Detective games?

It's funny because it's true

 

Condemned: Criminal Origins.

 

KGB. Perhaps the most Grimdark story I've seen in an adventure game apart from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream and a very interesting setting as a government investigator working in a decaying USSR.

It is held back IMO by the fact that you need to do certain things at certain times or face inevitable game overs, making it extremely unforgiving.

 

Did you play Last Window? It's the sequel to Hotel Dusk.

 

Under a Killing Moon. Played it when I was like 10 or something, was great at the time. Haven't tried it since though.

 

You may not want to. IMO it's the weak point of the series. Too many puzzles that are pure trial-and-error, too much video-to-gameplay ratio (though, by FMV standards, it's actually one of the best FMV games out there) and the video is sub-par, with a really shitty green-screen tech that made all the actors move around with black halos around them and really, really awful acting. The story also tries to be funny and serious at the same time, and unlike say Anachronox (probably the best execution of this type of mix) doesn't pull it off at all. It's not a bad game mind you, just average, even though many of us were initially taken by the wow factor. Pandora Directive OTOH is a MUCH better game, and one of the best adventures, and THE best FMV game by a long, long shot, since it improve on pretty much every single aspect of UKM. The early Tex games (Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum) are also quite good. MS is mixed with an arcade shooting minigame (similar to Crime Wave, but more simplistic) that sucks, and flying segments (lifted directly from Access's Eschelon) that are boring and pointless, but it's one of the most nonlinear adventure games around, and since very little is spelled out for you and there are sometimes multiple ways of gaining the same info it feels like a real investigation. MM is another great little gem with great music, fantastic atmosphere, quite a good little story with some surprising turns, and some fun (if occasionally unforgiving) puzzles.

Yeah KGB is another awesome gem, Cryo made some great games in the early 90's. But as much as I like the game it's FAR too difficult, and a lot of the difficulty is artificial thanks to the real-time clock and the need to be at specific places, sometimes without even being told. And the fact that you can trigger a complete dead end (I remember one in day 1) without even knowing it. But the setting is one of the most interesting I've seen, and while the puzzles are very tough they're also generally very good.

 

The Laura Bow games are unsurpassed.

 

This may be a bit far fetched, but the main protagonist of Anachronox is a detective. You get to follow people (or rather, one guy and that particular quest is buggy), you take photos of crime scenes and other stuff, etc. At least in the early stages.

 

Bro, I just finish Sanitarium and it is awesome. You start in an insane asylum not remembering anything that has happened or why you are there. You then go on a surreal adventure to figure it all out (read: pseudo detective). It is a somewhat classical adventure game with finding objects to complete objectives and talking to everyone you can for clues. The game is from 1998 I think and it has some beautiful isometric graphics. Also, some of the dialogue is funny and a couple puzzles made me wonder what I had missed because there were no contextual clues as how to solve them. You won't regret it. You can get it on GOG.