Games for Pluviophiles: Shadows of Doubt

 

When someone says, "My, what a beautifully sunny day!" do you want to punch them? When the weatherman reports no rain in the forecast, do you become depressed? Do you celebrate the great indoors? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you might be a pluviophile.  I hate to do this, but let's begin with the definition of 'pluviophile' because I suspect the term might be unfamiliar to many.  Copilot defines a pluviophile as:

Someone who enjoys rain and rainy days, finding fascination in the sights, sounds, and ambiance of rain. If you’re a pluviophile, you appreciate the gentle patter of raindrops on leaves, the misty atmosphere, and the cozy feeling that rainy weather brings. 🌧️☔

The term originates from Latin:

“Pluvi” refers to rain.

“Phile” denotes a person who loves or has an affinity for something.

I am a proud pluviophile.  Ever since childhood, I have luxuriated on rainy days.  While the world is constantly urging me to embrace the outdoors, I would rather shut the door in the face of such nonsense and enjoy the technological benefits of thousands of years of civilization, such as air conditioning, plumbing, and a gaming PC with a face internet connection. I know where my bread is buttered!  A gray rainy day brings such joys into sharper focus by creating that "cozy" feeling mentioned in the definition. As Mehmet Murat ildan wrote, “If you want to get lost without getting lost, a rainy day is exactly the day you are looking for! Everyone you see here and there is immersed in their own world under their umbrella, almost teleported to another place, lost in an abstract world!” And you don't need that umbrella if you stay indoors!

Made with Microsoft Copilot

Speaking of a gaming PC, several games capture that rainy day feeling quite well.  The first I would like to mention is ColePowered Games' proc-gen detective game, Shadows of Doubt. If you love film noir, this game is for you because the player is a gumshoe solving (and committing!) crimes in a proc-gen city. And boy is it a swell time!  

In a recent gameplay session, I was confronted with a double murder. And I do mean "confronted" because the case began as I left my favorite in-game fast food joint. I heard a scream and ran to investigate. Across the street, a body lay in a pool of blood while a bystander called for help. Rushing over, I discovered the man had been slashed to death with a sharp instrument. Searching his pockets, I learned his name was Ding-Xiang Gao, head of HR at a nearby company called Gong Corp.  I had a case!

I learned his address from the phonebook and headed over there quickly. I searched the place but unfortunately, nothing of use was discovered. So, I headed to his office to see what I could learn.  At Gong Corp, I was stonewalled by the receptionist and given the bum's rush. Not being deterred - I am a hardboiled detective after all! - I waited until they closed for the day and broke into the place.  Searching Gao's "cruncher" (this gameworld's personal computers), I found some nasty emails between him and company director Brisa Ramirez. She would be my next stop, but I would make the trip tomorrow because it was almost 2100 hours. Now I needed to get some sleep.

The next day I rose bright and early, ate a quick breakfast at my hotel's dining room, and headed over to Ramirez's apartment to put some hard questions to her. On the way, I intercepted a police call that a crime scene was reported at Ramirez's building. I had a sinking feeling. Sure enough, she was murdered earlier that morning!  There goes my only suspect!  

While the enforcer (Shadows' police) patrolling the crime scene was distracted, I snuck into the apartment and examined the evidence. This time the victim was killed by having their head caved in with a dumbbell. Using my fingerprint detector, I discovered a 'Type J' fingerprint on the murder weapon, along with a note that accused the victim of not having what it took to succeed.  Clearly, these murders had something to do with Gong Corp. as the victims were co-workers, and the note insinuated there was a business angle. 

I again broke into Gong Corp. Ha! This time, I knew precisely what I was looking for: the employee records. I picked the lock on the manager's office door to gain entry. I then rifled through the employee files until I found a person with a 'J' fingerprint (apparently, employees are routinely fingerprinted in this setting!). Got 'em! Time to wrap up the case!

