The List
“The List” is a mystery game where you search and watch video clips from a police database in an attempt to solve a cold murder case.
The mechanics are very similar to “Her Story”. You have access to a database of video clips showing the answers of a crime victim during several interrogation sessions in a police department. You can search this database by entering single words, and the database will show you the first 5 clips in which the person uttered that word. Finding new clips gives you new ideas for search terns, such as the names of people or places. As you find more and more clips, your understanding of the case grows, though you still have to do a lot of interpretation and deductive reasoning (partly because you don’t have access to the policeman’s questions). What’s nice and really helpful, is that each clip you have viewed will automatically be added to a timeline, where you can rewatch clips in their correct chronological order.
– Real player with 10.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery FMV Games.
The List is another addition to the FMV mystery search type, where the player has to piece together a set of clips to ultimately solve the mystery surrounding the main character. If you liked games like “Telling Lies” and “Her Story” this is for you.
The design of the game itself follows those games in which you have some limited case information, a database, a search function and a series of videos of a one sided interrogation to piece together. This was decently done, with a few hiccups in it’s search terms (There was a typo in one of the clips) or the general vagueness of terms, where words might have a tense that you must acknowledge otherwise no results can show. I felt that maybe the developer could have changed some of the terms for a few of the clips.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
Nowhere New
TLDR: If you like indies, play this game. Its story and atmosphere are well worth a few hours of your time.
This is not a full size game. It was created by a small group of students on no budget, and it shows. However, for that size and scope, it is impressively complete. I greatly enjoyed the couple hours I spent playing.
Narrative:
The writing is very strong. The mystery is intriguing, the characters are likable and complex, and the story is well constructed. There are several emotionally impactful story beats; at various points I felt shock, anger, suspense, horror, compassion, etc. I enjoyed the prevailing theme of identity, trust, and how our experiences shape who we are. Also, LGBT rep is a plus!
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Conversation Games.
Even though the game has unappealing visuals, I thought that the writing was very strong and I liked most of the characters. However, I ultimately was disappointed with the experience because the ending felt very anticlimactic, a big exposition dump to what otherwise was a mysterious story that could have gone in many ways. We play as a character that crashlands on a mysterious world where inhabitants lose their memories as they share them with other people. The game presents memory share as a mechanic but it’s somewhat cosmetic, for the most part, the story is pretty linear and you can only trade a few memories for a couple of hints, although I cannot confirm that as I decided to keep them. I wouldn’t say that it has any puzzles, you just have to talk to the characters in the right order, it’s not too convoluted. If anyone cares you can complete the game in about 90 minutes.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
SELF
SELF – An Ambitious and Surreal Text Adventure
SELF is a Kafkaesque text-based adventure that unfolds on an interactive CRT screen. The game claims to draw inspiration from titles such as Undertale and Just Shapes & Beats, striving to combine text-based narrative and choices with a variety of gameplay mechanics.
It is a decent interactive fiction that will provide around two hours of gameplay. The game has an interesting albeit confusing storyline that successfully captures the player’s attention. However, it oversells itself with exaggerated claims of puzzles and bullet hell sections, which although fun, are not overly challenging and often feel like a side note that would be better marketed as a unique take on decision making in games. I would recommend the game as a narrative experience, particularly to fans of text-based adventures, but would ward off anyone looking for more action-packed or high octane gameplay.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Indie Games.
Very creative and dreamlike with enough nudges to help you find all of the narrative branches without taking away the mystery. Very unique narrative and I would love to see more like this.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
AENTITY
This game was on my wishlist for a long time and I honestly hesitated to get it, because I knew it would probably be quite demanding. When I eventually got it, I still didn’t get started on it for almost a week. Once I did, though, I played it for seven hours straight and took over 200 screenshots during that time. It was just as demanding as I expected it to be, but also quite rewarding because of it, and, in the end, it was one of the most fascinating games I’ve played in a long while.
AENTITY is rewarding, daring, fascinating, even confusing at times, but most of all a creative outlet for those who decide to go all in. It’s a game with rules to learn and secrets to discover, but also a tool for the aspiring artist – or the artist in need of inspiration – as well as a piece of art to meditate over. As a tool it takes some practice to understand what it can do – and what you can do with it – so be prepared to take a lot of screenshots while you learn and then cut them down to a handsome few – or keep them all if that’s your thing. ;) I was really picky when I went through mine and kept only like 10%.
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game
I get abstraction….I get having no ambition or specific goal and just go with intuition in the invisible. I do get painting, arts, emptiness and minimalism… I am friend with every space called silence, void, nowhere and nothing.
But this…Hell no! I don’t know if people that do like this game are smoking weed and enjoy the psychedelic blurs of their screen!!? Maybe my pixel needs HD or a better Screen resolution?! I really don’t get it, didn’t enjoy it, getting to finish the game was a nightmare (getting all the achievements). I never want to play that game again ever. This is sad. So my only true opinion about this game is…Watch videos about a typical 15 minutes of game play and make a mind of your own about this because it is for sure a very peculiar game and maybe you will enjoy it, I didn’t. Bought the game 2 years ago for 4.48$. Can’t say I’m outraged. It’s ok even if I didn’t like the game it’s worth the try and it was intriguing enough but now I have enough… Uninstalling the game from my pc is a happy moment right now!
