Top 10 Detective Video Games

Who better to start with than the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes? Though this series has numerous titles, new comers can just skip to this most recent entry if they’re looking to uncover impressive visuals, great puzzle variety and some really compelling cases. Topped off by impressive voice work, fans of the both the character and the genre will find their enjoyment here to be quite elementary.

The most immediately striking part of “Hotel Dusk: Room 215” is its creative art style that looks like an artists’ sketchbook come to life. Aside from that, “Hotel Dusk” also puts the Nintendo DS’ touch screen to great use, with the player tapping on various items and people as they explore a mysterious hotel that is rumoured to have a magical room that can grant people’s wishes. With this unique art style and its compelling setting, “Hotel Dusk: Room 215” makes for a great detective adventure – even if your character is technically just a former detective.

Telltale’s episodic adventure game, “The Wolf Among Us”, is based on the DC comic book series “Fables”, which also brings characters from classic fairy tales into a modern fantasy world. Bigby Wolf, the game’s protagonist and detective, is a hardened and feared bad-ass who used to be known as the “Big Bad Wolf.” After many difficult player choices, at the end you’ll have to help Wolf in deciding who is guilty between two possible suspects, a decision that is informed by the player’s prior sleuthing and puzzle solving ability.

“Shenmue” is an open-world action-adventure title in which the player investigates the murder of his father by exploring the town of Yokosuka, speaking to locals and gathering evidence. The game was very innovative for its time, implementing a full day-night schedule, real-time weather effects, fully voiced NPCs, and fun, non-linear gameplay that allowed the player to explore at their own pace. The game’s story is full of intrigue, involving a conspiracy that leads the player through a variety of beautiful locations. Plus can play old Sega games at the arcade – BONUS.

Sharing the same universe and name as Ridley Scott’s classic dystopian sci-fi film, “Blade Runner” is a point-and-click adventure game originally released on the PC. The game tells the story of a Blade Runner, a cop whose job is to hunt down a rogue group of artificial humans known as Replicants. Instead of simply solving puzzles like in of most point-and-click adventure games of its time, in “Blade Runner”, the player has to gather evidence and question suspects in order to progress through the game.

The favourite of classroom computers everywhere, “Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego?” is an adventure game in which the player has to follow clues left by fugitive thieves as they attempt to flee around the world, ultimately leading the player to the criminal mastermind herself, Carmen San Diego. Praised for both its fun gameplay and its educational value as a game that teaches geography, “Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?” makes for a great detective adventure, especially, but not exclusively, for kids!

In the third and final instalment of Telltale’s beloved “Sam & Max” series, “Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse” sees the Freelance Police investigating the “Toys of Power”; common toys that grant psychic powers to those who wield them. The game is similar to other classic Telltale adventure games, with the player controlling both Sam and Max as they search for clues and speak to strange characters, solving puzzles throughout a variety of off-the-wall, cartoony locations.

“Heavy Rain” is an action adventure game for the PS3 that’s setting is heavily influenced by classic film noir movies. The game’s storyline involves a string of disappearances that are attributed to a serial killer named the “Origami Killer”, with each section of the game focusing on a different character as they are impacted by the murders. The game is notable for both its cinematic storytelling and its innovative use of context-sensitive controls, as the player attempts to solve the murders and capture the Origami Killer.

This is the third episode in the first trilogy of Level-5’s popular games for the Nintendo DS, in which the player has to solve a variety of logic puzzles in order to progress through the game’s story. In this iteration of the series, the lovable and sophisticated English gentleman Professor Layton attempts to solve a mystery involving a group of scientists who have suddenly disappeared. Could their disappearance have something to do with that mysterious time machine? Hmm…
The Prime Minister also disappeared

Before we get to our number one pick, here are some honourable mentions:

“Snatcher” (1988)

“Still Life” (2005)

“Ghost Trick” (2010)

“Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure” (2014)

“Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel” (2003)

“Police Quest 2” (1988)

Developed by Rockstar, “L.A. Noire” combined the open-world gameplay of “Grand Theft Auto” with the aesthetic of classic film noir movies of the 1940s. The game is notable for its unique mechanic that involves the player having to read the facial expressions and mannerisms of potential suspects. “L.A. Noire” successfully puts you in the shoes of Cole Phelps, a troubled police officer turned detective with a checkered past. Rockstar did an amazing job of re-creating 1940s Los Angeles and of creating a tense, sometimes scary sleuthing mystery.

Was developed by the now closed down “Team Bondi,” Rockstar was the publisher.
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