The windy afternoon had turned cold, and snow began to fall as I made my way to the suspect's apartment which coincidentally was in the same hotel I was staying at, just two floors up! I knocked on the door and waited for the lock to click and the door to swing open, revealing...Old Man Withers! Err, I meant to write Giada Benedetti, Gong Corp's QA technician. I asked if I could come in. She said no. I then asked if I could have her fingerprints for an investigation. She told me to get lost.  Time to get tough. I told her I was placing her under arrest for the murder of Ding-Xiang Gao and Brisa Ramirez. She got violent. Anticipating trouble, I brought with me an incapacitation grenade which, when detonated, knocks unconscious anyone in its explosive radius. I pulled the pin, threw it in the apartment, and ducked outside the door. Boom! Down she went. While unconscious, I cuffed her and searched her apartment, finding a receipt for the dumbbell as well as a pair of sharp scissors. Just the evidence I needed. Confronted with the proof of her crimes, she confessed that there wasn't room in the corporate world for people unwilling to do what it took to succeed.  

Benedetti in cuffs, awaiting her fate

Disgusted, I walked to the apartment's windows and looked at the city outside. The snow was now falling heavier as if it was trying to cover up the deceit, betrayal, and murder that floated over the city like scum on water...

I love this dirty town...

Pretty cool, right?  There are eight million stories in Shadows of Doubt. This has been one of them. 

As you can tell from my little narrative, the proc-gen cities in the game have all the gritty charm of an urban setting in any classic film noir.  Of these charms, the environment is at the forefront.  To begin with, the cities of SoD never suffer the stain of a sunny day.  As with the cult favorite sci-fi noir Dark City (not to be confused with the 1950 classic film noir of the same name), the cities in this game live in a type of perpetual dusk, with a sky of angry Byzantium purple always menacing overhead.  It makes the entire urban setting feel oppressively uneasy. As someone once described The Maltese Falcon, it makes the player feel trapped in a long night's journey into day. 

But in addition to that we have the wonderfully immersive weather found in the game. As anyone who has ever watched a classic film noir might have noticed, inclement weather often features prominently in those stories, from Rififi's perpetually gray days (director Jules Dassin refused to film on sunny days!) to the constant rain in Robert Hamer's British noir, It Always Rains on Sunday. Even neo-noirs have continued the genre's hallmark with Ridley Scott's Blade Runner being drenched in rain, while Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 embraced snow (in June!).  Shadows of Doubt likewise ensures that similarly tempestuous weather is featured in your gumshoe adventures! To walk down the rainy, snowy, or thunderstorm-y (ahem) streets of SoD's cities is sure to make any pluviophile smile.

Scene from the British noir, It Always Rains on Sunday

But as any rain-lover can tell you, there is something about rain (and snow) that makes interior lighting seem to pop. Somehow, the gloom outside finds a way to seep inside buildings, making shadows blacker, and artificial lighting brighter by contrast. It is an effect that I have marveled at over the years.  SoD has reproduced this effect, making interior spaces feel believably intimate with moody lighting that adds a sense of menace to the game's many interior locations.  This is no small accomplishment seeing the game's Minecraft-like blocky presentation, something I have found adds to the game's charm.

The moody dark shadows and bright lights of Shadows of Doubt

As in real life, the interior lighting combined with the weather effects makes a thoroughly immersive experience that any pluviophile will enjoy. I often like to take a break from my sleuthing to just sit in one of the game's restaurants and enjoy watching the crowds pass by as rain streaks the windows.  

Rivulets of rain streak the restaurant's window as I enjoy a late meal

The primary activity of this game - sleuthing - is the type of activity any indoor weather aficionado will naturally find appealing.  When it rains, we pluviophiles chill out, probably by doing a crossword puzzle or reading a good book.  Well, those comforting indoor activities are just the analog equivalent to SoD's activities of gathering evidence to solve mysteries.  Shadows of Doubt is a crossword puzzle writ large for the digital age, a game that encourages the player to grab a mug of hot coffee and settle down for an immersive and intellectual experience.  In other words, a near-perfect comfort video game (sometimes called "cozy gaming") for rainy days! 

