Detective games are among the most narrative-focused gaming experiences that bring you some of the greatest mysteries, shocking twists, twisted villains, and gripping character development. They can also range from portraying more realistic stories to ones infused with more surreal and supernatural elements.
5:32
Related
28 PS5 Games With The Best Storylines
With an ever-expanding catalog, we take a look at some of the best story games on PlayStation 5 that you should play.
Whichever you prefer, the PS4 and PS5 have a lot of exciting selections. In terms of console exclusives, hardly any fall under the detective genre, but regardless, many astute video game detectives have made their way onto the platform over the years, and their stories are sure to scratch your investigative itch.
Updated on March 20, 2025, by Dennis Moiseyev: Detective games are always a great choice for some compelling mystery storylines and plot twists, and also if you don’t mind a few puzzles here and there. The PS4 and PS5 are home to a wonderful selection of games in this genre, whether you prefer to experience them in Metroidvania, RPG, horror, point-and-click, first-person, or third-person format. Below we’ve added some more titles that have now launched on PlayStation.
30
The Last Case Of Benedict Fox: Definitive Edition
H.P. Lovecraft and the detective genre is a match made in cosmic horror heaven. However, The Last Case of Benedict Fox isn’t your typical investigation-focused game but rather a Metroidvania-style platformer. Starring the titular detective protagonist, Benedict Fox, you must get to the bottom of a grizzly murder mystery and missing persons case while battling Lovecraftian creatures.
The game bears very similar themes and story beats to Alone in the Dark and 2018’s Call of Cthulhu, with your investigation leading you to a mysterious 20th-century mansion where a child has gone missing and the parents murdered. Helping Benedict with the case is a demonic entity that has bound itself to him, its phantom tentacles bursting out to take on enemies during combat.
29
Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition
Nightdive Studios is on a roll with its remakes and remasters of retro games. Before Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, System Shock Remake, and The Thing: Remastered, the studio also launched Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition, bringing the original 1997 point-and-click detective noir set in futuristic 2019 Los Angeles to modern consoles.
Related
Slash, dash, shoot, and dodge your way through these outstanding action games on PS5.
Unlike the Ridley Scott film, the game doesn’t follow Harrison Ford’s character Rick Deckard. Instead, you have an original Blade Runner detective from the LAPD named Ray McCoy on the hunt after animal murderers and following the trail of a murdered Tyrell Corporation employee, the company behind the Replicants. Some of the original cast reprise their roles here, including Sean Young as Rachael and Joe Turkel as Tyrell.
28
Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery
Frog Detective lets you play as one of the smartest and most astute frogs in gaming, with a first-person view of the character and your environment. This is a rare detective video game that removes a lot of the darker elements that the majority of them would entail and is instead a fun mystery adventure for the whole family.
With Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery, you get all three episodes in one package. The gameplay mechanics involve questioning NPCs and getting some quirky and lighthearted dialogue, as well as navigating the dialogue with your trusty magnifying glass. All the characters involved in the case are also anthropomorphic animals designed and modeled in the game’s unique 3D aesthetic, which makes it incredibly charming.
27
Shadows Of Doubt
- Released
-
April 24, 2023
- Developer(s)
-
ColePowered Games
- Publisher(s)
-
ColePowered Games, Fireshine Games
- Engine
-
Unity
- ESRB
-
m
Another first-person detective game is Shadows of Doubt, which has a 3D voxel art style to it and is set in a cyberpunk environment. The whole world here is your investigative playground, as you’ll move around and complete various casework for money as a private investigator.
You’ll have an evidence board that you can interact with and compile your evidence as it comes along, as well as have the ability to analyze CCTV footage around the retro-futuristic city. It’s a detective game that truly immerses you in the role, featuring a “fully simulated world” that feels alive.
26
Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Plus
- Platform(s)
-
Switch
- Released
-
June 30, 2023
- Publisher(s)
-
Spike Chunsoft
- Developer
-
Spike Chunsoft, Too Kyo Games
- Engine
-
unreal engine, unreal engine 4
- ESRB
-
m
If Atlus’s Persona series went full-on detective game, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Plus would feel exactly like something along the lines of that. It’s an anime adventure game where you play an amnesiac detective named Yuma and are joined by a spirit that’s tethered to you named Shinigami. The neon-lit, rainy world of Kanai Ward also adds plenty of atmosphere to the mystery you’ll be solving.
Related
9 Underrated Japanese Detective Games
Crack the case with these criminally underrated Japanese detective games.
As the title suggests, you are what’s known as a Master Detective, and part of the lore of your character involves the enigmatic Mystery Labyrinth, a treacherous plane that plays a key role in the investigation the deeper into the case you get. The UI and art direction will be highly reminiscent of games like Danganronpa, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and the Persona series, with an equally compelling story and original investigative mechanics to go along with it.
25
The Thaumaturge
- Released
-
March 4, 2024
- Developer(s)
-
Fool’s Theory
- Publisher(s)
-
11 Bit Studios
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 5
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ // Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
If you’re looking for a mature detective game that’s different from the rest, look no further than The Thaumaturge. It meshes historical fiction with supernatural Slavic mythology and is set in Warsaw, Poland, while it’s still under the rule of the Russian Empire. You play Wiktor Szulski, a detective who can also collect entities called Salutors to level up and use them in battle against enemies as part of his thaumaturgical abilities.
