A superb sleuth has a recognisable face. An ideal one has dozens in keeping with The Shapeshifting Detective, an FMV homicide thriller game launched yesterday by D’Avekki Studio. A younger girl has been murdered, and there are few sooner methods to get to the reality than to be the entire suspects on the identical time. As the title suggests, the participant has the power to supernaturally disguise themselves as any of the forged, opening up new dialogue choices and clues. Handy, as anybody might be the killer – actually, because it’s randomly chosen every time. The launch trailer inconspicuously sits beneath.
From the seems to be of it, The Shapeshifting Detective is about in a world the place shapeshifters (and different unusual issues) are a semi-regular factor. If you screw up and imitate the incorrect individual on the incorrect time, you may find yourself elevating suspicions or simply blowing your cowl. A better stakes strategy than different latest adventures, nevertheless it jogs my memory of the higher elements of Westwood’s mostly-forgotten 1997 Blade Runner game. That too had random plot threads and excessive stakes choices, including uncommon replay worth to a style not identified for it.
Interactions in The Shapeshifting Detective are purely multiple-choice dialogues, though there’s a number of Bluff or Lie choices scattered in amongst essentially the most common questioning. No poking round in rooms for clues, simply pumping the suspects for information and attempting to catch them in a contradiction, and your shapeshifting means that you can do some intelligent issues inside this framework. Interestingly, there’s additionally the choice to delete doubtlessly hazardous strains of dialogue completely out of your choices – high quality of life characteristic? Perhaps there’s a cause why you’d need to put issues out of your thoughts.
The Shapeshifting Detective is out now on Steam and Humble for £7.99/€8.79/$10.39 and printed by Wales Interactive. I’m simply joyful to see a decent-looking FMV game launching so quickly after the (wonderful) trainwreck that was The Quiet Man.
