14 DAY TRIAL // What we know: The development of Murdered: Soul Suspect is handled by Airtight Games, while publishing duties are linked to Square Enix.
As the name implies, the experience is built around a character that has been murdered and needs to explore his past and his connections with the real world in order to find out the motivation and the identity of the killer.
At the same time, deceased detective Ronan O'Connor needs to also keep an eye on his afterlife, where he needs to battle demons and other creatures that are interested in taking over his soul.
Apparently, the core idea for Murdered: Soul Suspect was developed when the game director wondered how Die Hard would play out if main character John McClane died early in the movie and was forced to still deal with the terror threat.
Airtight Games has not yet offered clear mechanics on how the detective in the game will be able to deal with the real world and how central actual combat will be to the experience, as opposed to exploration and dialog.
The game is set to be launched on the PC, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony at some point in the second quarter of 2014.
Why it matters: Airtight Games is a rather small developer best known for Dark Void and for Quantum Conundrum, but they clearly have an interesting idea for Murdered: Soul Suspect if they have managed to capture the attention of Square Enix.
Even if the game turns out to lack the quality that many are expecting, it has the potential to be one of the titles of 2014 that manage to show off some interesting mechanics that other might adopt in the long term.
The full list of Incoming 2014 Games articles can be read on Softpedia.