Shadows of Doubt gets its 2025 roadmap

If I were to put it kindly, I wasn’t the nicest when I did the preview of Shadows of Doubt on its early access release back in 2023. As I’ve said before. However, since its full release last September, I did put in a few more hours with a new save, a new city, a new host of cases, and so on, and I’ve been enjoying it. Maybe one day I’ll get the review I’m supposed to do when I’m not busier than my heavily roleplayed detective, solving several cases in 6 days.

Well, some have argued since the full release was announced that there was still a lot to be done, and I’d agree to a point. It also seems that ColePowered Games agrees too, with a new list of upcoming improvements and features in 2025. Announced last Friday, the creatively named “2025 Roadmap” post on Steam highlights what to expect later this year. The first update is expected this week.

Noted as “off-duty Easter Eggs[,] smoking (Steam only)[, and] QoL Enhancements [and] bug fixes,” the “Off-Duty” update coming on April 29th isn’t massive. Nor will the patch between that and the second “Modifiers update,” which is noted with the ever-vague “multiple new ways to play the game!“ Wow, I think I’ve heard less vague statements from an EA employee during E3, with that update coming sometime around August. A third update is expected in December called “Workshop update,” which is exactly what it is.

Part of me wants to say that I’m excited about all of these updates, but I’m also hit with a sense of “The mods I already have practically do these things.” That’s where I diverge from the people shouting that Shadows of Doubt was being abandoned after a year of early access development; an idea like Shadows of Doubt is always going to be a bit buggy and weird. Not only is Shadows of Doubt procedurally generating crime, it needs to manage hundreds of lives, generate boot and fingerprints, and more. It is a marvel that it runs as it does.

If ColePowered Games can pull off this list of updates, particularly Steam Workshop support, I’ll be glad, but I know that something about it will always be (for lack of a better term) “unpolished.” My opinion of Shadows of Doubt has drastically changed since its initial launch to now, and I wish I had more time for it. Maybe (hopefully) with these updates, I’ll find the time for the game once again.