[Mr. A. E. Hainsworth]

Hello all. August here. I'm new to the forums, but not quite new to the genre itself. I believe my introduction to adventure games happened several years, when I rented Indigo Prophecy from Blockbuster.

Now, I'm a huge fan of Criminal Minds and Law & Order. Forensic science has always been an interest of mine. So...I've been on the prowl for that one open-ended detective game that doesn't hold my hand throughout the storyline and connect A to B for me. I want to be able to come up with theories of who, what, how, and why. I don't want to follow along some predetermined storyline because I'd rather do the thinking.

Heavy Rain came pretty close to that, but...I'm in the process of selling my PS2/PS3, so PC games are best.

I'm not a fan of the "hidden objects" games.

With that said, the games I've played so far are:

(Keep in mind, I do like to go outside the detective sub-genre now and then!)

Indigo Prophecy
Heavy Rain
Beneath the Steel Sky
Machinarium (Loved that one! So quirky and so cute!)
The Whispered World
Still Life 1 and 2
Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (currently playing)

That's all of them I can remember at the moment. I'm not a big fan of games with heavy action elements, because I hate using the keyboard to do more than I want. Point-and-click is ideal.

Any recommendations?

[Jelena]

Welcome August!

My first thought was to mention Still Life, but you've played them already. How about The Broken Sword series and of course the Gabriel Knight series. You should definitely check them out.

[Origami]

Grim Fandango.
Film-noir with a good story.

[Brimstone]

Discworld Noir is also good when it works. Have to tweak PC a little for it but is a good detective game with a lot of humor and A LOT of outside the box thinking.

Like CSI? Play the games (except NY it's hidden object). Don't want the hand holding? Put them on hard mode. I find them very challenging. Law and Order also have a series of games that are especially challenging when doing the Attorney portion of the game. You'll actually have to read up on attorney practices in order to pass that part. (There is a basic tutorial on this in game on how to play that part btw)

[fov]

I agree, if you like Law & Order you should check out the L&O games (made before Legacy went to the more casual format) and also the CSI games. If you're going to play CSI, personally I'd start with the more recent games and move backwards, because each one improves on the one before it. (But do skip CSI: NY.)

[Origami]

Talking about Attorney games, I recommend Phoenix Wright.

They are available through DS, Wiiware and Iphone now(the first one).
They are semi-point and click(full if you use the stylus). You do use some buttons to navigate but very easy.

Don't be fooled by the goofiness and quirkiness of the characters. The murder mysteries are dead(pun intended) serious and have 'oh snap' twists to them. And the revelations are quite epic(which is done by PW helped by you).

[Christian IV]

I agree with FOV about skipping the NY title in that series.

hmmm, well the problem is that hidden objects are quite a part of many of the more thriller detective type games. will take a bit of time to think of things...maybe if you relax that critereon there are quite a few that may give you a lot of fun.

[Mr. A. E. Hainsworth]

Thank you all for the recommendations.

I didn't know the Law & Order games had that feature. Very interesting. All those L&O marathons and government classes might come in handy after all!

Origami: I've played the first Attorney game. I loved it!

Christian: The thing about hidden object games is that, I don't really get what does looking for 4 birds have to do with solving the murder mystery... If it was in a different genre, I'd enjoy it. Or just a puzzle game in general.