Kill the Shadow Review – The Truth Is What You Make It

Being a detective while the world order around you collapses is tough. On top of the societal disruption, there’s lots of case information to process, different sides to support, and an overarching mystery in the background. When you find the truth, your instinct is to report it. But is that the right thing to do? Kill the Shadow asks that question repeatedly throughout its journey. A detective game developed by Shadowlight and published by Phoenix Game, it will leave you constantly asking yourself what the right decision is.

You are Lucas, a young police officer who is caught up in a complete government upheaval. Ten years pass and you are forced to work in tough conditions to survive. But your detective skills haven’t completely dulled and a new mystery requires your attention. Said mystery leads to information that goes much deeper than you think. As you continue your investigation, you must decide what to do with the information you learn. For better or for worse.

On the surface, Kill the Shadow is a regular detective game where you find clues and confront the culprit. However, the truth is multi-faceted even when you discover all of the facts. It may be tempting to publicly confront the culprit, but you learn about their true circumstances. Other times, you discover that people have murkier motives than you initially assumed. How you approach the case’s resolution also affects the world around you.

I liked having several solutions to a mystery; the truth was never as simple as someone being clearly guilty. As you uncover more information about the world around you, things become more complex. I started wondering if I made the right decision or if I should have chosen something else. Having these complex choices made Kill the Shadow more meaningful since the right answer wasn’t always obvious.

After solving a big mystery, you get the chance to see the decisions other players made. This helps you see whether your choice was the most popular, along with other potential choices. I liked having this option to see the various possibilities, especially as there were also decisions I forgot about and would consider for another playthrough.

Another thing Kill the Shadow does well is the Chinese voice acting, which the game explicitly tells you to choose as the language option since it fits the game the best. The voice acting is fantastic, carrying the emotion and tonality of each situation. Not every line has voice acting, but you do remember all the different voices. I enjoyed listening to the Chinese voice acting even if I had to balance it with English subtitles.

Investigating a mystery has three different stages. The first is searching an area for clues and talking to various individuals. Once you have enough evidence, you must replay a scene by reconstructing it. After that, you gain more information or clues to give you a final decision. Once you make your decision, you can’t take it back and must proceed with the story. There is one big mystery, but also other missions and smaller mysteries to pursue.

This isn’t just a regular point-and-click mystery case. As you talk to individuals, the game points out that conversations can change if you talk to someone multiple times. If you find a spot with multiple clues, you can investigate several angles to find every clue. You also have several stats that can allow you to approach situations in unique ways, giving you alternate solutions. There’s a lot of care to ensure that you leave no stone unturned.

Having such variety made the investigation difficult, but engaging for me. I was always wondering if there was something I was forgetting or someone I forgot to talk to. Multiple solutions and outcomes meant that my answers weren’t going to match up with another player’s. That’s also the point, because you are meant to play Kill the Shadow multiple times. And seeing different outcomes in action prevents you from feeling you made the wrong choice.

There was a downside to the investigation aspect: organizing clues to determine the true series of events could be cumbersome. I sometimes struggled to put all the clues out and match everything properly. This wasn’t because I didn’t have the evidence, but the button responses didn’t seem to register properly. It took a few movements before things really came together. Hopefully the controller support is fully introduced in the future as, at the moment, Kill the Shadow plays much better on keyboard and mouse.

Kill the Shadow presents a deep mystery with several endings to keep you coming back. Your choices have genuine effects on the world and I couldn’t wait to try them all. Permanent upgrades also make subsequent playthroughs easier. There’s a solid mystery waiting for you to dive into.

Victor reviewed Kill the Shadow on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing and our score will not be changed.