The 16 Best Mystery Games

The definitive and fully-featured version of publisher/developer ZA/UM's role-playing mystery game is this one. Disco Elysium - The Final Cut has garnered tons of acclaim due to its wealth of gameplay systems, which include strong voice acting, a bevy of non-combat skills that impact its extensive dialogue sections, and mature themes that are handled quite well. The main gist of this game centers on an amnesiac detective who must get to the bottom of a murder mystery in a downtrodden seaside district. Skill checks and dialogue trees come into play as you delve into the main character's past and the current events that trouble his world.

Based on the Fables comic book series, The Wolf Among Us comes from the beloved point-and-click adventure game maestros at Telltale Games. As Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of "Fabletown," you're put on the path of a sinister individual who is responsible for a heinous murder. As you look to get to the bottom of who's behind a citywide threat, you'll get embroiled in intense situations and must make crucial decisions in order to move the story forward in the way you see fit. Exploring a gritty town full of characters inspired by fairytales, legends, and folklore becomes all the more fun as you try to solve a murder mystery.

When we talk about the best mystery games, it's only right that we mention the current-gen port of L.A. Noire. This highly cinematic action/adventure game is set in 1947 Los Angeles and puts you in the boots of Detective Cole Phelps. While investigating a morphine distribution ring, you'll find yourself amazed by the amazingly lifelike visuals that impact gameplay since you'll need to take note of your suspect's facial cues in order to call them out on their lies. Open-world free-roaming, serious investigative work, and intense action sequences lie at the heart of this underrated Rockstar Games title.

Return of the Obra Dinn's alluring "1-bit" monochromatic graphical art style will grab you and thankfully, its central storyline will keep you. You'll take on the role of an insurance inspector for the East India Company, who must make their way around a mysterious merchant ship. It's up to you to find out why the 60 individuals have gone missing from that ship by piecing together past events through the use of a pocketwatch-like device that can be used to delve into the events that led to the death of numerous crew members. We crown this pick as another one of the best mystery games worth playing thanks to its engrossing gameplay loop and focus on logical deduction.

Seeing the name Sherlock Holmes associated with this next selection on our list of the best mystery games should definitely pique your interest! Crimes & Punishment sets players up as the titular crime-solver in a game where six particular cases must be solved. These cases cover a variety of criminal occurrences, such as murders, missing persons, major thefts, and more. Looking through crime scenes for crucial evidence, examining them, and eventually using your deduction board to piece them all together to arrive at a conclusion is what you can look forward to here. Multiple case solutions and endings for each story point to this game's strong replay value and sense of mystery-solving freedom for extra thorough players.

For this next pick on our list of the best mystery games, we have a top-notch adventure game here that's backed by a horror theme that’s effective in its delivery of shocking revelations. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter follows an occult-minded detective named Paul Prospero, who finds himself on the lookout for a boy named Ethan Carter. After receiving a letter from him that clearly reads like a cry for help, you'll go into full detective mode as you attempt to get to the bottom of Ethan’s disappearance. As you make your way through "Red Creek Valley," you’ll come across a series of criminal investigations and use your ability to talk to the dead to piece together the tragic tale behind Ethan Carter’s unfortunate fate.

"OBJECTION!" Capcom's lovable defense attorney Phoenix "Nick" Wright has uttered that catchphrase whenever he's in the courtroom fighting for the truth to prevail. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy collects the first three games he's featured in to produce a compilation of some of the best visual novel adventure games you'll ever play. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Justice for All, and Trials and Tribulations all feature laugh-out-loud moments, investigative gameplay sequences where you're tasked with finding important evidence, and nail-biting courtroom drama that's worthy of a TV show. Keep in mind that all three games are given the HD remaster treatment!

Once you've had your fill of Phoenix Wright's courtroom antics, you'll be inspired to check out the adventures of his ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodo. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles follows him as he navigates the Victorian Era and gets into his own habit of solving criminal cases. Both The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve (which were originally Japanese-only game releases) have been compiled into this collection to give Phoenix Wright fans everything they love about the series. And that's plenty of evidence gathering, cross-examination of key witnesses, and impassioned moments that take place during memorable trials.

