The Shapeshifting Detective
Skip · Narrative · 2018
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 35, under the fair line, at $14.99.
- Length
- 3h
- Value
- $5.00/hr
- Reviews
- 77% positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, DirectX 11.0 compatible video card, 6 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS.
The Shapeshifting Detective is a supernatural murder mystery FMV game where you play as a detective who can shapeshift into other characters, allowing you to unlock secret conversations and private encounters.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
January 2026 is where it bottomed out, at $2.54. 62 discounts in the 8 years on record. They run about 67 percent off, roughly 6 weeks apart.
On value it sits in the top 45 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 80 percent of its genre. Among the games that feel like it, Late Shift ($14.99, scores 46) beats it on value, while it beats Telling Lies ($19.99, scores 9).
Critics scored it 66. Players sit 11 points higher at 77 percent, which usually means a game that plays better than it reviews.
Of the 477 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 4 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written March 2020 to August 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 42 percent of the 164 reviews written there were positive, against 77 percent overall, and those are 14 percent of everything written about it.
The main story runs 3 hours. Doing everything runs 7, 2.2 times as long.
It carries Valve's Deck Verified rating and runs 3 hours, about as long as a handheld game wants to be.
The drop-off
75% start to 5% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
Players
4 players online when we last checked, on Sep 27, 18:49 UTC.
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
No idea why people gave this game bad reviews. I found it interesting. It was like a movie, I didn't feel as if I was doing a chore. Not sure if I would replay tho, but apparently You can play again and have a different murderer, and skips scenes You already watched. Working on Linux without issues, but needs unlocking h264 Start steam like this: steam steam://unlockh264/ at least once, then proceed to run the game...
I was entertained for some time. Everything falls apart at the end, tho. With multiple endings and multiple killers within these endings, the whole story is kind of a pointless waste of time, as there isn't a definitive answer to what is truly happening or who is actually at fault.
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
The Shapeshifting Detective scores 35/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/898650/the-shapeshifting-detectiveReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 26, price as of Oct 1.
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