The ultimate detective ImSim, Shadows of Doubt, has released from Early Access

A gumshoe simulator of the highest order, Shadows of Doubt was slowly making its way through Early Access, only to release in 1.0 a tad too quickly.

Certainly, the developer Fireshine Games has delivered a unique and engaging game where virtually everything is procedurally generated, and the 1.0 build is no worse than any of its prior ones. This detective-based immersive sim presents you with proc-gen cases that you may or may not be able to solve, depending on where the simulation takes you. There’s plenty of depth to be found here, and the 1.0 build of the game features body-dragging, some new suspect interactions, and a bunch of other goodies. The thing is, the player base doesn’t seem to be too happy about any of this.

Shadows of Doubt releases from Early Access on Steam, but players claim it should have waited

Following its 1.0 release, Shadows of Doubt has received a substantial ingress of ‘Mixed’ reviews on Steam, many of them citing the idea that the game wasn’t ready to make the jump. Even some notable positive reviews recommend the game with the caveat that Shadows of Doubt isn’t quite where it needed to be to warrant a full launch.

The problems are serious enough that 54% of the recent reviews have been negative. This sits in stark comparison with the game’s previous ‘Very Positive’ review rating on Steam, which is sourced from over 10,000 reviews in total.

Here’s the thing about Shadows of Doubt, though: it’s almost entirely unique. Whereas most other ImSim games are perfectly happy with letting players take the violent path forward (even if it is shrouded with the thin veil of non-lethality), Shadows of Doubt veers away from that. Instead, it’s all about traversal, exploration, and PI sleuthing.

The game’s voxel-based visuals and striking setting ensure that virtually any case you come across is engaging, even if you can’t solve it in its entirety. Besides, no other modern title leans quite so heavily into the noir detective fantasy as Shadows of Doubt does.

So, even though Shadows of Doubt might not have reached the incredible heights that it might’ve reached with a few more years’ worth of development, there’s something special to be found here. From personal experience, I do recommend it. Besides, the game is priced at $25, with a 20% release discount in place until October 3. All in all, then, it’s a pretty darn good deal, however you flip it.