My favorite quest in Skyrim is the Windhelm murder mystery one. It's a really well-crafted detective quest, really. Here's how I solved it:
Quite early on in the quest you can discover what kind of a weapon was used to commit the murders: a curved embalming blade, a rather unusual weapon. At another point of the quest you can visit a guy who runs a museum of sorts. If you pay attention, you can see a number of curved blades on one of the shelves, ones that match the description of the murder weapon. You can even take a tour, and the guy running the place will show them to you! This, obviously, made me feel suspicious about the guy, and by snooping around a bit I discovered a locked chest in the attic. This of course got me even more suspicious, and in the middle of the night I snuck back into the museum, used the key I had pickpocketed off the museum keeper earlier, used it to open the chest, and voilà! I found letters, more embalming tools, a journal — everything I needed to prove that the guy was guilty!
So, I ran straight off to the castle feeling all smug about it, ready to collect my reward and... nothing. No dialogue option to tell about who the murderer is, no possibility to show the evidence to anyone. Instead, in order to finish the quest you had to patiently follow it step by step, in the way the developers had intended, so that you might eventually catch the murderer red-handed (and possibly allow him to kill another woman in the process). Great job, Bethesda, great fucking job.
Quite early on in the quest you can discover what kind of a weapon was used to commit the murders: a curved embalming blade, a rather unusual weapon. At another point of the quest you can visit a guy who runs a museum of sorts. If you pay attention, you can see a number of curved blades on one of the shelves, ones that match the description of the murder weapon. You can even take a tour, and the guy running the place will show them to you! This, obviously, made me feel suspicious about the guy, and by snooping around a bit I discovered a locked chest in the attic. This of course got me even more suspicious, and in the middle of the night I snuck back into the museum, used the key I had pickpocketed off the museum keeper earlier, used it to open the chest, and voilà! I found letters, more embalming tools, a journal — everything I needed to prove that the guy was guilty!
So, I ran straight off to the castle feeling all smug about it, ready to collect my reward and... nothing. No dialogue option to tell about who the murderer is, no possibility to show the evidence to anyone. Instead, in order to finish the quest you had to patiently follow it step by step, in the way the developers had intended, so that you might eventually catch the murderer red-handed (and possibly allow him to kill another woman in the process). Great job, Bethesda, great fucking job.
