Game reviews

Murdered: Soul Suspect: inside the room, outside the conversation

Murdered: Soul Suspect gives its ghost detective unusual access to evidence while denying him ordinary contact with witnesses. That imbalance is the interesting part.

Whimsical Woes editorial ·

Murdered: Soul Suspect gives a detective access to places while taking away the ordinary authority to ask questions there. Ronan O’Connor is investigating his own killing from the afterlife. He can get close to the living, but proximity is not the same as being heard. That is the game’s most interesting idea about being a ghost: access without a place in the conversation.

This review concerns the core design of Airtight Games’ 2014 release, published by Square Enix. It does not compare platform performance or disclose the killer.

Getting inside is only the first problem

Developer Eric Studer explains possession as a way to see through someone’s eyes, hear conversations and read thoughts, with limited influence. A witness therefore becomes more than a person standing beside a clue. Their access to the scene becomes part of the investigation. The appeal is not simply having a supernatural shortcut; it is having to approach evidence through somebody who belongs to a world that no longer recognizes Ronan.

The architecture has a related complication. Studer describes objects in the Dusk as solid to Ronan, even though ordinary walls need not stop him. That distinction gives the overlapping worlds some resistance. A ghostly view of a place needs its own obstacles and history, or passing through a wall becomes a way to make every space equally uninteresting.

Other people still have unfinished business

Square Enix’s introduction describes optional cases involving spirits with unresolved lives. That is an important expansion of the premise. Ronan’s death is not the only event that deserves an explanation. A supernatural detective story becomes more generous when the afterlife includes people whose concerns do not begin with the protagonist. These cases make investigation an opportunity to attend to somebody else’s stalled story.

The same introduction establishes demons as a danger to wandering souls. Already being dead does not remove the game’s threat system. There is a tension here worth considering: a mystery invites patient attention, while a hostile encounter asks for immediate response. Switching between those demands can give a setting energy, but can also interrupt the very curiosity that makes its ghosts interesting.

The case has an authored destination

Chief creative officer Matt Brunner describes the main story as linear, with clues leading through the mystery. Senior design producer Eric Studer also discusses optional cases and collectible backstory. Those are different kinds of freedom. Wandering away to learn more about Salem does not turn the central investigation into a system that accepts any convincing theory the player can devise.

That boundary is the main limitation of the detective fantasy. If a player wants deduction to produce consequences beyond finding the intended next step, a fixed story may feel restrictive. The ghost abilities change how information is reached more readily than they change who determines the answer. Enjoying the premise means accepting that distinction, rather than expecting supernatural powers to guarantee investigative freedom.

Ronan’s predicament gives Soul Suspect a reason to exist beyond its whodunnit. He can approach evidence while remaining absent from the social world that produced it. Ethan Carter and Unavowed offer different approaches to supernatural investigation; this game’s distinction is the awkward privilege of getting inside without being acknowledged.

Questions from the crypt

Is Ronan’s death an ending spoiler?

No. His murder and existence in the Dusk are the opening premise in the publisher’s description. This review discusses that setup and its investigation mechanics while withholding the killer’s identity and the eventual resolution.

Can Ronan walk through absolutely everything?

No. Studer explains that objects belonging to the Dusk share Ronan’s plane of reality and can obstruct him. The game distinguishes ordinary physical barriers from supernatural ones; being a ghost is not unrestricted movement through every space.

Why are there enemies if Ronan is already dead?

The publisher identifies demons that consume wandering souls in the Dusk. They create a threat beyond Ronan’s physical death. The review considers their place in the mystery’s pacing without presenting a combat walkthrough or revealing later encounters.

Sources & further reading

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