Best Games For Solving Mysteries

The mystery, police procedure, or detective genre of video games has an impressive library, and its evolution can be traced to the earliest "walking simulator" games that used only text commands. Players had to explore the area, gather clues, and collect certain important items. Puzzles, mystery solving, and collecting clues were part of the earliest games to exist, right after sports.

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Many of these kinds of games often use the same concepts of investigating, gathering clues, and the powers of deduction that are similar to the daily activities of a police officer or private investigator. Games that focus on solving mysteries can and often do overlap with other genres including adventure, action, role-playing, and even horror.

Updated April 13, 2024 by Kristy Ambrose: Video games about solving mysteries or crime dramas continue to be popular, so there are a lot of new options to choose from along with vintage titles that have been released or remastered for present-day audiences.

Complex problem-solving can be more rewarding than a big explosion or a dramatic boss fight, and the best mystery games can be role-playing, story-based, or adventure games. This library is so vast that it's easy to find a variety of games for any port or format, and that includes phones, tablets, and consoles, along with conventional desktops.

1 Disco Elysium

Metacritic Score: 89

This video game's art style, which mimics a surreal oil painting, is one of the features that sets Disco Elysium apart from other RPGs. It also features an unconventional progression system that includes skill checks and dialogue trees determined by Perception and pain threshold, which experienced RPGers might refer to as Fortitude.

The setting is a city in the aftermath of an apocalypse, and the main character is in the depths of amnesia, so there are a few more mysteries here other than the murder he's trying to solve. Even though he's missing most of his past, every main character still has a set of distinct character traits and a Thought Cabinet, which unlocks more backstory depending on the player's dialogue choices.

2 Her Story

Metacritic Score: 86

An interactive film that's also a video game, and one of the best modern examples of how the genre has evolved from the CD-ROM days. Her Story is independently developed and created by Sam Barlow, who formerly worked at Climax Studios, the same company that made Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

The story is structured around police procedure, using a mix of different kinds of evidence that the protagonist has to examine, sometimes using forensics. The game includes a lot of live-action footage that Barlow created after studying real police interrogation videos.

3 Outer Wilds

Metacritic Score: 85

An action-adventure mystery video game that uses deep space as the setting, Outer Wilds is more about exploration and problem-solving than fighting. The premise of the game is that the universe is stuck in a 22-minute time loop that ends in a supernova, which the main character will get caught in several times before they finish the game. Luckily they gain the ability to retain their memories beyond death during the first part of the story.

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The player spends most of the game learning about an ancient race called the Nomai and their ultimate project, planned on a galactic scale, which is the source of the time anomaly. No pressure, but the protagonist has to piece together the clues from various logic puzzles to discover what happened and find a way to save the entire universe.

4 The 7th Guest

Metacritic Score: 68

• Platform(s): macOS, DOS, CD-i, PC, Linux, Mobile
• Released: April 28, 1993
• Developer: Trilobyte
• Genre(s): Puzzle, Adventure

The 7th Guest is a point-and-click mystery video game classic originally from the CD-ROM era that was remastered and re-released as a 25th Anniversary Edition in 2019. It was one of the first "haunted mansion" games, and also one of the first to integrate video graphics into a computer game in a way that contributed to the plot rather than just being silly.

This was also at a time that horror games actually started to emerge as a genre, and The 7th Guest didn't shy away from the sordid or the mysterious. This game looks fun and colorful, and it is, with the graveyard cake puzzles and wacky characters. As the story unfolds into one of the best mystery games ever made, it becomes clear this isn't a game for kids.

5 Paradise Killer

Metacritic Score: 81

The more concise summary of this game is that it's a sci-fi adventure with a murder mystery as the focus of the plot. A more detailed description would include that the whole thing is set in a pocket universe called Paradise Island, which has been constructed by aliens to trap and house humans.

It's used to lull them into a false sense of security before sacrificing their souls to construct the next incarnation of the same island. That's a whole lot of lore for a game that's relatively small in comparison, and the detailed narrative of Paradise Killer is what makes it better than average when it comes to mystery-solving games.

6 Signalis

Metacritic Score: 81

A survival horror game that includes solving mysteries, Signalis is designed as a third-person shooter and has a two-dimensional perspective. It was critically acclaimed and players gave it high praise, recognizing that it was inspired by similar resource-collecting and puzzle games like Resident Evil.

The sci-fi setting features a spaceship and a mysterious government known as the Nation of Eusan, at war with an even larger galactic empire. The game features androids called Replikas, which the nation of Eusna uses as soldiers, miners, and other grunt work. A few different endings are possible, depending on the progression of the story, and the Artifact Ending is the secret one that requires the player to collect three hidden keys.

7 The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter

Metacritic Score: 82

The Vanishing Of Ethan Carte r relies on stunning artwork and a compelling story to draw in aspiring detectives. This is one of the best mystery video games that combines an open-world environment with little guidance for how the mechanics work, and learning is part of the game.

The player follows a mystery through an impressive collection of artistic settings and immersive locations. It's the atmospheric quality of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter that most people cite as what elevates it from other mystery-solving games.

8 Grim Fandango

Metacritic Score: 94

An adventure game first and foremost, because this is LucasArts after all, Grim Fandango is also about solving a mystery. On a technical level, this is one of the first times that a 3D-rendered video game looked good, using an unconventional animation style that mixed film noir with calaca-like characters. The main character is a travel agent, but one who dwells in the afterlife and helps transport souls.

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Despite the critical acclaim that Grim Fandango received and the fanbase that follows it today, it was a commercial failure in its time. The game was re-released in 2015 with improved graphics, a new orchestral soundtrack, and a director's commentary.

9 Sam And Max Hit The Road

Metacritic Score: 91

• Developer: LucasArts
• Genre: Graphic Adventure
• Platform(s): MS-DOS, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows
• Released: 1993

Sam and Max, also known as the Freelance Police, have a lot of wacky adventures solving crimes and this title is still one of their most popular. The plot is set in motion when a Sasquatch goes missing from a carnival. The intrepid heroes have to use their perception and deduction skills as they visit several popular American tourist attractions looking for clues.

Sam And Max Hit The Road is part of the impressive library that LucasArts amassed when point-and-click adventure games were all the rage. It's distinctive for its humor, clever dialogue, and the best voice talent for games at the time.

10 Pentiment

Metacritic Score: 86

A narrative adventure that's mostly text, the 2D animation fits the medieval aesthetic perfectly. Pentiment is the best mystery game for players who are interested in solving a mystery along with those who appreciate a unique and beautiful art style, which is used seriously here as opposed to a cartoony joke like in some other games.

The main character is Andreas Maler, a journeyman artist who gets mixed up in the murderous drama of 16th-century Upper Bavaria. Players can build this character's skills and backstory through choices they make in the dialogue. Set in the fictional town of Talsing in the Alps, the timeline of the game spans 25 years, and solving these mysteries becomes a lifetime commitment.