Story:
Ronan was dead, to begin with. And that must be understood or else this story will seem mundane. He's dead, killed by some guy known as the Bell Killer, but wait his shattered soul has a few seconds to get back into it's body... oh no he's been shot seven times in the chest, what a shame, he's dead. We then learn Ronan has a bitter rivalry with another cop, his brother-in-law is a cop, his wife is dead and in heaven, or whatever vague version they called it, and Ronan must clear up his unfinished business, hand-in-hand with Casper while protecting the town from the ghostly trio: just kidding. He discovers that his powers in life are now stronger in death, these powers apparently all being analytical and he must use them plus a variety of common powers to track down and... something... the bell killer. The story isn't too involved, there's a psychic side-kick because there's always at least one in every supernatural game. There's people to protect, unforseen deaths, twists and a vague nondescript ending that really wasn't worth the few hours it takes to get through this game if it didn't have so many cinematics. Cut-scenes and flashbacks galore in this spooky tale which to me is a bad sign of a lack of creativity weaving the story into the gameplay, I understand flashback cut-scenes but in one mission there were cut-scenes every time you spoke to your side-kick while sneaking her through a police station... it was boring and time consuming, you would think they could have weaved all the dialogue psychically as they snuck through the rooms. The worst part is that I knew who the killer was after the first mission, and the surprise 'real' killer wasn't all that surprising, it was annoying that the murderer turned out to be someone who didn't really have a lot of impact during the game and only appeared once or twice in a minor way, their story, as well, wasn't as well integrated or subtly integrated as it could have been throughout the game. The fact that the game was set in Salem probably already gives you a clue as to what the story revolves around, and how it takes the main character so long to figure that out is shoddy writing. How can anyone live in Salem so long without knowing something about witches?

Gameplay:
At first I enjoyed the game. I mean it was interesting to be able to run through walls, cars, people and fences and the ghost buildings (Or memory buildings) were a nice addition that made for some interesting obstacles. The demons were frightening, and a nice scary opponent but once you realise they can't see through walls, but somehow you can, they lose their fear factor, and are really just annoying things that are in the way. The demons are very difficult to just run past, and due to the fact they can quickly kill you help to balance out the slow, easy gameplay with short bursts of action, hiding and strategy. The investigation side of things, however, was just laughable. For £30+ I expect a challenge, I expect having to think, I expect multiple answers and the ability to get things wrong and accuse the wrong people on my terms. I did not expect to have, say, a room full of objects with lights shining on all the important ones with impossibly easy solutions to the occasional puzzles. The reason I got anything wrong on the first try was because I over-thought every single one. The first 'puzzle' is to influence a woman to think about the Bell Killer, and the answer is to select the 'Bell Killer' clue, but the question posed was "What would get her to think about my murder?" but she was also presented in a way that led me to think she was making up her statement, so I thought the goal was to show the investigators how wrong she was... so you see what I mean here? Trust me, the investigation side of things is a simplistic version of the one seen in L.A. Noire and that was pretty simple to begin with.

As you progress through the game you pick up powers, randomly, more or less just up off the floor. There's no test, no power-up, no upgrades, no cinematic to show that you've achieved something... really you just get them by walking forwards and not dying. It shouldn't be annoying but the lack of ceremony just got to me, there's not even a ghostly sensei to teach you how to be a ghost, everyone in the spirit world lets you get on with it with very little interaction. Also the powers are quite limiting and once you get the teleportation ability a number of the puzzles involving using cats to get around become pointless and makes you wonder why you can't just teleport up instead of needing to possess poor kitties. After a while being able to walk through walls gets boring as a means to avoid demon pits, there are a few interesting hidden objects obtained through this means but walking through walls isn't as well implemented as it could have been, in fact most of the powers aren't as well implemented as they could have been. I really liked the ghost train part and having to use teleportation to travel between safe zones. This is something that could have been used throughout the game, with more obstacles through the different levels incorporating the powers.