Development studio Quantic Dream went above and beyond with a big-budget PS3 project that placed players smack dab in the middle of a crime caper. Heavy Rain focuses on a collection of interesting individuals who find themselves searching for a serial killer referred to as the "Origami Killer." Through the implementation of interactive drama set pieces and action-packed Quick Time Events, Heavy Rain's plot unfolds with a wealth of shocking twists and turns that will certainly leave your jaw on the floor at several intervals. Being able to switch up the game's narrative through player actions will put you on the path to wild outcomes. While this game may have its fair share of cringy moments ("Press X to Jason" is definitely one of those occurrences!). Even still, Heavy Rain's positives outweigh its negatives.

From the outside looking in, the main locale of "Paradise Island" looks like the perfect destination for a weekend getaway. Unfortunately, a murder disrupts that seemingly peaceful hub world and gives you a whole of detective work to do in order to find out who's behind that crime. Paradise Killer sets players up as the so-called "investigation freak" Lady Love Dies, who takes her time looking for clues and interrogating an assortment of charismatic characters along the way. You'll have plenty of fun exploring every part of Paradise Island as you solve hieroglyph puzzles, unlock hidden locales, and eventually build an airtight case against the game's killer at large.

Everyone who searches for the best mystery games that'll keep them busy and get their minds racing at every turn will eventually come upon Her Story. That's pretty much happening right now, as a matter of fact! So here's how this game unfolds - the case of a missing man gets connected to his wife named Hannah Smith. In order to find out what led to his disappearance, you'll need to look through a collection of live-action video clips from a police database where Hannah gets interrogated. The main mystery in Her Story compels you to look for visual cues and odd behavior in every clip to see what's really going on with the main suspect of this case.

Seventeen-year-old Edith Finch is on a personal journey to figure out why she’s her family's last remaining living member. To do that, she returns to her main family household and lives out the final day of each cursed member of the Finch Clan. The gameplay sequences and story setups for each flashback moment are engrossing as they pull you into the Finch family’s unfortunate string of bad luck. What Remains of Edith Finch is bound to make you feel a wealth of emotions as you get to the bottom of its intriguing tale and either wholly believe or doubt the series of events that take place before you.

In the Outer Wilds, exploring the far reaches of outer space is the main pull of its grand adventure. And once that main premise grabs you and takes hold, it'll be hard to release yourself from the grip of it all. Your character is responsible for maneuvering through a solar system that just so happens to be stuck in a 22-minute time loop that ends with the star going supernova. Thankfully, you'll come back to life every time that massive explosion goes down and get the chance to find out why that time loop is happening in the first place. The huge sense of discovery that comes with your time spent in this game is awe-inspiring - make sure you go into this game without looking up any spoilers!

One of the greatest crime-solving duos gaming has ever seen has to be the rambunctious anthropomorphic duo of Sam & Max, better known as the "Freelance Police." After taking on a curious case that involves the disappearance of Bigfoot from a nearby carnival (yes, we're dead serious about that one), the two private eyes find themselves in the middle of all sorts of gut-bustlingly funny hijinks within a gorgeously animated 2D world. The canine shamus and hyperkinetic rabbit thing’s comic book origins may have created them, but this game is the reason why they’re remembered so fondly. When it comes to classic point-and-click adventure games, Sam & Max Hit the Road gets top billing among them as one of the best mystery games.

The Professor Layton trilogy always does an amazing job of immersing players in Sherlock Holmes-esque mysteries that feature some of the most clever (and devious!) puzzles you'll ever tackle. The entry we're choosing to showcase here is the one fans consider the undisputed high point of the series. The series formula, which revolves around solving a series of super clever brainteasers that increase in difficulty yet never feel overwhelming, still works like a charm here. "Slot Machine Gun!" is one of the greatest Professor Layton puzzles in the entire franchise and it just so happens to be featured in this top-notch franchise installment. As far as puzzles and story development go, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is good enough to earn a spot on this list of the best mystery games.

For PC gamers who were alive during the golden age of the early 90s adventure game boom, we're sure you already know how great The 7th Guest is. If this is the first time you've ever heard about this game, allow us to put you onto what it's all about. Players find themselves taking on the role of an amnesiac character who finds themselves trapped in a creepy mansion dominated by the presence of Henry Stauf. As you make your way around it, you'll be presented with some difficult puzzles to solve and plot points that slowly reveal why you're in the mansion in the first place. This game is considered revolutionary for its usage of full-motion video and the dialogue recorded by live actors. And now, all those features have been improved and the game looks & sounds even better thanks to the definitive 25th Anniversary Edition.