In Murdered Soul Suspect you play as the detective Ronan O’Connor who has just been killed by the “bell killer” after a confrontation. Ronan can not find peace in death without finding out his murderer. Playing as Ronan’s ghost was something I found to be interesting and also an intriguing concept due to the gameplay differences when playing as ghost. As Ronan is a ghost he can walk through walls and posses other characters to give the player more information to the investigation or be used to get past an obstacle.
While Murdered Soul Suspect feels unique and original it does take little gameplay elements from both L.A Noire and Heavy Rain. Like 
L.A Noire, Murdered Soul Suspect features a series of investigations that lead to an overall conclusion in the story. Investigations take place in a small area with a numbered amount of clues to be found in this area. Clues are then used to piece together a story that Ronan can relive, and see in 1st person.
Investigations were not executed well in Murdered Soul Suspect. One of the major reasons why they didn’t work well was because no matter what you choose during an investigation, you will always get it right in the end by doing a simple trial and error method which means the player doesn’t even need to analyse the crime scenes properly as long as they have all the clues possible in that crime scene. Choosing a wrong piece of evidence just brings up a message saying you choose the wrong clue then you go back to the clues again with the previously chosen clue missing. With this kind of gameplay it makes the gameplay extremely linear as well as easier and quicker to finish than the average game.
Due to the style of Murdered Soul Suspect (playing as a dead guy) combat was something that prior to playing the game was something that interested me. I wondered how the development team would be able to do combat sequences, or if the game would even feature combat sequences. There are moments of combat scattered across the story which feature demons that try and permanently remove you from the living. The combat is poorly done, and forces the player to get rid of the demons by using stealth only. By limiting the combat to just stealth, it makes all these demon fights repetitive as well as boring.
It truly is a shame that Murdered Soul Suspect has these problems because behind all these issues is a pretty interesting detective story that had me wanting to find out who the killer was in the end. Once I was finished with the story, I felt satisfied with the story altogether which also had an ending that left me with a good taste.
The Final Verdict
Murdered Soul Suspect was something different than most of the games I’ve played this year, so I have to give credit for that. It’s just a shame that the overall game wasn’t executed well. The can’t fail investigations, followed by the forced demon fights that get repetitive not long after the first confrontation, and other issues brought down the overall quality in the game. I still recommend giving this game a try one day due to it’s surprisingly good story.
+Interesting concept
+Good story
-Linear detective gameplay/Can’t fail
-Demon sequences feel forced and are repetitive
Final Score
6.5/10
