You have to locate hidden web-pages, find passwords to get into locked files, and masquerade as a hacker to infiltrate hacking communities.

The how of tracking down this illicit material makes Hypnospace one of the best sluethers around. Given its incredibly garish visuals, youвЂ™d be forgiven for dismissing Hypnospace as a serious detective game. Inspired by the Internet of the late nineties, particularly prototypical social networks like Geocities, Hypnospace Outlaw puts you in the role of an Enforcer, an online detective assigned to track down illegal content on the Hypnospace, ranging from pirated content to malware and beyond. Witty, clever, and thoroughly entertaining, Discworld Noir is a unique gaming oddity thatвЂ™s still well worth playing today. ItвЂ™s about having pointed conversations with shifty characters while a soft jazz soundtrack plays in the background, all draped in the rain-slick stonework and wry humour of PratchettвЂ™s Ankh-Morpork. With its blocky 3D graphics and fixed camera angles, Discworld Noir may resemble a fantasy Grim Fandango, but it eschews the obscure puzzling of traditional adventure games for a more direct focus on the act of sleuthing. But in classic noir fashion, what starts out as a simple case quickly spirals into something much bigger and more dangerous. Approached by a mysterious woman named Carlotta, Lewton sets off on a trail to find her missing ex-lover Mundy. Just avoid follow-up, The DevilвЂ™s Daughter, which wasnвЂ™t so much a step backward as it was a somersault off a cliff.ДЄ detective game based in Terry PratchettвЂ™s inimitable comic fantasy world, Discworld Noir puts you in the trenchcoat of Lewton, the DiscworldвЂ™s first private dick. ItвЂ™s worth noting however, that those conclusions may not necessarily be correct, so you canвЂ™t just rely on Holmes to do the work for you.Д¬ombined with a moody and atmospheric Victorian London and some decent writing to boot, Crimes & Punishments is a great place to start your sleuthing adventures. Using HolmesвЂ™ own mind as a pinboard, you can connect different pieces of the puzzle and follow the resulting conclusions. The exception to this is Crimes & Punishments, a superb sequence of Victorian mysteries that require genuine deduction to solve.Д¬rimes & PunishmentsвЂ™ crucial evolution over previous Sherlock Holmes games is how it lets you identify clues and put them together yourself. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & PunishmentsДЇrogwares has been making Sherlock Holmes games for at least a decade, most of which have been too clunky and idiosyncratic to make the most of the premise.

LetвЂ™s put on our trilbies and sniff out which game occupies that no.1 spot.ДЎ0. Hence, this rundown focuses primarily on games about detection and deduction, rather than games that simply put you in the role of a detective. This new breed of detective games is specifically about asking the right questions, seeking out evidence, and most importantly, putting the clues together yourself to form your own deductions. Within the last decade, however, detective games have coalesced into their own mini genre, as various titles have experimented with new ideas and systems dedicated to creating experiences revolving around sleuthing. Aside from a couple of notable outliers, the closest you could get was an adventure or puzzle game with a detective-y theme, such as Broken Sword or Professor Layton. It would have been almost impossible to write this list a few years ago, as the entire concept of a detective game didnвЂ™t really exit.

Steam best detective games