Good murder mystery games?

[J T]

It's funny how many of these games are FMV: Ripper, Tex Murphy, Missing Since January, X-Files, Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within... I guess a lot of the better FMV games are murder mysteries.

I've played Indigo Prophecy on both PS2 and PC. It's a pretty cool game. I haven't played Laura Bow, Deadly Premonition, Phoenix Wright, or Ghost Trick though. I'll have to keep an eye out.

[Hatta]

The Clue(do) game on CD-I is also FMV and marginally entertaining for a CD-I title. There are 4 scenarios you can play, and the killer is decided randomly. They manage to provide enough FMV to illustrate motives for every character in every scenario. The murder mystery portion of the game is actually pretty well designed.

Actually playing the game however, is pretty awful. Interfaces that bad only exist on CD-I.

Edit: Also, has anyone tried the Nancy Drew games? Do they have anything to offer the adventure gamer who's not a 10 year old girl?

[Pulsar_t]

Bladerunner begins off with an investigation into animal murder, which in that particular universe is more severe than human murder The game progresses with further acts of violence, and you can interrogate suspects to determine whether they're human or not. The game should really be put up on GOG but I imagine licensing wouldn't be easy.

Still Life offers a serial killer mystery but the ending is incomplete and the sequel isn't worth playing, much to my chagrin.

L.A. Noire is strangely missing from this topic. I recommend waiting for the complete PC edition.

And there's of course the Police Quest games which are quite verbose and overbearing but at least it earned its namesake! There's also a plethora of Sherlock Holmes titles, some good some bad.. And Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles for the DS which is a passable visual novel title.



There's Black Dahlia but I only played the demo. Seemed okay at the time.. I wonder whether Dennis Hopper was a key character in the game.

[KillerJuan77]

The Post-Mortem series (Post-Mortem, Still Life and Still Life 2) are pretty cool, Deadly Premonition, Heavy Rain, Fahrenheit and the Missing series are also pretty good.

[GigaPepsiMan]

I suppose Ace Attoney would be too obvious an answer. Fahrenheit (indigo prophecy) is a favourite of mine even if it does get silly later on. Broken Sword 1 & 2 have a good mystery element to it.

[Original_Name]

Shenmue. It may not have the traditional element of not knowing who the murderer is, but the detective element lies in discovering the circumstances surrounding your father's death and, subsequently, the similarities you may have with his murderer.

[Stark]

+1 Still Life series
+1 Indigo Prophecy
+1 Bladerunner
+1 Under a Killing Moon

[GigaPepsiMan]

Shenmue. It may not have the traditional element of not knowing who the murderer is, but the detective element lies in discovering the circumstances surrounding your father's death and, subsequently, the similarities you may have with his murderer.

Shame the game leaves you with more questions than answers.

[Metal Jesus]

I have to do a shout-out to Gabriel Knight 2. It's a murder mystery mixed with Anne Rice style gothic horror.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PumK0tYUYUA