Do you get the impression that I really like this game? 😊

I highly recommend it. But before you rush out to get the game, I need to point out that this title is a year into "early access," which means it is a work in progress.  That is to say, it still has issues that can mar the experience. Nothing dreadful, mind you, but issues nonetheless. 

For example, the game can be buggy at times. Seeing the complexity of having a game proc-gen crime while keeping them understandable and solvable, it is remarkable that the game works as well as it does!  However, there are bugs galore. In my above narrative, I omitted the various bugs I encountered, such as watching an NPC blithely stride from one building to another in midair! Then there was the incident at the second murder victim's apartment where someone answered the door when I arrived, only to have an enforcer appear behind them, pull a gun, and shoot them dead when they fled! As I approached the body, it disappeared! I suspect that the game accidentally had an enforcer catch the killer at the crime scene and shoot them. Realizing its mistake, it erased the entire encounter so I could continue to hunt down the criminal (I am guessing, but that would make sense).  Such immersion-breaking bugs like this will be encountered often. Happily, few are game-breaking. Furthermore, the developer has targeted bug fixing as a focus for the summer of 2024, anticipating the game's console release.

Another issue is that elements of the game world need more fleshing out. For example, "VMails," the game's equivalent of email, are mostly useless.  Ideally, they should help narrow down a suspect's motive by providing a glimpse into their thoughts and associations, but they don't. At the moment VMails are mostly useless filler awaiting a hefty polishing pass.  Then there is the fact that NPCs are allowed firearms but the player can't have any for defense. Why? At least give us a cyberpunk-styled stun gun. There are a few such undercooked game elements awaiting polish. (Speaking of cooking, the game has working stoves that the player can't use to cook meals. This is annoying in a game where survival elements like eating and drinking are tracked.)

Lastly, the setting. Shadows of Doubt has a quirky mix combining the elements of film noir, cyberpunk, and alternative history. Yeah, it's a bit much and doesn't mix well.  The strongest aspect of the setting is the film noir component that gives the urban setting its palpable character. If the player didn't know anything about the game and just jumped in, I suspect he would believe the game took place in the 1940s or 1950s, as the preponderance of the game's trappings are of that period, from the jukeboxes and phonographs that play jazz to the black and white televisions, the boxy mid-20th Century architecture of the buildings, and the greasy spoon diners.  By comparison, the cyberpunk aspect of the game is mostly limited to the 'Sync Clinics' that install perk-granting cybernetic upgrades in the player.   As for the alternative history, it's barely present. The game takes place in an alternative retro-futuristic 1980s, but it is something the player only would know by looking at the date on his digital watch and by the bulky IBM PC-styled "crunchers" that everybody uses for VMail. Other than that...?  I like the elements of film noir, cyberpunk (which is really just "neo-noir" by a different name), and an alternative historical version of the 1980s, but here only the film noir element is strongly present. It should be easy to add more cyberpunk elements (I would love to see some Nexus-6-style humanoid androids added to the game for some Blade Runner-esque "retirement" missions!) but the 1980s stuff might be best jettisoned altogether. Why not just make it an alternative 1940s-1950s with retro-futuristic tech? 

All things considered, these are minor issues to be expected when a game is in early access and still under active development.  I expect most if not all, will be addressed on the road to a proper v1.0.  Frankly, none of them should deter you from trying the game in its current form as there is far more right about Shadows of Doubt than there is crooked. It is no weak sister! 

And there you have it: my first recommendation for pluviophiles who enjoy video games.  I assure you that Shadows of a Doubt fits the bill for those of us who smile on rainy days and desire nothing so much but to retreat to our own interior castles on stormy days. It's time to put on your raincoat and hit the crime-ridden streets...