A new indie game offers a pixelated film noir set in an alternative history dystopian that’s a cross between Blade Runner and The Maltese Falcon.
Shadows Of Doubt sounds great on paper. It’s designed to appeal to the thwarted private eye that exists within all of us, while acting as a homage to classic hard-boiled detective film noir. At the same time, it makes clever use of procedural generation, in order to conjure up unique cities within which you can lead a vicarious life as a gumshoe. It’s an ambitious concept, made all the more impressive because it’s a more or less solo project from indie developer ColePowered Games.
In many ways, it achieves its ambition to be a more free-form, unstructured, and randomised take on the likes of Ace Attorney. It certainly possesses a distinctive visual style but at the same time it betrays it indie origins on far too regular a basis and ends up feeling like more of an intellectual exercise than a truly enjoyable game.
Shadows Of Doubt sets its scene and tone…
