Return of the Obra Dinn
In “Return of the Obra Dinn” you’re an insurance investigator who is tasked with determining the fates of all 60 crewmembers aboard the Obra Dinn, a merchant ship that went missing in the early 19th century. Among your possessions is a pocketwatch that, when opened while standing nearby (the remains of) a corpse, shows you a glimpse of the deceased’s surroundings – and what they heard – at the moment of their death.
Furthermore, you have a book in which you keep a record of every crewmate’s death and disappearance. It also contains an artist’s rendition of the face of every crewmember and a list of the crewmember’s names, their occupation and their nationality. Your task is to assign a fate to everyone aboard the ship by using the 3D stills the pocketwatch provides you with. Some people’s fates are easier to determine than others, and the game will rely heavily on your deductive reasoning skills, since you’ll have to draw conclusions by narrowing down possibilities. Although sometimes conclusions based on guesswork and incomplete information were required too.
– Real player with 15.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Detective Mystery Games.
TL;DR
People declaring Obra Dinn a prime example of games-as-art and a shining pinnacle of what games in general should strive to be, probably have little to no understanding of how games actually work and wouldn’t recognize a good game if it hit them in the forehead. The core puzzle is good, tho.
Longer version
It’s better to know one important thing before even considering buying The Return of Obra Dinn. This can make or break your experience with it.
The whole affair boils down to solving one big constraint satisfaction problem (think the famous Zebra, or Einstein’s, puzzle) uniquely presented as a series of “memories” (still 3d dioramas) accompanied by an interactive notebook instead of a usual cell table. There is nothing else to it, period.
– Real player with 15.6 hrs in game
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Case of the Mystified Murderess
Again - remember this is a 6 year old game, utilises videos and text instead of animation, and covers a single case!
Now that’s out of the way… it’s short, but not bad for a single session of gaming. If you enjoy the board game (221B Baker Street, etc) or the interactive movie version of Clue, then you’ll enjoy this one. It’s a lot of reading, picking out the relevant names and following up only on those. As it’s ‘demerit point’ based, you want to have as low a score as possible - so visiting the wine dealer is really unnecessary (yes, I went to the wine dealer!).
– Real player with 30.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Detective FMV Games.
Out of all three of the games on Steam, this was the weakest of the three. I won’t spoil. But if you get a deal on all three, then why not play it. But if buying them individually buy the other two. I will recommend the game in spite of that because the game itself was bug free, and good for an early 90s game. Enjoyed the video clips mostly. I was a bit unhappy at the Baker Street Irregular implementation. Can’t be sure, but in every case I tried them, they were useless - you may find out differently, in which case you can lower your score ( a low score is a better score.)
– Real player with 6.1 hrs in game
The Raven Remastered
What a remarkable game The Raven is. I can’t believe it’s only rated 60% ; for a game that was remastered free of charge if you own the original, it doesn’t make much sense.
The story is bloody brilliant, there are several surprising twists, the characters are very well thought-out. Revisiting the same locations while controlling different characters is just a superb idea which shines a new light on how the chain of events unfolded from a different perspective. As always with KING Art games, the art direction is a feast for the eyes and the orchestral music is great as well. The thing that impressed me the most tho, is the voice-acting.
– Real player with 26.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Detective Mystery Games.
An OK point-and-click game, inspired by Agatha Christie, but nothing to be enthused about. Not very long or complex (there are only
! 3 main areas: the train, the ship and the museum), but the story is interesting enough, with a few surprises and a nice
! twist at the end, although there are some serious plot holes. The characters lack charisma, not one of them is special.
Puzzles are simple and, for the most part, straightforward, so it’s very rare to get stuck. The only time I had to check a walkthrough was for the
! sons of Horus puzzle, because there’s no indication that the
! figures must be in the inward section of the circle. Achievements are easy to 100%, although one of them is really stupid (
! play with the dog 3 times).
– Real player with 20.4 hrs in game
Try To Remember
Try to Remember is a fun and original memory game where you help a detective remember details about a scene. The scenes change in every game, so despite being a short game, it can be replayed multiple times. I also like the quirky graphics, that seem to emulate PS1 graphics.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Try To Remember is a trivia game, where you want to be a detective and in order to become one, you need to check a room for 50 seconds and answers some questions to a detective.
I really like the basic idea. You get different rooms, which has different things in it and these can change to play through to play through. The questioning is also straight forward, and at the beginning it has some suspense too, thanks to the detective’s sudden reaction. This is indeed great, however my biggest problem with the whole game, it only has 3 rooms and after you finished everyone of them in one play through, you played through the game, and I think this is not much for the game, because you can basically play it through in half an hour. You can do multiple plays to see the differences and after some time you can get a pattern of it and the game won’t be that difficult, also the game has some secrets, so you can find some content in it, but it don’t have much.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Detective Grimoire
More for kids.
This is a point-n-click adventure game where you, as Detective Grimoire, are tasked with solving the murder of a proprietor of a tourist attraction that’s located in a swamp. The game has nice graphics and is well-made on the whole, but I just found it way too simple, the story so-so, and the interface and gameplay aimed too much at children. I would only recommend this to kids/teens aged 7-15.
Here’s what I liked:
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Mystery to be solved
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Pretty, vibrant visuals
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
To me, adventure games are like french fries.
I enjoy the anticipation of french fries. I like their smell, I like how they look, and I even enjoy eating the first few french fries. However after eating first few fries, they sit like an iron weight in my stomach and I start feeling sick. Then I remember “Oh yes. This is why I shouldn’t buy french fries. I should remember never to buy them again.” I buy a lot of french fries.
