In Murdered you play as Ronan, a man who at the start of the game was brutally murdered and thrown out of his apartment window, only to then find himself looking down at his body – as a ghost. Not only this, but he’s in between worlds so to speak. He is trapped in a place called ‘The Dusk’ a place which separates the dead from the living while the try to finish their business. Such an interesting premise for a game, Eric explains more as he talks through some gameplay…
Being a ghost is hard mind you, it’s not like you can slap the policeman and tell them what happened. That would be too easy, you have to really focus on solving what is going on, investigate your surroundings and use your observational skills to solve the murder. “As a ghost he (Ronan) can’t pick up anything. He can’t physically interact, it all happens in his mind’s eye. “
Ronan can investigate items and buildings, at the start of the game the player can look down at Ronan’s body and investigate the wounds that way – slowly piecing together what happened to him. “You know he’s been shot, you’ll see the observational flashback of it occurring in his mind’s eye.”
Ronan can also possess people temporarily, but unfortunately he is limited in this, and cannot physically do anything, but can instead look through their eyes to find more clues that would have been unavailable to him as a ghost. “While Ronan can’t directly control human beings when he possesses them, he can look through their eyes.”
Possession
There are other ghosts in the game too, but not all of them are friendly. They are all trying to tie up their lose ends, and solve their own unfinished business. “Most ghosts exist to finish their own unfinished business.” Studer comments that some of them become demons who Ronan can fight against in the game“But if you stay in the Dusk for too long you become corrupted by it.” Studer expresses how important it is to look at everything that is available to you: “It’s important to stay in the environment, and to stay engaged.”
Ronan meets another ghost
But... She's been corrupted
So he pops inside of the demon and POOF.
Something which is also interesting about Murdered are the buildings, we can see ghostly images of buildings that are no longer there, Studer explains that these buildings are places of tragedy, where there has perhaps been a collapse, or that it has been taken down but still holds fragmented memories, if people suffered then it leaves an imprint on the Dusk.
“Over the period of the game you’ll see a lot of time periods.” Set in Salem. “Salem does have a very rich supernatural backbone. New England is a great place for ghost stories, but Salem in particular has a very rich lore.” “There are a lot of things to discover if you take the time to do it.”
“We do have a lot of different areas to explore: a graveyard, a mental asylum… It’s perfect that we take you to these places and we get to creep you out a little bit.”
When discussing the film noir style of the game, Studer explains that the decision to do this was in the idea that the noir is unsettling, and frightening, and also very interesting. "I think that what you want to do is be unsettling. And make people feel like they’re not supposed to be comfortable here. The character shouldn’t feel comfortable in the dusk, he’s trying to solve his unfinished business.”
Murdered: Soul Suspect is expected to be released in early 2014 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
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