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Games with good "Detective Mechanics"

Zombra

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Added Dead Secret (2016) to green list. Easy game, but good. "Detective mechanics" aren't crunchy, but they are there, in the form of "notebook sections" where you are quizzed on the evidence you've seen so far to make sure you're paying attention. Steam review
 

Zombra

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Added Life is Strange (2015) to green list. It has an extended "deduction board" sequence in which the player must examine and correlate all accumulated physical evidence (a substantial amount) to find the next step in the mystery.
 

Villagkouras

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Life is Strange has a lot of qualities but detective mechanics is not one of them. It is impossible to fail in the board and this scene lasts for about 5-10 minutes.
 

Jaesun

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Might have mentioned there is a playable demo for it on STEAM... :M

Trying the demo now. This is at least a bit interesting.
 

Lostpleb

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The whole game pretty much happens in a booth, but there are plenty of mechanics to think about. You even get to shoot people once or twice!

:russia:
 
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Danganropa and Grim Fandango were detective games? I've alwayst thought of Grim Fandango as noir inspired and Danganropa as a wierd Saw-like graphic novel.
 

Boleskine

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http://justadventure.com/2013-05-20-21-09-14/2642-laura-bow-2-the-dagger-of-amon-ra

Throwback Thursday - Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra
For every fan of detective mysteries, The Dagger of Amon Ra is a must play
Posted: 01/04/18 | Category: Review | Developer: Sierra On-Line | Publisher: Sierra On-Line | Platform: Windows, Other
Note: This game was first released in 1992; review was originally published March 17, 2005

Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra is a sequel (not too surprisingly) to Laura Bow: The Colonel's Bequest. In Colonel's Bequest, young Laura Bow solved a string of murders on a remote Southern estate. In Dagger of Amon Ra, Laura has just finished her journalism studies and moved to New York. She's had the good luck of securing a job as a reporter at the New York Daily Register News Tribune, aka the Trib. Her first assignment is to cover a burglary at the famous Leyendecker museum in New York. The missing item is the legendary Dagger of Amon Ra, only recently arrived to New York from Egypt over the protests of certain prominent Egyptians.

The entire game is divided into several acts. The first act is taking place in New York city and is something of an overture to the real story of the stolen dagger. Laura can visit several locations around the town, acquaint herself with the joys and perils of the big city, meet one or two important characters, and collect a few useful items that will be very helpful later in the game. This is perhaps a good time for a piece of valuable advice: If you're playing The Dagger of Amon Ra, do not rush through the game. Take the time to carefully explore the surroundings and pick up everything that isn't nailed down (always a good thing to do). The game is somewhat unforgiving and if you fail to find certain items, you will either miss important events and clues later on, or won't be able to finish the game at all and will have to go back to an earlier saved game (you do save often, right?).

The second act is where the real fun starts, with Laura arriving at a fundraiser event at the Leyendecker museum. She starts mingling with all the important guests and museum staff, and isn't afraid to eavesdrop whenever an opportunity presents itself. There's just one problem - nearly everyone has a possible motive for the crime, and hardly anyone is decent enough to have a solid alibi, or even any alibi at all. Laura spends most of her time interrogating the guests and trying to piece together who's working with who and against whom.

Laura can also start exploring the fascinating Leyendecker museum which is filled to the brim with an extraordinary number of exciting and exotic exhibits. This is where the game shines, because every item has a nice textual description, sometimes informative, sometimes funny, sometimes educational, sometimes detailed almost to the point of absurdity, and all of them worth reading.

As it tends to happen in detective mysteries, Laura Bow discovers that not everything is as it seems, and there is a lot of shady deals going on behind the scenes. Almost everyone seems to be hiding a secret, and some of those are very dark. As if that wasn't bad enough, Laura soon finds the first dead body, and it's very, very far from the last one.

The pacing of The Dagger of Amon Ra is excellent and the events are slowly gathering speed until the final crescendo where things get very hot indeed. The closing act of the game, and the shortest, is the coroner's inquest. Laura has to present her theories about who committed all the crimes, and present any evidence she's been able to gather. If you paid good attention to detail during the game, you should have a very good idea about the culprit (or culprits?). If you didn't... poor Laura could be in serious trouble!

The Dagger of Amon Ra was released in 1992 and as far as the technology is concerned, it is a vast improvement over Colonel's Bequest. It employs 256 color VGA graphics which does look grainy on today's computers but was top notch when the game was published over a decade ago. The graphics are in the style of hand drawn cartoon, colorful and detailed. When you speak to another character, there is a close-up of their face, and many items in the game also feature close-up shots.

