One titular pun does not a murder-mystery make

For the first 20 minutes or so, all I wanted to do was ignore Murdered: Soul Suspect's incredibly ham-fisted narration. But I couldn't! The game's introduction, at least, is painfully cutscene-heavy, and written with all the elegance and subtlety of an Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant. Yes, let's jump-cut between a bunch of three-second flashbacks in the protagonist's life that happen to directly establish his personality and his relevant relationships to other characters. And then add some more non-interactive bits that literally reiterate the game's plot, and mandatory dialog sessions that serve as nothing more than a dressed-up text tutorial.

The game's sense of storytelling is an ironic interpretation of the "show, don't tell" principle. Just because the rigorously-methodical writing is "shown" in a cutscene doesn't ... ugh. It's not good.

Oh, but then the gameplay actually started. And I felt like I wasn't missing much. Walking around looking for clue signposts, hiding from demons (Solid Snake-style), and collecting collectibles that you have no reason to care about.

Murdered doesn't just lean heavily on its poorly-told story, it has thoroughly underwhelming game mechanics to boot. I can give it the benefit of the doubt and believe that, as the story proceeds, it might become less painful to sit through. But the game itself is mundane almost as soon as it starts.

Progress: Didn't even make it to the 4th floor.