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
Final Frame
Inspired by Danganronpa and Ace Attorney series, Final Frame is a murder mystery Visual Novel set in modern Japan.An internet urban legend known as “Black Swan” has circulated in social media.The players are given a series of challenges to complete within thirteen days - each day with increasing difficulty, with the final day requiring the player to perform the most difficult task of them all - taking their very own life.One of the victims of “Black Swan” is said to be from Hitaki Academy, the very school Kurogashi Takaya has recently transferred to. The seemingly ordinary boy with an equally normal hobby of taking photos of his surroundings, save for one difference - Takaya can see his own death reflected in the photos he has taken.Will Takaya be able to escape his incoming death? Follow his story, take photographs and use them to solve murder cases!
FEATURES
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Detective, Mystery & Supernatural
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3 Cases, 2 Endings & 14 Epilogues
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Rated Teen 13+
LINKS
Final Frame is presented to you by Zeiva Inc
New York Rat Simulator
There was something surprisingly pleasing about running a rat the size of a Great Dane around ‘NYC’ like a plague-laden Shadowfax . So that’s nice.
I’d give it a negative review for sheer lack of content, but the developers are on the up-and-up about where the game is at this point. Interested to see how it pans out.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
The city is infested. Infested by humans!
They are almost everywhere! You are the chosen one to stop them in the name of the great Rat King! Hurry before it is too late!
Collect the pizza slices before they rot and harm weaker animals. Scare the humans away or kill them! If you don´t succeed they will spread over the hole planet and destroy everything! How dare they?!
Hurry!
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Through The Fragmentation
Short but sweet. Charming, but at the same time, low-key depressing. The setting, the themes, the visuals, and the music all come together very nicely. The multiple endings and achievements add replayability, and coming back for more was well worth it. There’s some pretty deep and metaphorical stuff going on, which might hit home for many of you, I found it really touching too. Had a very pleasant experience. I don’t think the charm of this game is going to wear off of me for a long time, very memorable stuff.
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game
Defragging For More
I love it to pieces. Or should that be ‘I love it to fragments?'
If like me you’re a fan of Thirty Flights of Loving and Gravity Bones, you might be in the right place. One aspect I really loved about those was the light inventory management combined with something like a spy premise. There’s something so effective about an ‘augmented walking sim.’ Throw in as many varied and single-usage mechanics as you can and you birth something constantly engaging. Not the norm given how expensive a disposable approach to gameplay would make most games.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
好久不见 - Long Time No See
I think there’s a bug? I can’t get my bad ending 2 and 3?
– Real player with 11.3 hrs in game
Nice mystery and for a good price too! The actors/actresses did a great job acting out their roles. The story plot was really interesting and I love how you can use the flowchart to change your decisions rather than having to restart the game from the very beginning. If you are a fan of mystery games, point & click, and loves a good story, I would recommend giving this game a try.
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
Zof
Wow… Just finished Zof and it is a very well done puzzler. Had a friend not pointed it out, I would have missed the experience entirely.
Pete Wilkins has done a great job of putting together a series of unrelated puzzles (some easy, some very complicated) that give you a true feeling of satisfaction when you solve one. The reward for completing each puzzle (or puzzle area) is a Steam Achievement plus entry into the next world. There is no story and none is needed.
The game consists of diverse (and often fantastic) landscapes done in a variety of artistic styles. The sound track is primarily environmental sounds and if you take your headphones off, you are apt to miss important aural clues. The mechanisms to move between the early puzzles are brilliant and, often, I laughed in delight as I was transported between worlds.
– Real player with 15.2 hrs in game
Zof is an excellent exposition in abstract puzzle making that uses simple logic but still keep the player wandering around like a headless chicken most of the time. The puzzles present within this game are all straight forward, once you know what to do. The most difficult part of solving each puzzle is understanding the logic within. Thus there’s nothing really all that complex about the puzzles, but you still have to think long and hard about each of the clues given.
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game
Delusion
Delusion is an unusual puzzle game that tells a story about a beautiful world, full of life and colors, which changed beyond recognition after a series of unexplainable events had taken place.
Uncover the truth, help restore the world and save its inhabitants in a journey across five chapters with a total of one hundred fresh and carefully crafted puzzles waiting to be solved. Its turn-based gameplay is simple yet challenging, with satisfying level progression and no timers, allowing you to relax and find your own pace.
Amaze yourself with the unique, mostly hand-drawn art-style, atmosphere, and depth of the living and breathing world of Delusion and its attention to detail.
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A unique and mostly hand-drawn art-style that brings the world and its unmistakable atmosphere to life
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Simple yet challenging turn-based gameplay with satisfying level progression and no timers, allowing you to relax and find your own pace
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A total of 100 carefully crafted puzzles, each featuring an optional challenge with a unique collectible offered as the reward for its completion
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An intriguing story told in 5 chapters, with support for non-linear game progression
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Original Soundtrack composed by award-winning composer Tomáš Vrána
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Colorblind friendly