Love Sherlock Holmes? Test your deduction skills with these top 10 mystery investigation games for PC, Mobile, Switch & Console.
Ever get that itch? That urge to meticulously scan a room for clues, connect seemingly random threads, and finally – click – solve a baffling mystery? The thrill of deduction, the satisfaction of piecing together the whole picture when everyone else is lost… that’s the magic Sherlock Holmes embodies.
Forget just reading about mysteries; these games put you right in the thick of it, demanding a keen eye, sharp logic, and maybe just a touch of inspired guesswork. Here are 10 fantastic detective games that deliver those cerebral thrills:
This game puts you directly into the shoes of the legendary detective. You’ll explore detailed Victorian environments, meticulously examine crime scenes for clues using Holmes’ unique observational skills, and interrogate suspects. The core gameplay revolves around collecting evidence and then entering the ‘Deduction Space,’ a visual representation of Holmes’ mind where you connect clues to form logical links and ultimately accuse a suspect. Your choices in deduction can lead to different outcomes and moral dilemmas, truly making you feel responsible for the investigation’s conclusion.
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Dive into the future of detective work with Krimi.ai, a unique AI detective simulator offering endless murder mystery experience right on your phone. Instead of following pre-written scripts, Krimi leverages advanced AI to generate completely unique scenarios each time you play, ensuring no two investigations are the same. You’ll step into a world of crime and suspense, where your primary tools are interrogation and analysis. The challenge lies in questioning suspects, each crafted with dynamic personalities, intricate backstories, and realistic emotions. The storylines adapts to your choices, creating branching narratives that make your decisions feel impactful.
Step into the polished shoes of Detective Cole Phelps in 1940s Los Angeles. Gameplay involves investigating crime scenes, gathering physical evidence, chasing down leads, and engaging in tense interrogations. The unique feature is the facial animation system; you must observe suspects’ expressions closely during questioning to determine if they are telling the truth, withholding information, or lying outright, guiding your line of questioning accordingly. Success relies heavily on keen observation and reading people under pressure.
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In this unconventional RPG, you play an amnesiac detective trying to solve a murder while grappling with his own fractured psyche. Gameplay is heavily text-based, focusing on dialogue choices, skill checks tied to internal thoughts and abilities (like Logic, Rhetoric, Empathy), and exploring a dense, politically charged urban environment. You piece together the mystery – and your own identity – through conversation, internal monologues, and interacting with the world, rather than traditional clue-hunting.
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This unique puzzle game arms you with a magical pocket watch, the Memento Mortem, allowing you to witness the moment of death of individuals aboard the titular ghost ship. You explore the ship, find corpses, activate the watch to see a frozen tableau of their death, and listen to the final seconds of audio. Using these scenes, the crew manifest, and sharp deductive reasoning, you must identify all 60 crew members and passengers and determine their exact fate (cause of death and killer, if applicable).
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These games blend visual novel storytelling with detective work. Gameplay is split into two phases: Investigation and Courtroom Trials. During investigation, you explore locations, gather evidence by examining scenes, and talk to quirky witnesses. In the courtroom, you listen to testimonies, press witnesses for more details, and crucially, present contradictory evidence at the right moment to expose lies and advance the case. It’s about finding flaws in logic under the pressure of the trial.
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Based on the Fables comics, this narrative adventure game from Telltale puts you in control of Bigby Wolf, sheriff of Fabletown. Gameplay involves exploring environments, interacting with objects and characters, making dialogue choices that impact relationships and story direction, and engaging in occasional quick-time events during action sequences. Solving the central mystery involves gathering clues through exploration and conversation, navigating complex character dynamics, and making tough decisions.
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This unique FMV (Full Motion Video) game presents you with an old-school police computer interface showing a database of interview clips. You start with a few clips of a woman being interviewed about her missing husband. By typing keywords you hear in the videos into the database search bar, you unlock related clips. The gameplay consists entirely of watching these fragmented clips, listening carefully, picking up on nuances, and mentally piecing together the non-linear narrative and timeline to understand what happened.
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In this audio-centric detective game, you investigate crime scenes by listening to past events. Presented with a building blueprint, you use an “Acoustic Detective” device to play back audio recordings tied to specific locations and times. You can follow different characters’ audio tracks, scrub through the timeline, and listen to overlapping conversations simultaneously. The goal is to piece together the sequence of events, identify characters, and solve the mystery using only auditory clues and spatial awareness.
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This FMV adventure game puts you in the role of Detective Jenks investigating a death in a peculiar English village. Gameplay involves interviewing various eccentric characters played by live actors. The core mechanic is spotting contradictions: when a character makes two statements that conflict, you highlight both pieces of contradictory information to confront them and push the investigation forward. It’s all about careful listening and logical comparison to catch characters in their lies.
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And that’s our list of the best detective games on PC. Play Krimi for free on the App Store or right here on the Web!