the proper order to figure out another clue and continue on your quest. However, this game isn’t solely about Ronin’s case. There are a number of demons that inhabit Salem. You must sneak up on these demons and tear them apart to avoid getting taken out.

Murdered: Soul Suspect certainly has us intrigued. We’ll keep a close eye on it as the early 2014 release date approaches. While most of the excitement this year has been around next-generation titles, Soul Suspect is a current-gen release. You’ll be able to pick up the title on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or PC (Windows) next year.