There are several detective games in which the player can search for clues and make deductions, solving mysteries like Sherlock Holmes. The games can run the gamut from adventure games to RPGs, but the common feature is that they’ll make the player feel like a great detective.
Games are designed to put the player in the role of powerful characters - demon slayers, soldiers fighting against Nazis and corrupt regimes, space marines, and other such characters. There aren’t as many games that can make a gamer feel like an intelligent, capable detective solving mysteries. However, they are out there and they invite players to step into the role of detective heroes, including Sherlock Holmes himself.
Not every game with solid detective elements has made this list, often for age or narrative reasons, or existing popularity. Offered here instead are a handful of games that stick to a bit more of a Holmesian line, at least in terms of deduction, while offering plenty of artistic and narrative interest.
Be Sherlock Holmes Himself In Frogwares’ Series
If one wants to feel like Sherlock Holmes, it would make the most sense to play Sherlock Holmes. Frogwares has been making Sherlock Holmes games since 2002, and the next game in the series, Chapter One, is set to launch sometime soon. Unlike the Herlock Sholmes of Ace Attorney, in this video game series, Sherlock Holmes uses logical deduction and problem-solving skills to solve them. Several of the games in the series are crossovers, with Sherlock Holmes crossing paths with legendary thief Arsene Lupin or the Cthulhu Mythos.
Play An Amnesiac Detective In Disco Elysium
Noir is a well-known subgenre that often dabbles in mystery, and no game likely captures the noir mystery better than Disco Elysium. The player character is an amnesiac detective, who must attempt to solve a murder, investigate the city’s growing unrest, and keep his life together with the help of the many voices in his head. Unlike the other games on this list, Disco Elysium is an RPG and is as much about the main character as it is about the mystery. There’s a reason it’s considered one of the most important indie games of the decade.
Test Deductive Skills In Return Of The Obra Dinn
Lucas Pope, the developer of Papers, Please, released this monochrome adventure game in 2018. The player character is an insurance investigator who has been sent to the ghost ship Obra Dinn. Using a mysterious device called the Memento Mortem, the player can see pieces of the crew’s memory and must work out what happened to everyone by using clues and the process of elimination. Return of the Obra Dinn is a detective game that challenges players to make actual deductions like Sherlock Holmes. There will rarely be a straightforward explanation about a character’s fate.
Solve An Emergent Mystery In Her Story
Her Story is a full-motion video retro-style indie game in which the player is tasked with uncovering the truth behind a mysterious disappearance. The only evidence they have to piece together the facts are a series of interviews with a woman, the wife of the missing person. They can search for individual words that are spoken during the interview. The limits of its retro technology lend themselves well to keeping the exact details of the mystery obscure until the player figures it out.
Paradise Killer Offers Unparalleled Deductive Freedom
This open-world murder mystery is set in a strange reality that is both beautiful and repulsive, and the player character, Lady Love Dies, has been summoned from exile to solve a series of murders. Unlike most games on this list, Paradise Killer lets players piece together evidence as they wish and accuse anyone of committing the murders - the game allows players to figure things out to the best of their ability. The player and Lady Love Dies are completely on their own in the game's bizarre world, and they must do their best to be their own Sherlock Holmes and find the truth - or at least the closest thing to it they can.