A few months back, one of my favorite let’s play channels introduced me to Shadows of Doubt, a procedurally-generated cyberpunk detective game that plays like an immersive sim. I find it kind of fascinating, and love the look, the crowded, densely-packed setting, and the depth of the simulation, where it maps out stuff like every NPC’s routine whether they’re relevant to a case or not, where they live, even where they leave fingerprints.
I don’t play many games, mostly for lack of time, and tend to avoid proc-gen stuff that relies on emergent gameplay and emergent storytelling (I guess I have an easier time justifying a story-based game as it’s more like reading a book or watching a show? I don’t know). But I keep thinking back to this one and wanting to give it a shot because the cyberpunk immersive sim thing is very much my jam. I thought I’d see if anyone else has played it, and if you’ve had any good adventures in it.
Here’s an article I stumbled onto while gathering links, in case you want more info: https://www.pcgamer.com/this-procgen-cyberpunk-detective-game-is-like-an-endless-deus-ex-and-it-could-become-a-stone-cold-classic/
This is already one of my favourite games ever, though I’d find it difficult to articulate what I love about it, though I think it’s the feel of the “detective” part of piecing together info, to find the fingerprint, to look at the work place, to crawl past the security lasers to cut the power, to find the clue, the murder weapon then the murder etc - and if you get stuck doing that, you take one of the silly side missions like “smash all the windows in this person’s flat” or “throw food at someone’s face and take a photo”.