I was disappointed with the absence of gun battles, or ranged combat, you're given a character with an awesome backstory, tattoos covering his body in a gangster style and seven bullet holes in his chest. I would have thought these aspects would have had some effect on the game play. You know, gain an ability, gain a glowing ghost tattoo, or a different colour of bullet hole... it seems like most of the game budget was spent on designing the main character, with everything else getting downsized so they could slap on another tattoo. The glowing yellow bullet holes apparently do nothing more than give a bit of colour to your otherwise grey character. It felt like there was more that could be done, a bit of adventure among all the... non-adventure.

Depth:
There's not a lot to do and a simple sweep of the game levels will reveal all the collectables you could want, not that you're going to bother with them much, they're not interesting. The history of Salem isn't something I would turn to a game to look for, facts on witch burnings might be interesting and the cinematics of other murders are somewhat interesting but not anything to get excited about. There are 2D indie games which are more in-depth than Murdered: Soul Suspect. If they had embedded clues or had facts or interesting hints in the collectable histories I might have bothered to give them a look, or at least a glance, but there's nothing in them other than things the researchers learned about Salem. There's not even the option for an end-game mode where you go around and collect anything that you missed.

Sound:
Right in some places but overall terrible, we are talking about the music. Throughout the game plays a very creepy violin score that gets the fear factor up... when there's nothing to be scared about. You're walking around a room, with no danger, and nothing frightening happening... so what was the point of all that fear mongering? I know the main character is dead and he's in the realm of the dead but that by itself is not frightening and therefore doesn't require scary violin music. They should have used an ambient sound, like jazz or natural noises rather than relying on the violins and acting scary. There literally is no danger in the 'city' area of Salem but the music creates tension like there's about to be and I just can't understand why.

Graphics:
I can't really fault the graphics, some moments are brilliant, the demons especially are wonderfully designed with everything about them being demonic, horrible and frightening. They're like twitchy Dementors, and are possibly the only reason to play this game, just to see a well animated horror, they're so terrifying to look at they don't lose their fear factor and tension generating ability even if you've been staring at one through a wall circling a room for the past twenty minutes. There's nothing pretty though, and everything is in darkness with ghost buildings here and there making everything which isn't a dull black a dull grey. There needed to be a bit more colour, I feel, possibly a daylight level where you had to keep in the shade.

Addiction:
There's nothing here that will make you long to play this game several years down the line. Most likely Murdered: Soul Suspect will become a forgotten game, or one no one will admit to have ever playing. The gameplay is listless, the story is obvious, the characters don't really react to things like proper humans and there's a sense that being dead and seeing ghosts is a rather mundane, everyday thing that happens all the time in Salem. You might go back and play it once more just to get the collectables and maybe some achievements but I don't see that happening, I just don't. I just wish the stories would have been more involving, or that the murders and death investigations would have been that bit more mysterious.

Difficulty:
There's very little difficulty, to be honest, if it wasn't for the fact there's swearing and violence in this game I would recommend it for five year olds. The puzzles aren't at all difficult, the demons are easy to avoid once you've got the trick of it, you rarely have to use your acquired powers in the main game and there's no obstacle in the way of getting to new levels. Even when you have to get the psychic from A to B without being seen she'll only move once you've satisfied the conditions perfectly, removing the challenge once more. If you don't bother with the collectables you could complete this game in a few hours. £30+ well spent you say?

Conclusion:
Don't buy this game. Don't, there's several games just like it on Steam; without 3D interfaces and a moveable character but still more or less the same thing. There's free games on your kindle or phone that have the same depth to them and there's not even a good story for you to sink your teeth into. This game is a waste of money, with only one or two good points and that's not worth wasting any amount of money on. It's seriously annoying that this game is no good because it is such an interesting premise and one which is so rarely explored from the viewpoint of the ghost. I wish they had done a better job in every aspect, but it seems unfinished, rushed and that they had ran out of money. I mean... the final battle in the game is a linear interview where you can't go wrong.

If you want a good ghost/murder/investigation game then I suggest you look into the Blackwell series that's available on steam. It's a 2D point and click game but you're more or less getting the same, if not much more compelling, gameplay and story to engage with. It's even got a ghost and a psychic medium in it; runs around the idea of persecution, murders across generations, helping spirits to cross over, information puzzles aaaand historical figures (Occasionally).