Murdered: Soul Suspect

When Murdered: Soul Suspect was originally announced, it it barely made a blip on my gaming radar (truth be told, there was no blip at all. Not even half of one). I'm an action kinda guy, more at home shooting bad guys in BioShock than trying to solve violent deaths (even if that violent death involved my grizzled old self). So imagine my surprise when I saw Murdered: Soul Suspect in a December PSN store sale on PS4 and found myself putting it into my digital basket without second thought. (Though I must be honest, if it was more than the £12 I paid, I probably would have clicked on by). Luckily the timing (and price) was right and I was on the hunt for something different, and Airtight Games had the solution with Murdered: Soul Suspect.
The game takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, and you play Detective Ronan O'Connor, a former petty criminal turned cop. (And before I forget, tattoos look pretty cool on ghostly skin. This game is very easy on the eye).
Det. Ronan is on the trail of a serial killer known as the Bell Killer, a rather vicious, hooded killer who sadly for Ronan is strong and brutal and ends up throwing the detective out of a window before pumping his dying body full of bullets. You know, just to make sure the lawman is dead. Then something weird occurs as officer O'Connor 'wakes' up wondering how he has survived his attack. And then (here comes the odd bit), he realises he didn't survive at all and finds himself looking down on his bloodied corpse. He meets his long dead wife who explains to her ghostly spouse that he can't join her in the Afterlife until he clears up the unfinished business he has in the living world.
And this is where the 'fun' begins. Walking through walls, possessing cats (you read that right), playing poltergeist, jumping into living bodies and reading their minds and executing glowing demons who truly are quite terrifying, especially when you get too close to one and it screams in your face. Basically you acquire the abilities we all imagine ghosts have (apart from the cat possession thing, although it would explain why cats seem to have different rules to other animals).
Murdered: Soul Suspect is one of those games that pop up now and then, leaving you wondering where it came from, and how it slipped under your gaming radar. Mind you, it was released around the same time as bigger, more well known videogames so perhaps there's no mystery there. But make no mistake, Murdered: Soul Suspect is well worth your dosh. The puzzles aren't the obscure types found in games like Silent Hill and its very satisfying when pieces of the puzzle all come together to help track down the Bell Killer. There are other side missions to tackle as well as the main campaign but I won't spoil them here.

The game is definitely worth your gaming time, and it looks darned good on PS4. Personally ive had more fun playing this than Watch Dogs, a game im playing alongside Soul Suspect (though not at the same time obviously). And were I talking scores here, its easily a 4/5.