The music adds a lot to the game's atmosphere. It matches the game's period setting (1926) very well and many of the tunes are just nice to listen to. The game was available in two versions, floppy and CD-ROM. I unfortunately only played the floppy version, hence I can't comment on the quality of the voice acting.

The interface is classic point and click, with graphical menu at the top of screen, just like in so many other Sierra games released in the early to mid-1990s. The distinguishing characteristic of The Dagger of Amon Ra is that the icons look like Egyptian hieroglyphs. Stylish and appropriate, since Egyptology plays an important role in the game.

One more technology related note: Due to the age of this game, The Dagger of Amon Ra may require special software (such as DOSBox) to play properly on newer computers.

The story of The Dagger of Amon Ra is rich and complex, and aimed at adult audiences. That's not to say it's an R-rated game, just that younger players might not necessarily understand all the nuances of the plot. The game lets you gradually discover the complex relationships between characters and discover the dirt behind the sparkling clean facade of the Leyendecker museum - if you're not afraid to poke your nose where it doesn't belong, and don't mind the smell. The writing is very good, with lots of little jokes and a number of obscure references to other Sierra games, although overall the game is quite serious and not at all farcical (unlike so many other Sierra games). There's also a fair amount of dialogue, but not too much, at least in my opinion. At first it's not entirely easy to keep track of all the characters (aka suspects), but their number isn't excessive, and a few murders here and there will whittle down their ranks anyway.

The puzzles are very well integrated into the game, which means that many of them don't look like puzzles. As I mentioned earlier, thorough exploration of the environment is crucial in solving the game. Lack of attention to detail is sometimes punished with dead ends, although fortunately in most cases it is quite obvious that you must have missed something important. As in most Sierra games, the hero (or rather heroine in this case) can die many interesting, highly inventive, and even spectacular deaths, usually in situations that are obviously dangerous, yet sometimes abruptly and unexpectedly. Save early, save often, that's the drill we love to hate.

I consider Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra to be one of the best Sierra games. It has a well developed plot with very good gradation. The tone is serious but not overly dry. The artwork was top notch when the game was released, and in my opinion holds up pretty well after all those years, and it's been a while since the game's release. On the downside, the dead ends make The Dagger of Amon Ra relatively difficult - which is not necessarily bad - and may be frustrating. For every fan of detective mysteries, The Dagger of Amon Ra is a must play. My overall grade for this game is an A-.

Final Grade: A-
 

SausageInYourFace

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Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
Cool thread, Zombra!

I never knew there were so many (good) detective games. The only one I have ever played was Blade Runner, I absolutely adored that game but I thought it was pretty much the only one (only good one, anyway). Only recently I got thinking about playing some after I saw this excellent video thats related to the topic:



After watching, I settled for playing Tex Murphy - Mean Streets as that was already in my GOG library.

I have now aquired about four pages of detective notes including names, addresses, key words, connections between people, current leads and possible motives. The game has some weak bits and the underlying mechanics may be fairly simplistic but it still requires some thought and effort put into it and is probably the best 'detective work simulator' I have played so far. Blade Runner may win on atmosphere but Mean Streets sure has the better detective mechanics.

If the whole series is like that I am looking forward to a bunch of great games.

:happytrollboy:
 
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Sceptic

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If the whole series is like that I am looking forward to a bunch of great games.
Unfortunately the rest of the series is nothing like this (though Martian Memorandum does have a neat multi-layered plot that's fun to put together). Still you do have a bunch of great games to look forward to. While MM is a more traditional point and click adventure, and the rest after are FMV adventures, they do include the best FMV games made. Sadly Mean Streets is one of a kind. Glad you're enjoying it, it has some flaws but I still find it one of the best detective games out there.
 

SCO

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Three 'classic' games are missing :

Murders in Venice and Murders in Space. Murders in Venice is i believe kind of random with a interrogation and clue matching interface, plus a real time clock (that can be stopped fortunately). Murders in Space is not random, but it's still very hard and kind of experimental and keeps the real-time clock with stop (i think this was supposed to be a 'challenge' but only retarded people keep it running).

Every hour on these games the 'plot' progresses and NPC move. In murders in space (which i played) if you don't do exactly the right things, they'll move to a murder. Besides avoiding murder, each npc has a 'secret' which you must find for the best ending. This game also included 'feelies' (in-game stuff in the box) as part of its puzzles (a immersive form of copy protection).

The other is Floor 13, where you're the criminal-government solving 'cases', often through torture, but also following people, ransacking houses etc. It's more of a management game than a detective game (because if you're too noticeable you die), but it's still investigative.

I'm not sure if i should recommend any of these, since they're kind of unusual and off-putting, but they're certainly unique. Floor 13 is a bit too out of theme and too edgy, but it was made in early 90's Britain so that explains that.
 

