Unlike a lot of tutorials, Shadows of Doubt doesn’t chain you to a single location. And that’s why, instead of solving crimes, I went around a bloody rampage around a random stranger’s apartment.
In my defense, all I really wanted to do was get onto the roof of the apartment building. As awesome-looking as Shadows of Doubt’s voxel city is, I wanted to appreciate it from high. Completely missing the lift, I went up and up and up until I was on what must have been the fourteenth floor of the building.
Instead of roof access, I found a single apartment. I knocked on the door and invited myself inside. That’s around the time the homeowner started objecting, and for no rational reason, I started punching. That bloody rampage I mentioned? A lot of the blood was mine.
I eventually came out on top, and realizing I had a pair of handcuffs on my person, I restrained the hapless resident whose home I’d invaded. As I write this, I realize how terrible it sounds, but things were going to get so, so much worse.
Before I could so much as think about making my escape, a vaguely sinister red outline informed me that the man’s wife was about to wake up. I attempted to hide, but as it turns out, Splinter Cell, Thief, and all those other stealth games were lying to me.
She spotted me almost immediately and laid into me. A short bout of fisticuffs later, she was unconscious. At this point, I should have beat a hasty retreat, particularly when the apartment’s ear-bleedingly loud alarm kicked in.
But I was operating under the sunk cost fallacy and started rifling through cupboards to see if I could plunder anything of value. And when I found an assault rifle in one room, I was sure I’d hit the jackpot.
But as I quickly learned, Shadows of Doubt doesn’t let you shoot weapons, even though NPCs can. Instead, when you attempt to wield it, your detective grabs it by the business end. So the handcuffed homeowner got to witness this idiot burglar grab his rifle and wave it around like a club.
That was about the time when his wife woke up. And again. And again. And again. Stabbing her with a kitchen knife (you can tell I was getting desperate) only delayed her Jason Voorhees-style resurrection.
Since I didn’t have a lake to sink her in, I chose the next best option, throwing her out of the window. That was the plan, anyway; I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. I was so panic-stricken, in fact, that I decided the best way to open the window was by punching it with my fists. Shadows of Doubt helpfully informed me that I was bleeding, which I already knew, as did the carpet.
What I didn’t know was that not only will Shadows of Doubt not let you kill people, but you can’t move bodies. Even trying to bump my would-be victims towards the window didn’t help. So Operation Midnight Air was destined for failure and all I’d gotten out of it was bleeding knuckles and a guilty conscience.
Things get a little fuzzy after that. I remember punching a toothbrush and eventually deciding to cut my losses. I made a break for it, racing past the homeowner who, as far as I know, is still handcuffed to this day.
In a way (let’s face it, every way), it was my own fault. I’d forgotten that, as a detective game, Shadows was unlikely to let me go full Hitman. And the freedom it gives you to enter virtually every building is intoxicating.
Still, it was a one-off, and going forward I’m sure I’ll treat Shadows of Doubt’s citizens with complete respect. Hey… what’s this about being able to charge down doors?
