 Despite the darkness, there is light. A serial killer is loose upon the small city of Salem. Detective Ronan O'Conner is hot on the trail of the "Bell Killer" when the hunter becomes the hunted. Newly dead, Ronan has to catch the killer without being able to talk with any living person. This is going to be a tough case to crack.
1. Gameplay
I love ghost stories. There’s nothing like going on a long, boring family vacation, knowing that the one thing you’re looking forward to is the local “ghost tour”. Sure, the stories are usually ridiculous and campy, but it’s fun to get a little dose of local history, mixed with a major helping of urban legend and fiction. Even if the stories of people seeing, talking to, or interacting with ghosts are obviously fake, it’s a lot of fun to walk around a city and listen to a good storyteller.  I loooove a good ghost story. Murdered: Soul Suspect is a good ghost story. It starts off really slowly, but eventually it works its way up to the point where I wanted to find out how it ended. It gave plenty of twists, some of which were obvious, some of which I was definitely surprised by. Ultimately I completed the campaign and felt like the experience was worth doing… …once. This game is just a story. The mechanics are basically nonexistent. You can’t fail any of the challenges. The main character can be killed, but it’s really, really difficult to let that happen. I died once in the game, and that was only because I wanted to see what happened if I walked on these open pits with clawing arms. This is one of the easiest games I have ever played in my entire life, and that includes the old Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish games I used to play as a kid.  The side quests start out interesting but stereotypical. They lose the interesting parts very quickly. I’m not going to give away any details about the story, because the details are what make everything compelling. The more you know head of time, the less interesting the story is. I went into this game expecting something like LA Noire, with a combination of good storytelling and interesting mechanics that fit a true detective game, but that wasn’t really correct. This game is a good story, but it’s not a detective game. It just has sections where you’re supposed to find “clues” and then put them together to answer a question. And, unfortunately, most of the time the answers are so obvious I completely overthought them. For example “What was the killer doing here?” I thought I might have to piece together answers from books, damage to the building, the hiding girl, etc. But instead the answer was simply “searching”. That’s it.  It tries to present the challenges as complicated and deep. It's a deception. It’s not really a game meant for any intellectual stimulation, and while I think that was a missed opportunity it doesn’t detract from what this game is good for. It’s good for a ghost story. I might not pay $50 for that ghost story, but it’s a fun experience either way.
The game took me around 6 hours to beat. There are a ton of collectibles to pick up, some of which give “ghost stories” which can be fun to listen to, but this is one of those cases where getting the collectibles isn’t particularly fun. It’s just walking around in the right areas. After beating the story, I have zero desire to go back and find the collectibles or replay the story. The story is good, but there is no replay value here.
This game is ridiculously easy. I had an extremely hard time failing at all, and at times I honestly tried. You can fail if a demon eats you or if you fall into the tar-like pits of hell, but that’s it. You can’t fail the investigations. They give you these shields which seem to indicate the number of tries you get to guess the right answer, but even if you lose your last shield you can just keep guessing until you get the right answer. There doesn’t seem to be any penalty for failing, just as there doesn’t seem to be any reward for succeeding on the first try. There might be something achievement related, but considering I couldn’t go back and give it a second attempt without replaying the whole game I didn’t see how this was incentivized. 2. Parental Notices
Violence in this game is relatively minimal with a few notable exceptions. The only time the player will be able to actively participate in a violent activity is when the player is exorcising demons. When this happens, the player performs a randomized button + direction movement with the controller and the main character destroys the demon in a flash of light and ashes. It’s a quick, nonviolent maneuver that will happen a few times but is still relatively uncommon compared to the rest of the gameplay.  The power of Christ compels you! But this is a murder mystery, which by definition couldn’t exist without a little murder. The most obvious is the main character’s murder, which is vitally important to the rest of the game. In this sequence the main character is tossed from a fourth story window and lands hard on the sidewalk. Critically injured, yet somehow still alive (I seriously have no idea how), the main antagonist takes the main character’s gun and shoots the man repeatedly.  Overkill much? There's basically no blood but the shots are highlighted in a liquid lava-like glow on the ghost’s chest and back. There are a number of other murders that are highlighted, sometimes very briefly, in the game as well. The “Bell Killer” has a very specific reason for killing his victims, yet the methods are very different. Some are burned, some are strangled, some are drowned. Each is horrific on paper but the presentation is pretty simple. There is no blood, gore, or anything else. It all plays out like a standard TV cop drama. The stuff depicted in this game is about what you’d expect to see on an NCIS episode.  This is one of the worst, and he doesn't hang around for long.
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
The main character is always seen with a lit cigarette in his mouth. Considering he died with one in his mouth, and that the game makes it seem like he lived most of his life with one in his mouth, it makes sense that he lives with one in the afterlife too. It seems a bit like a trope, but it does give the main character a bit of personality. Either way, no other substance is nearly as prominent as his cigarette.  I wonder if ghosts can get lung cancer.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion plays a more noticeable role in certain chapters of this game. Aside from the obvious fact that the main character is a ghost and has to go around exorcising demons, Christianity and the church come into play in a relatively generic form. One of the characters in the game is a priest, who gives some guidance to the supporting character.  Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. The supporting character also takes refuge in a church. While the church can be explored, Christianity isn’t really discussed. It’s used as an obvious plot device to delineate the forces of good (the church, the priest, heaven, etc.) and the forces of evil (the demons, the killer) and how the main character has always straddled that line.  Ghost... weddings? The story also includes some references to the Salem witch trials. Since much of the reasoning behind those trials was unchecked extremist puritanism, there are a few references and characters who embody those unchecked puritan ideals.  Don't mess with the Puritans. Seriously.
Anti-law plays a relatively small part in this game. The most obvious part is the fact that the main character is a detective trying to catch a serial killer. While the main character never does anything illegal in trying to catch the killer (after all, the main character is dead from the beginning of the game), the killer is very skillful at evading law enforcement.  There's no way this guy was a detective. The main character also has an extremely deep history in crime. The opening sequence of the game gives the main character’s backstory and describes the different crimes he has committed. For each type of crime, he gets a new tattoo appropriate for that crime. It’s a very interesting way to give a reason for the character’s numerous tattoos.
There are no multiplayer modes in this game.
Extreme sports are not a factor in this game.
Magic does play a role in this game, but only on a supernatural level. There are plenty of ghosts in this game and the levels are designed to include interactions between the main character (a ghost) and the supernatural world. While I could hear an argument that the abilities and other elements included in the supernatural world are not magic, I’m not sure I have a better way to define exactly what this is.  Ghosts and demons doing the stuff ghosts and demons do best. Even excluding that, the story hinges on certain characters being called “witches”, and a few of those characters having the ability to see and talk with the dead. This is definitely magical and a key part of the dialog.
Human Disfigurement A decent number of the ghosts in the game will be disfigured in some way. For the most part it isn’t a major issue, but some of the ghosts that are vital to the main story show the state of the victims’ body just before they died. For example, one girl was burned at the stake, and shows significant burns all over her body. Another girl was drowned and left by a river, so her body shows the significant decay that took place after death.  That's messed up. Overall these are uncommon though. Most of the characters in the game are living, breathing people without any disfigurements.
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