Shapeshift into anyone to find the killer | First Impressions - The Shapeshifting Detective

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The Shapeshifting Detective is set in a small, remote town called August, where a murder has taken place in the local hotel called the “Guesthouse”. Players take on the role of a detective who is tasked with solving the murder by using their shape-shifting ability — only known by the higher-ups and not by any of the characters in the town — to gather information and interact with the game's cast of characters. This allows for interesting interactions between characters and easy access to information that would otherwise be unobtainable with a regular Detective.

One of the features that makes The Shapeshifting Detective a standout is the randomly chosen murderer at the start of the game. Making it a highly replayable game and keeps it mysterious, even after multiple tries. Each character has their own intertwined backstories, motivations, alibis, and suspicious mannerisms, which makes the crime solving all the more interesting and the murderer’s identity hard to uncover.

The writing is also well-paced, with the story gradually unfolding as the player progresses through the game divided into chapters. The dialogue is witty and sometimes humorous, but the actual tone and presentation of the game feels like a horror one, which helps to keep the player engaged and invested in the story.

Throughout the game, players — while hidden in their room — can shapeshift between the different characters they meet, each with their own unique personalities and secrets. It's up to the player to gather as much information as possible from each character in order to piece together the events leading up to the murder and find the culprit.

Despite the player taking on the role as a “Detective”, the crime solving element is probably the weakest part of the game. The player doesn’t really do any typical crime solving task, except for interviewing the characters and posing as another to get more information. That means there’s no crime scene or fingerprint analysis, physical evidence gathering, stalking characters, or even an avenue to take notes in the game to piece together gathered information. Fortunately, your superior chief of police can recap a summary of everything you’ve gathered so far.

Despite these minor shortcomings, The Shapeshifting Detective is a fun FMV-game to experience, perhaps even the best example to try in recent years. Its premise of having a detective which can shapeshift into different characters is a standout feature, providing a rewarding and unexpected source of shapeshifting satisfaction. Overall, the game is short and is easily beatable in around three to four hours of play, however the game’s replayability with the random murderer at the start can help extend this value.