The Thaumaturge is a turn-based isometric RPG from the support studio behind Larian’s BG3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2, so you have some masterful quest writing and world-building available here. The further you progress into the story, the more Salutors you can tame and have at your side. You’ll also be partnering with historical figure Grigori Rasputin.
24
The Case And Rise Of The Golden Idol
- Released
-
October 13, 2022
- Developer(s)
-
Color Gray Games
- Publisher(s)
-
Playstack
- Engine
-
godot, proprietary engine
- ESRB
-
T For Teen Due To Blood, Violence, Use of Alcohol, Sexual Themes, Partial Nudity
You can play both The Case of the Golden Idol and its 2024 sequel, The Rise of the Golden Idol, on PS4 and PS5. This detective game series follows a point-and-click structure and offers one of the most compelling mystery storylines and mechanics, with an adventure that quite literally spans centuries.
The first game will put you in the shoes of a detective in the 18th century, where you’re faced with 12 different murders that all seem to be connected but have also taken place over the course of 50 years. Rise of the Golden Idol is set in the 1970s, where you have 20 different crimes to investigate. By examining the crime scenes and clues, the game provides you with a creative way to weave the evidence and story together, and it’s all tied to the titular object.
23
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments
This won’t be the last detective game developed by Frogwares you’ll see here. The Ukrainian studio has really built a name for itself with its prolific Sherlock Holmes series, adapting the classic literary character by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle into both unique and familiar cases with challenging puzzle-heavy mechanics. Crimes & Punishments is arguably the best Holmes entry on PS4.
1:52
Related
This 2014 Sherlock Holmes investigative adventure will have six different crime-solving cases in store from stories like ‘The Lost Special,’ ‘The Adventure of Black Peter,’ and ‘The Adventure of the Abbey Grange,’ along with originals like The Kew Gardens Drama and A Half Moon Walk. You’ll interrogate suspects and study any changes in facial expressions. To piece together clues, you have a ‘Sherlock Vision’ detective mode.
22
AI: The Somnium Files And Nirvana Initiative
4.0/5
AI: The Somnium Files
- Released
-
July 25, 2019
- Developer(s)
-
Spike Chunsoft
- Publisher(s)
-
Spike Chunsoft, Limited Run Games
- Engine
-
unity
- ESRB
-
t
Looking for a more anime-inspired detective thriller in a futuristic sci-fi setting? AI: The Somnium Files and its 2022 sequel, Nirvana Initiative, is also an option on PS4 and PS5. Told in a 3D visual novel-style design, this series takes a more psychological horror approach with a premise similar to Bloober Team’s Observer. To gain answers to the mysteries in your cases, you have to enter the dreams of suspects.
AI: The Somnium Files puts you in the shoes of Detective Kaname Date of the Advanced Brain Investigation Squad (ABIS), whose first mystery involves a string of bodies that have their eyes gouged out. Nirvana Initiative is about solving the cold case serial murders dubbed the ‘Half Body’ murders, which are as gruesome and sinister as they sound. In both games, Date will be assisted by an AI avatar called Aiba.
21
Nobody Wants To Die
- Released
-
July 17, 2024
- Developer
-
Critical Hit Games
- Publisher(s)
-
Plaion
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 5
Yet another sci-fi detective noir game that envisions a dystopian future inspired by Blade Runner is Nobody Wants to Die. Set way into the far future period of 2329, you assume the role of Mortality Department Detective James Karra in a unique vision of New York that’s filled with flying vehicles, neon-lit cityscapes, holograms, and cyberpunk atmosphere – all constructed in Unreal Engine 5.
Karra is as gritty and heavy-drinking of a detective as they come, who can use special augmented reality software to reconstruct events in crime scene investigations. One of the biggest twists to the genre this game brings is that society has found a way to give humans immortality through advanced technology via a consciousness transfer from body to body unless their life is cut short; like in this case, where the city’s elites are being targeted.
20
This Bed We Made
Taking a familiar setup from shows like Devious Maids and the mystery book titled The Maid by Nita Prose, This Bed We Made is a video game about a hotel maid snooping around guests’ rooms and uncovering a larger mystery. It’s also set in the 1950s, a perfect noir infusion for the genre.
You’re not just responsible for cleaning up a dirty surface here and there but for interacting with various clues and puzzles scattered throughout the rooms of the Clarington Hotel. It’s an underrated indie gem of an investigation thriller by the studio Lowbirth Games, and the detective story that unfolds is as compelling as all these other big-budget titles available on the console.
19
The Sinking City
Even though it’s a Lovecraftian game, The Sinking City is a title meant to be here, as it’s developed by Frogwares, the studio that mastered the detective genre with its Sherlock Holmes games. Except, instead of playing Holmes, you’ll be private investigator Charles Reed, who’s off to the mysterious and spooky city of Oakmont, filling with more and more water as time passes.
