Detective computer games

[thelurkinghorror]

@Miller

Also old school, but not as old school as Infocom text adventures, are theDeja Vu point and click adventure games. You can pick up both games on Steam for about three bucks each. Warning: they’re old school adventure games, so death is frequent, sudden, and often counter-intuitive.

Great game. Difficult though and the deaths are not overstated. Uninvited and Shadowgate by the same people are good too, if more off topic.

[Rick_Kitchen]

Heavy Rain. The game has four point-of-view characters. One is a private detective, another is an FBI agent. The point of view switches between the characters. I don’t want to say what the plot is about for fear of giving away spoilers.

[asterion]

@DCnDC

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is pretty good. Similar kind of gameplay as LA Noire, in a general sort of way, with less emphasis on interviewing witnesses and more focus on finding clues making deductions based on the clues and evidence on hand.

I got to play it for free as part of my PS Plus subscription a while back. It was fun enough, I guess, but I’m glad I didn’t pay for it.

[Mahaloth]

@Rick_Kitchen

Heavy Rain. The game has four point-of-view characters. One is a private detective, another is an FBI agent. The point of view switches between the characters. I don’t want to say what the plot is about for fear of giving away spoilers.

Ever getting a PC release?

[Rick_Kitchen]

@Mahaloth

Ever getting a PC release?

I don’t know. So far it’s Playstation 3 and 4.

[Miller]

@thelurkinghorror

Great game. Difficult though and the deaths are not overstated. Uninvited and Shadowgate by the same people are good too, if more off topic.

And there’s a recent remake of Shadowgate that’s damned good, too.

[Garula]

I haven’t played them, but I’ve heard very good things about the Blackwell series of adventure games. They are supernatural mysteries, as I understand it, and might be worth a look.

[Martini_Enfield]

It’s quite old now, but the 1997 Bladerunner computer game is very good - not sure if it will run on modern systems, though.

[DaphneBlack]

I’m enjoying Ghost Trick. It’s cheesy but fun.

Thanks for the rec, Mahaloth!

And thanks for the other recs too – I’m personally not what you could call a hard-core gamer (Mac4Life! and the last console I owned was original Nintendo) – but if any of these Steam titles or Playstation games come to Mac or mobile I will check them out.

[Ike_Witt]

There was a text based detective game from back in the 1980s that came in a package that looked like a folder and it included ‘clues’ from the crime scene.

Anyone remember this?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Jophiel

LA Noire would be an obvious high budget example.

I had high hopes for this game, and bought it on a Steam super-sale. After about an hour and a half of driving around and interviewing boring witnesses, I gave up. It really wasn’t for me.

[Mahaloth]

@Garula

I haven’t played them, but I’ve heard very good things about the Blackwell series of adventure games. They are supernatural mysteries, as I understand it, and might be worth a look.

More straight forward adventure games, actually. Nice series, though, and it is finished with a clear and satisfying ending.

@DaphneBlack

I’m enjoying Ghost Trick. It’s cheesy but fun.
.

It can be quite the story. Make sure you avoid spoilers.

[borschevsky]

Yeah, I’m I bit late but I’ll put in a good word for Ghost Trick as well. It’s one of my favorite games.

[Mahaloth]

@borschevsky

Yeah, I’m I bit late but I’ll put in a good word for Ghost Trick as well. It’s one of my favorite games.

I love the fluid animations of the characters. They really worked hard to make it look great.

[Hoopy_Frood]

@Ike_Witt

There was a text based detective game from back in the 1980s that came in a package that looked like a folder and it included ‘clues’ from the crime scene.

Anyone remember this?

Sounds like Infocom’s Deadline.

[Enilno]

Another old school choice is the Gabriel Knight series. I think the first one, aged better than the sequels, but they’re all still good. Not quite a detective story, but certainly has a mystery and investigation elements. The protagonist is a writer investigating a series of ‘voodoo murders’ for a new novel.

[Number]

@Rick_Kitchen

Heavy Rain. The game has four point-of-view characters. One is a private detective, another is an FBI agent. The point of view switches between the characters. I don’t want to say what the plot is about for fear of giving away spoilers.

I know what to say.

SHAAAAAAAAUN!

[asterion]

@Martini_Enfield

It’s quite old now, but the 1997 Bladerunner computer game is very good - not sure if it will run on modern systems, though.

I never could quite figure out that game. Still own it. Unfortunately, I don’t see it on GOG or the like and I think it was made to run on, what, Win98?

[DaphneBlack]

@Enilno

Another old school choice is the Gabriel Knight series. I think the first one, aged better than the sequels, but they’re all still good. Not quite a detective story, but certainly has a mystery and investigation elements. The protagonist is a writer investigating a series of ‘voodoo murders’ for a new novel.

Thanks! I was very intrigued by this and have downloaded it (mobile version), seems very much up my alley.

I’m also trying out the mobile version of ‘Blackwell 1’.

Has anyone played ‘The Last Express’? The mobile version claims to be a faithful port of the PC game. It looks interesting but is relatively pricey and takes up a lot of space so I’m hesitating a little bit.

On a slightly different topic, but since there seem to be a lot of fans of this type of game round here: to those of you who are fans of these (I guess I means specifically ‘mystery’ or ‘mysterious’ p-and-c adventures), do you read mystery novels/watch crime TV? Would you be interested in an app/game that was a sort of ‘interactive novel’ experience along these genre lines?

[Ike_Witt]

@Hoopy_Frood

Sounds like Infocom’s Deadline.

That was the one. Thanks for the name, it was bugging me that I couldn’t remember it.