| The Shapeshifting Detective | |
| Developer: | D'Avekki Studios |
| Publisher: | Wales Interactive |
| Engine: | Unity[1] |
| Platforms: | |
| Released: | November 6, 2018 iOS February 20, 2019 |
| Genre: | Adventure game |
| Modes: | Single-player |
The Shapeshifting Detective is an adventure game developed by D'Avekki Studios and published by Wales Interactive. The player investigates a murder mystery and interviews suspects, who answer via full-motion video. It was first released in 2018. A prequel, Dark Nights with Poe and Munro, was released in 2020.
Players control an unseen character from a first-person perspective who takes on the alias of Sam. Sam is a shapeshifter who can impersonate anyone after meeting them. Tasked with solving the murder of a local cellist, Sam interviews various suspects, including a trio of fortune tellers who predicted the murder. In each playthrough, the murderer is randomly selected from the pool of characters. When suspects become uncooperative, players can impersonate a friend or authority figure. Sam's dialogue is unvoiced, but impersonated characters are voice acted. When interviewing suspects, dialogue choices are chosen from a list. Risky dialogue choices are marked, and players can remove them from the list if they do not wish to risk following a dialogue tree. Otherwise, choices are permanent and can not be backtracked.[2]
Wales Interactive released The Shapeshifting Detective for Windows, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One on November 6, 2018.[3] It was released on iOS in February 2019.[4]
The Shapeshifting Detective received mixed reviews on Metacritic.Adventure Gamers wrote, "The Shapeshifting Detective is a unique game that provides a solid mystery with a creative twist on the usual means of information gathering."[2] Gamereactor UK praised the acting, dialogue trees, and radio intermissions but felt the story was sometimes difficult to advance without trial and error.[5] GameRevolution wrote, "The Shapeshifting Detectives pulpy charm and offbeat story show that it doesn’t take a detective to figure out how enjoyable this game is."[6] Push Square said the game was made with love, but its gimmicky gameplay is too basic.[7] Criticizing the game's interactivity and pacing, Nintendo World Report said that The Shapeshifting Detective did not live up to its potential.[8]