If you’re feeling the detective themes in Judgment there’s, luckily, plenty of other great detective games out there, both in terms of games that actually have you playing as a detective, and games that nail that detective feel. Here are eight great detective games like Judgment.
Judgment is the latest game from the makers of Yakuza, and it’s their take on the detective thriller genre. You play as a lawyer-turned-detective named Takayuki Yagami, an as you might expect, there’s plenty of mystery and intrigue throughout the game’s story.
L.A. Noire
You can’t get any closer to the quintessential detective experience than L.A Noire, a game that emulates that film noir experience to the tiniest detail. The Rockstar epic takes place in Los Angeles in the 1940 and 50s, letting you play as an up-and-coming detective named Cole Phelps.
The game is split up into a series of grisly murder cases, all of which tie into a larger overall story. L.A. Noire is about as nitty-gritty on detective work as any game out there.
You’ll need to search crime scenes and piece together evidence, examining each object for extra hints or clues. Interrogating witnesses and suspects is also a huge piece of the game, and at the time, L.A. Noire’s facial capture technology was revolutionary, if a bit uncanny.
You’ll need to read emotions and ticks on people’s faces to deduce whether they’re telling the truth or not. Of course like any Rockstar game, there’s plenty of shooting, driving, and open world activities to get into as well.
L.A. Noire absolutely nails its detective story, providing plenty of mystery and intrigue along the way, and it’s the closest video games have ever actually gotten to film noir.
Deadly Premonition
Weird is probably the best word to describe Deadly Premonition, but it really doesn’t do justice to this absolutely strange game. Taking serious inspiration from Twin Peaks, Deadly Premonition has you playing as an FBI Special Agent named Francis York Morgan, as he travels to the small town of Greenvale to investigate a serial killer.
Pretty much everything about Deadly Premonition is janky, from its awkward animations to the subpar shooting, but the game just oozes personality and charm out of every pore. Its story is a classic whodunnit tale, but Morgan himself is a bit of an unhinged individual, casting doubt and confusion through the entire game.
To solve the mystery you’ll need to travel around Greenvale and investigate crime scenes, and interview the absurdly weird residents.
There’s definitely a supernatural stint to everything, but Deadly Premonition has great characters and a strong detective-like story at its core.
Hotel Dusk Room 215
Hotel Dusk’s striking art style is its biggest asset, resembling something like a hand-drawn sketchbook, but there’s also a riveting story to uncover.
You play as a former New York City detective named Kyle Hyde, who travels to the rundown Hotel Dusk in Nevada in search of his missing former partner. When he arrives he’s given the key to Room 215 which is said to “grant wishes.”
As Kyle explores the hotel he learns of a larger, more sinister mystery, that even ties back to his own past. You have to travel around the hotel and speak to its various patrons, pressing them with questions on information you’ve learned, presenting certain items, and squeezing out every drop of info you can.
There are also a number of little puzzles to solve that each use the DS’s touchscreen Interestingly, Hotel Dusk is one of the only games on the DS that you play vertically, making it feel more like an interactive detective book than anything.
Hotel Dusk Room 215 is fairly linear, but it’s presentation and detective story are more than enough to keep you going.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments
Sherlock Holmes is the most famous detective in entertainment history, so it’s only natural that he’d appear on something like this. Frogwares has been creating Sherlock Holmes games for years, but Crimes and Punishments still remains their very best one, and one of the best detective games ever.
The game is split up into six different cases, all of which tie into an overarching plot of a terrorist cell called the Merry Men trying to overthrow the government. Using investigation mechanics you’ll need to study crime scenes and interrogate witnesses, and finding clues adds them to something called the “Deduction Board.”
Using the Deduction Board you can link pieces of info together and try to find the truth. However, there’s not just one solution to each case, as each one has 4-5 different ways it can be solved, and you can even fail to solve it, never finding the murderer.
If you do find the person, though, you then have a moral choice on if to forgive or punish them. The mechanics in Crimes and Punishments is really meant to make you feel like Sherlock Holmes, and the game takes some smart cues from other titles like Arkham Asylum for new mechanics.
The sheer number of options in each case, and the way they can turn out, makes this a great detective game, but the grittier take on Sherlock Holmes is also interesting.
Her Story
Her Story is a fascinating experience that truly requires you to use deductive reasoning, and probably bust out a notebook and a pen as well. The entirety of Her Story is played via a computer search bar, as you play a detective searching through police interview footage to try and piece the case of a missing man together.
The videos feature the man’s wife, Hannah Smith, and you have to type in search terms to try and bring up new videos that shed more light on the truth. Her Story is a brilliantly designed experience that can be solved so many different ways.
The game is completely freeform, and the only way you’re going to get hints on what to search next is by watching videos. This leads to a kind of flowchart that you create, oftentimes with a real pen and paper, as you try and scrub footage for little hints or lines, then figure out how the videos fit together.
Other games might put you in the shoes of a detective, but there are very few games that do a better job of making you feel like one.
The Wolf Among Us
Telltale redefined adventure games with series like The Walking Dead, but The Wolf Among Us remains one of the very best titles from the now defunct developer.
The Wolf Among Us takes place in the universe of the Fables comics, a gritty series where Fairy Tales are real and live in a place called Fabletown, away from humans. You play as the Big Bad Wolf, now known as Bigby Wolf, who now works as the sheriff of Fabletown.
When a woman gets murdered in town, Bigby starts to investigate and finds a much larger conspiracy in the process. If you’ve played a Telltale game before, you know what to expect.
You’ll walk around environments and examine them, play quick-time events for action scenes, and do a whole lot of dialogue options and moral choices.
The Wolf Among Us is easily one of the best stories that Telltale ever told, however, and throughout its five-episode run the game remains consistently gripping and interesting.
There’s a serious noir tone to the overall story, and the mystery that unravels is sure to please any fan of detective stories.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Unlike many detective games out there, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is actually set in an open world environment, and gives you a fair amount of freedom as to how you solve the main mystery.
You play as a paranormal investigator named Paul Prospero, who receives a letter from the 12-year-old Ethan Carter, inspiring him to take a trip to the town of Red Creek Valley. Upon arriving you find out that Ethan Carter is missing, and a series of paranormal events are wracking the town.
Although it’s based around paranormal stuff, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter feels like a detective experience through and through.
The game doesn’t hold your hand in any way. You’ll need to explore the town and investigate the deaths of the Carter family, using paranormal abilities to recreate the scene whenever you find a dead body.
These sequences feel very “detective-y” as you have to piece the timeline of scenes together and figure out the truth. A gorgeous world and smart puzzles help keep you moving along the mysterious story.
Professor Layton Series
If you’re looking for a series entirely based around deduction and puzzle solving, Professor Layton is the perfect choice. While Professor Layton himself is actually an archaeologist, not a detective, the character is clearly inspired by the likes of Sherlock Holmes, right down to his iconic hat and all.
In each game Layton, and his assistant Luke Triton, have to solve a huge mystery by talking to people and playing through a series of puzzle minigames.
The first game has the pair investigate the fictional village of St. Mystere, in order to find an artifact called the Golden Apple.
Gameplay is split up into visual novel-like segments, exploring locations, and solving some head-scratching puzzles. Seriously, Professor Layton has some of the best puzzle design in all of video games, and many of them function on higher level logic.
Between the fascinating mysteries in each game and the delightfully fun puzzles, this series manages to nail the detective feel, even if you aren’t playing as a full-blown detective.
If you want a little bit different of an experience too, there’s also Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, which mixes investigation, puzzle solving, and courtroom antics.
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