Tramboi

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Just for the sake of Frenchiness and completeness, Cobrasoft also did Meutre à grande vitesse (train theme), Meurtres sur l'Atlantique (cruise theme) and Meurtres en série (island theme) but I don't know if they were translated to English.
Edit : Murder on the Atlantic has an english version.
 
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Zombra

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I just finished This Is the Police, and although most of the game is other stuff, the detective sections are interesting. You receive text descriptions of eyewitness reports and other evidence, and depending on skill levels your detectives acquire a series of polaroids, some of which are relevant to the solution and others that are red herrings. (Better detectives will find the true photos quicker and fewer false leads.) You have to arrange the correct pictures in the correct order to reconstruct what happened and solve a case. Also, without a certain upgrade, you never know if you have all the correct photos yet so you may need to wait for your detectives to find more before the case is solvable. Nice combination of reading comprehension, visual recognition, and personnel management.
 

Tom Selleck

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i think the her story mechanic could be interesting if a) the writing was much, much, much, much, much better b) the acting was much, much better and c) there was something "to actually do" with the information you receive other than like, your own personal edification. Like if you had to "file a report" and put things in a certain order according to your understanding of events and you could get it objectively wrong or something
 

Zombra

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Make the Codex Great Again! RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Zombra, please watch this videos, you will love them. High quality content.
I liked where that guy in the first video was going, interesting stuff, but I disagree with him. I haven't tried Her Story yet, maybe I'll make time for it ... but he failed at Crimes & Punishments. It was his fault for playing it like a bad adventure game, spamming combinations of everything instead of thinking about connections that made sense. He probably spammed the case endings too, and just watched them all until he found the correct one. Just because it's possible to brute force a game doesn't mean it's not irresponsible to do so.
 

Monkey Baron

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I helped put crap in Monomyth
I strongly recommend against Dead Secret. It's essentially a glorified walking simulator. I found the story to be predictable and boring, I couldn't help but feel as though a high school student wrote it. There was even the inclusion of random Japanese folk imagery and elements that ultimately contributed nothing to the plot. Just felt really out of place.

I also have a mixed opinion of This Is The Police. I really enjoyed the first few hours but it really drags on afterwards. Admittedly, I got really excited during the Serial Killer case and thought things would pick up again. That conclusion of that plotline left me feeling really disappointed because it was so anti-climatic. I wish they fleshed it out properly, it potentially could've been the best part of the game. The gameplay is just too monotonous for me to recommend, I wish it was half as long but more engaging.

Hated Orwell. It's half as long as TITP but the gameplay is even slower. It would've benefited from voice acting or something to break up the monotony of it all. I don't remember the story too well but I remember being unimpressed. If it was really interesting, I probably could excuse reading IM conversations to reveal critical plot twists.

Recommend against Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit too. Both had interesting premises but fell really flat. I've heard that's a recurring theme for David Cage. God awful writing and (lack of) character development.

I played a bit of Murdered: Soul Suspect. Ran into a game breaking bug an hour or two in that I could never fix so I dropped it. Seemed okay but reminded me a lot of Heavy Rain.
 

toro

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i think the her story mechanic could be interesting if a) the writing was much, much, much, much, much better b) the acting was much, much better and c) there was something "to actually do" with the information you receive other than like, your own personal edification. Like if you had to "file a report" and put things in a certain order according to your understanding of events and you could get it objectively wrong or something

I disagree on acting, I think it was pretty good except that ...

I went from Hannah to Eve in like 5 searches and then the entire story was spoiled for me

To be honest, for like 2 or 3 hours I searched like a maniac because I was sure that I missed some things. In the end, I found out that some things remain simply inexplicable ... and that the entire "investigation" has no real purpose.

Overall the concept is good but the implementation is shit.
 

Tom Selleck

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The initial, like, "gotta get the clues! I'm sure I'm the problem here!" of Her Story is captivating. But like you said, once you spoil the story, it's a flatline from there.
 

Tom Selleck

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Actually, now that I think about it, I think like something that is "Her Story meets Spycraft" might be a solid idea.
 

Don Peste

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Detective Time is a game in the genre of "short interactive cinema".

The story takes place in an American town. A detective named Randy arrived at the crime scene, where the fishermen found the body of an unknown man in the lake. You need to look for clues, interview witnesses, interrogate suspects, break door locks and safes to figure out who the murderer is. The game has 4 different endings and the outcome will depend on your correct choice.
 

V_K

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Playing through the Phoenix Wright trilogy now and kinda loving it. Sure it could do with a little less weaboo and a little more failure state - would be especially nice if you could actually miss clues during the investigation phases. But the main mechanic of picking witness testimony apart line by line and confronting it with collected evidence to find holes and contradictions is absolutely brilliant.
 

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