Murdered: Soul Suspect takes place in the American town of Salem. The game is played in a third person view, the player navigates the protaganist, Ronan, around Salem and buildings and areas within Salem such as a church, an apartment and a graveyard, completing levels to progress further into the game. There are over 400 collectables in the game, things like ghost girl messages to scraps of paper with infomation about Ronan's life, these are scattered all thoughout Salem. Since the player is a ghost they have a number of ghostly abilities such as teleportation and possess. Each area has clues to collect to progress through the level and story.