Beyond The Shadows of Doubt Bugs ► Ludology Now!

ColePowered Games’ Shadows of Doubt went from early access to full release on September 26, 2024, but to many players that changeover was true in name only. Dozens, if not hundreds, of (occasionally game-breaking) bugs have been reported since, some of them brand-new but, disappointingly, many holdovers from the early access period. The issues seem more prevalent on the PS5 port than on PC (a purely anecdotal statement based on the majority of complaints in the Shadows of Doubt subreddit) but, for many players, it has made them quit the game entirely. And that’s a shame.

Shadows of Doubt is one of the most creative detective games in years, possibly the best since Return of the Obra Dinn. The problem with Lucas Pope’s masterpiece, however, is that you can only really experience it once (or maybe two or three times, if you wait a few years and have an exceptionally bad memory). Conversely, Shadows of Doubt is a detective game with infinite replayability. 

Lurking In The Shadows Of Doubt

It’s unquestionable that some of the achievements Shadows of Doubt have made in the procedural generation space are nothing short of extraordinary. To create an entire city, down to every single apartment building, every single resident, every single resident’s job and home and family tree and blood type and fingerprint, is a massive undertaking. It’s this scope, this massive ask of the game’s systems, which results in so many of Shadows of Doubt’s bugs in the first place.

We’re not really here to talk about the bugs. Shadows of Doubt patches are coming at a slow-to-regular pace, and while I do feel for the players who purchased on PS5 (something I absolutely would have done myself had I not already bought it last year in Early Access) I can only speak for the experience I’ve personally had. And, y’all. Let me tell you, there’s quite a game here.

Catching Your Shadows Of Doubt

Recently I was in the path of Hurricane Helene and lost power for seven days. During that time, among other things, I re-read Isaac Asimov’s Prelude to Foundation, Forward The Foundation, Robots and Empire, and I, Robot. One of the first games I played once our power was back on was Shadows of Doubt, and, because the game offers a Create-A-City mode, I created a city based on characters and events in those books. 

This means my current Shadows of Doubt playthrough takes place on Trantor, the center of the Galactic Empire at the height of its reign and the beginning of its downfall. The first player home in Shadows of Doubt I purchased was in Demerzel Apartments, the first murder case I solved was in Cleon Heights, and the largest commercial tower is called Baleyworld Bartertown. My character’s name? Daneel Olivaw. Would have been Elijah, but you know he never would have gone for augmentations. I HIGHLY recommend playing Shadows of Doubt in a custom city.

Casting A Long Shadows Of Doubt

Shadows of Doubt isn’t just a straightforward gumshoe detective game, it’s also got a hefty serving of cyberpunk dystopia mixed in. While not my favorite genre in the world, it works well here, giving the player more of a Deus Ex vibe (the good one) than a Cyberpunk 2077 one. Upgrades, in particular, evoke the original Deus Ex, with players being forced to choose between one of two abilities inside new “SyncDisks” discovered in the environment.

Some of Shadows of Doubt’s upgrades I’ve only ever seen once, but many of them have the ability to alter your roleplaying style. Early on in my current playthrough I discovered a SyncDisk which allowed me to, effectively, become a health inspector, because it paid me for every photograph I took of any restaurant public restroom and rated the cleanliness of each. I could only take one photo per business per day, but having this steady income allowed me to purchase my first pair of handcuffs.

Scared By My Own Shadows Of Doubt

There are reasons to be hesitant about getting too invested in Shadows of Doubt. Bugs that can stop progression in a case completely, like an item spawning in an unreachable area or a certain flag not triggering on a character as it should, can be both incredibly heart-breaking and also confusing. There’s nothing worse than having to wonder whether it’s your own brain missing a clue, or if the game has bugged out, in a detective experience. It’s unacceptable, really, because conclusions are the main form of gameplay catharsis in such titles.

And yet. And yet I keep recommending Shadows of Doubt. I keep powering through, despite the bugs. And even though I’m on PC, don’t let me trick you into thinking I haven’t had issues. From crashes to desktop to not being able to pick up a piece of paper because it spawned into a writing desk, I’ve had a good bit of problems. If I hadn’t I wouldn’t feel obligated to use this column to defend Shadows of Doubt in the first place. But I have, and I do, because Shadows of Doubt is worth defending.

As I Walk Through The Valley Of The Shadows of Doubt

Sick of these puns yet?

Interconnected systems always, always result in bugs – just look at literally every single Bethesda game in history. If you, as a player, want your game to remember the exact location where you dropped one specific item seven hours ago and allow you to return to that location to retrieve it, that data has to be stored somewhere. The more data that has to be stored, the more complex the logic of the game world is, the more precarious the whole setup becomes. This is why loading screen times in Skyrim skyrocket on save files with 60 hours of game history to load.

Video games are largely held together by toothpicks and hot glue. It’s like that scene in The Simpsons where Mr. Burns is told he has every disease known to mankind, and they are all crowding each other at the door trying to get into his immune system. He’s alive, but even a slight breeze could send him into a death spiral.

So too is the backend of most video games. Speaking as a developer, I know when I start getting close to being done with a project because I start getting terrified of making any changes that could break it – something which pretty much always happens, no matter how careful I am. I shudder to think about the spaghetti strings of code tentatively holding Shadows of Doubt together.

My Echo, My Shadows of Doubt, and Me

I’ve had a YouTube channel for a few years and, for a while, did regular Let’s Play series with some of my friends alongside short films, experimental animated shorts, and longer video essays. I mention this because, every time I play Shadows of Doubt, I wish I was playing it in front of an audience. It’s the perfect mystery game to play with friends, one which provides lots of opportunities for lateral thinking and “Aha, what about this?” moments.

I wish there weren’t so many bugs in Shadows of Doubt, but it doesn’t ruin the experience for me. The future is always shaky at first. A fully explorable city where literally every person has a schedule, home, and job you can enter and explore, is something that Grand Theft Auto players like me have been asking for since GTAForums launched, but Shadows of Doubt got there first. Even if GTA6 offers a 100% fully explorable Vice City, Shadows of Doubt will have beat them to it. As far as games about solving murder mysteries goes, Shadows of Doubt might be the best one currently available.

THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDED MEDIA:

• Speaking of GTA, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas turned 20 years old last week. Check out this fantastic Rolling Stone article for a great anniversary dive featuring never-before-mentioned tidbits from the game’s developers.
• The British show Taskmaster is one of my favorite television shows currently airing, and this Friday (the 8th) marks the start of Junior Taskmaster, a version of the show where the contestants are aged 9-11. It looks absolutely lovely and everyone should tune in. Here’s the trailer:

• I’ve released a new game! Spaceship Typing is a fun, engaging game designed to help children learn how to use a keyboard and type words! With gameplay similar to 1983’s Math Blasters, Spaceship Typing challenges players to type the words descending from the top of the screen before they reach the bottom in order to gain points and keep the aliens away from Earth! Learn more at https://filthyandfree.itch.io/spaceship-typing

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Christopher J Teuton

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