After reading or watching mysterious disappearances, inexplicable murders, and perplexing riddles from novels or TV shows, there is nothing better than that for the gamers having the same kind of mysteries in your game. There are lots of detective games available on the internet, and here we have come with a list of detective games that you can play on PC.
1. Noir
Blade Runner
A rookie blade runner kills the rogue replicants on the rain-soaked streets. The story does reflect the game a little bit, but McCoy here does much more detecting than Deckard.
L.A. Noire
This title is inspired by pulp detective fiction and film noir. The environment of the game is set in the late ‘40s Los Angeles. The city is facing compelling interactive cases, from brutal serial murders to stolen cars and arson.
Discworld Noir
In this game mostly you have to talk with people, collect clues from them, and opening up new lines of investigation to edge closer to the truth.
Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon
The game is set in San Francisco but in 2042. Murphy, a booze-soaked private investigator who depends on his luck, suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of a doomsday cult.
Gemini Rue
It is not a hard-core detective game but gives the feel of one, where the character Azriel Odin is searching for his missing brother.
2. Narrative:
Her Story
A story combined with informative police interview clips makes it a bold narrative experiment. The player needs to search a fragmented archive of video clips, and the story becomes more clear with each one uncovered.
Overboard!
You can call it a reverse detective game, where you don’t have to solve the case, you are helping one who has committed a crime. Veronica Villensey has murdered her husband in cold blood.
Telling Lies
In this follow-up to Her Story, there will be given access to an archive of secretly recorded video calls taken from the mobile phones and laptops of four different people. These troubled souls are total strangers to you, but by the end of the game, you will know them intimately.
3. Comedy:
Sam & Max Hit the Road
This contains a story of two freelance detectives Sam and Max, who are a dog and rabbit respectively. They go to the United States to solve a case and it’s literally funny throughout.
Hypnospace Outlaw
Here you have to play as an internet detective, who has to hunt down illegal content on the GeoCities-inspired Hypnospace.
The Darkside Detective
You will play the role of Francis McQueen along with a sidekick and foil Dooley. You need to solve cases with a hidden supernatural element like a goofier X-Files.
4. Historical
The Last Express
It’s an incredible crime thriller with a unique real-time structure. You get a limited time to solve different mysteries on the train including the brutal death of a passenger.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments
You have to collect clues from the finely detailed environment and the crime scenes of the game. There is also the possibility that you will pin a crime on the wrong person. So, be careful.
KGB
You are working inside the KGB at the end of the Cold War, which is trying to root out corruption. If you play the CD-ROM version, you will be able to go through the FMV cutscenes starring Donald Sutherland as your father.
The Flower Collectors
Here, you’ll take a role of an ex-cop in a wheelchair who witnesses a murder and takes it upon himself to solve the case. You’ll learn something about the history and politics of post-Franco Spain in the process.
5. Supernatural
Return of the Obra Dinn
The crew of the Obra Dinn has suddenly disappeared, and now, you have to investigate this. You can revisit the exact time of a person’s death.
Paradise Killer
You have to explore a vivid and deeply strange tropical island at your own pace, collect the clues and make links to solve brutal murder cases.
The Wolf Among Us
This game is set in a world where fairy tale characters are living secretly in New York City. But like any good noir story, The Wolf Among Us can not be solved, which means there is no winning.
6. RPG
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Geralt of Rivia begins most of the quests by using his witcher senses to find clues. You have to solve the murders, root out corruption, and expose the liars.
Disco Elysium
A police RPG, where the detective peels off himself the carpet and starts the laborious process of piecing his broken mind back together, while parallelly attempting to solve a gruesome murder.
7. Adventure
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
This game is set in New Orleans, where you will research a book as an author. This game was inspired by Alan Parker’s brilliant neo-noir film Angel Heart.
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
The storyline is of a tourist, who is almost killed when a clown blows up a Parisian cafe and he starts to find the culprit.
The Shivah
This game offers a mature story that deals with issues of morality and faith, but with some jokes too. Here you will find the hero of a middle-aged Rabbi.
Shadow of Memories
This game is from Konami, where you will be traveling between time periods, trying to find out the reason, why someone keeps murdering you. It is very fun with the time travel premise.
Fahrenheit
It’s a fantastic tense crime thriller, where the opening scene shows, you are covering up a murder scene and then starts to investigate as a homicide detective.
8. Visual Novel
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
The students think that they are invited to study at the school, but later they find themselves trapped in the school. The only way to escape is to kill another student. When students start killing, your task is to talk with people, find out the clues, and make your final case in court.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
You will take the role of an attorney who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. You spend a big amount of time outside the courtroom searching around crime scenes for clues, constructing a case, and interrogating people.
Murder By Numbers
This game is an effective blend of mystery visual novel and puzzle-solving. Here you will find sharply dressed characters, cute robots, glitzy award shows, and prickly detectives.
