The Shapeshifting Detective Review (mattmacks)
I bought The Shapeshifting Detective because some of the actors were the same as in Contradiction, which I enjoyed despite its flaws, and I can say the same thing is true for this game. The actors were doing a good job for the most part, even if Robert Booth (the Chief) seemingly has to overact every scene and character he plays. It's passable, though, because he feels genuinely invested and I'll take that over boring underacting in FMV games. As for the story, it was interesting enough to motivate me to finish the game in 3 1/2 hours in one sitting, gaining the "Find the killer on your 1st playthrough" achievement in the process. I don't think it is hard to do, it just means that you have to use the game's unique "shapeshifting" mechanic quite a lot and sometimes "jump" into the same characters multiple times per chapter, if it feels like it could reveal something. That's all there is to the gameplay as well, so if the story and they way it is presented isn't appealing to you in the first 10 minutes, I'd say you probably won't enjoy the rest of the game.
Overall, a good FMV game. I am not interested in replaying it (and since I got probably the best ending or one of the best endings, I don't see a reason to), but since I got it on sale for 3€ I think it was totally worth it.