Solve crimes your way in the supernatural RPG Kill The Shadow

If you like detective games where solving a case involves more than simply clicking on highlighted clues, Kill The Shadow is worth keeping an eye on. The new indie RPG from Shadowlight takes some of the ideas that made Disco Elysium so memorable and mixes them with a much stranger supernatural investigation system. The result is a detective game where talking your way through a problem is only one of several possible solutions.

Players step into the shoes of Lucas, a former police officer investigating a series of unusual cases across the troubled Dark Tide City. What begins with smaller mysteries gradually develops into something much bigger, with the city's past and a mysterious event from ten years earlier becoming increasingly important. Exploration, conversations and collecting evidence are all central to the experience, but Kill The Shadow gives players plenty of freedom in how they approach each investigation.

Solve each case your own way 

Lucas has different attributes that can influence his options, and sometimes the smartest solution is persuasion. Other situations might be handled through bribery, intimidation or even violence. Evidence can be connected through the game's deduction system, allowing players to slowly build their own understanding of what happened instead of simply following a fixed sequence of objectives. That freedom immediately gives Kill The Shadow some Disco Elysium vibes, especially when conversations and character abilities start changing the direction of an investigation.

What really separates it from other detective RPGs, however, is The Shadow. This mysterious creature attached to Lucas gives him the ability to reconstruct memories left behind by the dead. Using the game's Rewind system, players can revisit crucial moments surrounding a death and search those reconstructed scenes for information that would otherwise be impossible to discover. It creates an interesting mix of traditional detective work and supernatural crime-scene reconstruction, while still requiring players to decide what the evidence actually means.

The presentation helps give the game its own identity too. Pixel-art characters move through detailed 3D environments, creating a distinctive 2.5D look that fits Dark Tide City's gloomy streets, industrial areas and neon-lit districts surprisingly well.

Kill The Shadow is still a relatively small release, and its community is nowhere near the size of the biggest RPG launches. However, the people who have discovered it so far appear to be enjoying what Shadowlight has created, with the game receiving a Very Positive early reception from Steam players. That is an encouraging start for a detective RPG trying something a little different.

If supernatural mysteries, open-ended investigations and dialogue-heavy RPGs sound like your kind of game, use our price comparison tool to find the best prices for Kill The Shadow before heading into Dark Tide City and starting your first case.