I also enjoy the anticipation of adventure games. The videos tease an interesting plot, cool artwork, funny dialogue, or a tantalizing mystery and I can’t resist. However, after playing one for a few minutes, I remember why I hate them. Most of the gameplay consists of searching for something to click on, watching unskippable cutscenes, or waiting for characters to walk… and I remind myself never to buy one again. I buy a lot of adventure games.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Escape The Ordinary: Tales of Romina Manor
it was a great game. i like rpgmaker games so i enjoyed a lot.
Can be finished in one hour. Maybe 2 if u are an idiot cuz i am.
- i like the little detais in the game. They made me smile.
but there are something to fix:
1- u can get into house by window without needing a key.
2- stucks when you go back your home then the other pleace
3- stucks when you go to bathroom for the second time
4- Song stucks in your mind when you see “Mirror mirror on the wall”
There was a lot of item that we can collect but some of them (a lot of them) was not usefull. I guess they are for confuse the player. Not sure…
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
Cool Mystery game wrapped in an easy to play RPG format. Love exploring the map and seeing Easter eggs and fun comments left by the developer. This game also stood out in that not everything you pick up is useful. This is much more like the real world experience. Wish there is slightly more hint later on in the game, but overall a fun game.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes
AT A GLANCE
(Full review follows below)
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Game Name: The Testament of Sherlock Holmes
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Original Release: 2012
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Genre Tags: Adventure; Point & Click; Puzzle; Detective; Casual
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My Overall Grade: A-
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Estimated Playtime (Campaign): 10-18 hours
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Multiplayer Aspect: None
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Recommended To: Established fans of the genre; Those intrigued by the genre; Casual gamers
REVIEW
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is a very pleasantly surprising puzzle game, with a high standard of quality and a humorous undertone. Any fans of the puzzler-adventure genre should easily find this game enjoyable. Once you start playing you will likely find yourself engrossed by the experience.
– Real player with 25.5 hrs in game
‘The Testament of Sherlock Holmes’ is based on an entirely fictional plot not borrowed from any of Arthur Conan Doyle’s works. The length of the game is a good 25 hours, and one gets to solve lots of puzzles and search every nook and corner for clues. Dr. Watson acts as a valuable accomplice for Holmes and often one will control Watson rather than Holmes.
One feature that I really liked about the game is the graphics. They are very good, although not as good as some of the Tomb Raider games. The game takes place in some very odd yet beautiful settings. Another feature that is praiseworthy is the variety and ingenuity of the puzzles that the developers have created. The ‘Deduction Menu’ can be extremely challenging because one must reach the correct conclusion for each of the clues to reach the correct final conclusion. The music is for the most part dark and spooky, but fits well into the game.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders
Who this game may appeal to –
-New P&C gamers
-Agatha Christie fans or those who love a good story
-HOG gamers who like puzzles as the puzzles here are just a bit harder than most HOGs (note this isn’t a HOG like some past Christie games were).
-People who find Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes games too hard or need a good bit of help with them.
Those who are seasoned P&C gamers who are expecting the same length and complexities as the cheaper priced ($20) new Nancy Drew games may be disappointed which is why I am only recommending it if you can get it at half price. But then I always found Agatha Christie games to be easier than ND and SH games (although this is a completely different style as to the other AC adventure games). Trying to be thorough going for max points and working out achievements, first gameplay was 6-7hrs, with no hints.
– Real player with 16.2 hrs in game
There are many things this game did wonderfully, such as the fantastic voice acting, the art style, and how the interviews adapt depending on what you chose to say. I really appreciate the achievements as it could have been realy easy for the developers to put in achievements based on ego points the game awards, but instead have them based on the story or investigating people, places, and objects.
While the puzzles do seem easy, I found that the game does seem to weigh it based on which part of the game it is located in, such as in chapter one you have puzzles you can easily figure out (as a way to introduce looking around for clues) and the last puzzles you do (in chapter three) involve investigating outside of the puzzle.
– Real player with 12.9 hrs in game
Alicia Griffith – Lakeside Murder
(Special thanks to some guy who gifted this. Many thanks.)
A point-and-click that…actually works pretty well!
Alicia Griffith - Lakeside Murder was quite a treat to the eyes. It’s a murder mystery story combined with a point-and-click adventure title, a hidden object game, AND with minigames along the way. Though the story may be quite cliche, the visuals and programming are quite well done!
Join Alicia Griffith, an ace detective who hoped to get a little relaxation after already solving a murder mystery. Strangely, her idea of relaxing from a murder mystery…is by solving another murder mystery (that’s commitment!!!). In this game, you’ll basically have a tutorial and 4 acts: The murder scene, a quiet town, a creepy mansion+graveyard, and some ancient ruins. After completing one act, you’ll be unable to go back to a location in a previous act.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
I’m surprised this game has so many positive reviews. It’s basically a Hidden Object Game in all ways except that it lacks actual HOG scenes. You’d think this makes it a regular point&click adventure game, but it feels of HOG through and through. Which in and of itself isn’t bad, I don’t dislike HOGs. But almost every single minigame puzzle was either a tile sliding puzzle or one of those lights-out style “get all these parts arranged/moved/toggled in a certain way, but moving/toggling one part moves/toggles one or more others”. These get old REALLY fast.
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
How could I ever regret this amazing purchase?
– Real player with 98.5 hrs in game
Four Dark Devas of Destruction
– Real player with 71.8 hrs in game