Related
The Best Lovecraftian Games For Horror Fans
Lovecraft has inspired lots of horror games, but these are the best of the best for Lovecraft and Cthulhu fans.
While certain mechanics may feel unpolished and do a disservice to the overall quality, the atmosphere, world-building, traversal system, and NPC and enemy design are the best parts of the game. Set in Massachusetts, your investigation will also take you to the iconic location of Innsmouth from H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, with the fish people here called Innsmouthers.
18
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
If you enjoy police procedurals that offer the investigation side and the courtroom drama side of the story, like Law & Order: SVU, Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy would be a great video game for that kind of experience. This one offers an HD remaster of the first three games in the visual novel series — Ace Attorney, Justice for All, and Trials and Tribulations.
While framed more as a legal drama, with protagonist Pheonix Wright as a defense attorney trying to successfully win trials for his clients, there’s still some detective work you have to do to ensure all the evidence lines up with what witnesses are testifying on the stand, and to help catch them in a lie.
17
Gotham Knights
The Batman Arkham series couldn’t be any more different from the gameplay design of Gotham Knights, but what the latter incorporates more of in its gameplay is investigation mechanics. Missions in Gotham Knights are called Case Files, and some entail investigations that require solving small puzzles to piece together evidence correctly.
The core aspect of Gotham Knights is heroes Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, and Red Hood working together to solve the mystery of the Court of Owls and carry on Batman’s legacy. In between all the fluid combat mixed with RPG elements, you’ll have some suspects you can interrogate to gather more evidence for your board at the Belfry.
16
Pentiment
In a twist not too far off like one that comes in a detective game, Obsidian and Xbox Game Studios’ Pentiment has arrived on PS4 and PS5. It’s one in a string of games to lose exclusivity, followed by Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves. It also happens to be one of the most original and uniquely art-driven investigation games, unlike anything seen before from developer Obisidian.
Pentiment takes you to 16th-century Bavaria, and the hand-drawn character and environment art certainly places you in it, as it’s meant to resemble the illuminated manuscripts and scriptures of the period. The murder you’ll be investigating also just so happens to be at an abbey, with the case led by an illustrator named Andreas Maler and the mystery spanning nearly three decades.
15
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a next-gen remake of the 2007 Frogwares title, which introduced the astute Victorian detective to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Holmes and Watson are on the hunt for a cult tied to disappearances around the globe, which may also serve a higher Eldritch power.
From the Southern Gothic horror landscapes of Louisiana swamps to the settings of London and Switzerland, it’s definitely the most ominous, chilling, and brilliantly atmospheric Sherlock Holmes offering from Frogwares yet. And as per the usual mechanics, there are a lot of deduction puzzles to solve.
14
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
In this remastered mystery game from Ace Attorney creator Shu Takumi, you play as a confused ghost named Sissel. He’s dressed in a red suit and has a Johnny Bravo-like getup with no recollection of the who, the what, the how, and the why of his death.
As in the title, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, you can use Sissel’s new phantom abilities to help out, which is mostly accomplished through a point-and-click interface. Seemingly holding all the answers is a red-haired detective named Lynne, who you must work with from beyond the grave.
13
Alone In The Dark
Despite the many negatives of the combat system in Alone in the Dark, it’s a detective game through and through, focused heavily on puzzle-solving and immersing you in a rich Lovecraftian Southern Gothic horror atmosphere. You also have Hollywood stars David Harbour and Jodie Comer as dual protagonists P.I. Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood, both investigating Emily’s uncle’s disappearance from Derceto Manor.
The game’s storytelling, investigation mechanics, use of altered worlds in the gameplay progression, as well as incredible sound design, lighting, and environment art can rival that of Alan Wake 2. The Lovecraftian monsters are chilling and grotesque, a love letter for fans, but what more do you expect from designer and artist Guy Davis, who helped bring Guillermo del Toro’s creatures to life?
12
Murdered: Soul Suspect
Murdered: Soul Suspect follows deceased detective Ronan O’Connor of the Salem, Massachusetts P.D., hunting after the Bell Killer while uncovering other supernatural secrets tied to the town’s history of witchcraft trials. While it might’ve been inspired by Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, it explores much darker themes and is more horror-focused.
You’ll come to find out that being a spirit has its advantages for investigations, as you can easily walk through walls to gather evidence and possess living individuals to influence where the case goes. Aside from piecing together clues and unmasking the Bell Killer, there’s suspense within the spirit world in the form of demon enemies chasing you.
11
Heavy Rain
- Released
-
February 23, 2010
- Engine
-
havok, physx
- ESRB
-
M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
If you’ve played Quantic Dream games like Detroit: Become Human or Beyond: Two Souls, then the mechanics and narrative-driven gameplay of Heavy Rain will come naturally to you. Launching all the way back in 2010, this twisty thriller with a mind-blowing finale can now be enjoyed on PS5 and PS4.
Heavy Rain tells the story of Ethan Mars, embroiled in the tragedy of a missing child feared to be the Origami Killer’s next victim. Along with Ethan, you will control three other characters, including a private investigator and an FBI agent. As agent Norman Jayden, you get to use unique Added Reality Interface (ARI) glasses to assist with the evidence and crime scenes.