The point-and-click genre has taken many forms over the years, and in recent times, it has been the bedrock for the mystery sub-genre. The methodical pace of a point-and-click structure allows for the complexities of an investigative story to shine. Whether it’s solving a strange murder or piecing together a family tree, there’s a mystery for everyone to solve.
GameWatcher has selected some of the best point-and-click mystery games to play on your PC now. Can you channel your inner-Benoit Blanc to get to the truth of the matter?
The Roottrees are Dead
Remember when the internet was simpler? Remember when going down an online rabbit hole wasn’t just an algorithm trying to lead you down a weird, unhealthy path? While there’s some misty-eyed nostalgia to using a late 90s dial-up in The Roottrees are Dead (minus the agonisingly slow page loads and screechy boot up), it’s a genuinely good way to deliver a genealogical mystery.
The game sees you digging into the roots of the Roottree Corporation to uncover its recently deceased founders’ wider family tree. Using both the rudimentary powers of a 90s computer and a caulk board with some strings and tacks, you uncover the living relatives who might stand to inherit the Roottree fortune.
It’s a deeply satisfying investigation game that builds a clear picture of a family’s history. It’s not a flashy game of deduction like some others on this list, but it drags you into its relatively mundane mystery all the same.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Don’t let being dead stop you from investigating your own murder. That’s essentially the hook behind Ghost Trick’s eccentric mystery adventure.
As a recent murder victim, your spirit form is still around, but with a bad case of post-life amnesia, very little time to find the culprit, and a frustrating lack of mobility, things look bleak.
But the daffy concept gives you some party tricks. You can possess inanimate objects to help move from place to place, and you get to rewind time briefly. Using these limited skills, there are inventive ways to find the truth before it’s too late.
The Seance of Blake Manor
The mood is set pretty quickly in The Seance of Blake Manor. The Mignola-style visuals, the Victorian-era setting, and a disappearance seemingly tied to something supernatural. It’s just begging you to find out what’s going on.
The actual investigation into the strange happenings at Blake Manor is technically straightforward, with every action costing time and clues aplenty, no matter where you turn. Still, the game offers an intimidating level of investigative freedom that truly makes you feel like you have control over the case.
Things get pretty sinister, but developer Spooky Doorway does a great job of keeping your obsession levels high despite the encroaching danger.
Carnival
Beyond Booleans cut their teeth on small-scale point-and-click adventures, and the experimentation in the shorter form clearly did wonders for their full-fat point-and-click folk horror game Carnival.
The game utilises a pivotal moment in the history of Venice, as it’s getting a road bridge built to the mainland, which will change the city forever thanks to tourism. A narcoleptic journalist named James Maynard comes to Venice during carnival season to write a story about the bridge and what the locals think about it.
Things take a dark turn as sinister secrets behind the carnival are uncovered, and James’ narcolepsy causes him to second-guess everything going on around him.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
If you ever wondered what an anime-infused take on Ten Little Indians would be like, then it’s fair to say Danganronpa would be pretty close to the answer.
In Danganronpa, a group of students is imprisoned in their school and put into a deadly game of deduction by a diminutive, bloodthirsty bear. The bear wants you all to play a game for your freedom. But it’s not hide and seek or Snakes & Ladders. No, the game is to murder your fellow students without the others correctly deducing that you did it.
It’s a neat hook, and the fact that you must interact with the eccentric pupils of Hope’s Peak Academy and ascertain whether they’re allies or enemies whilst trying to find a less lethal way out makes for an intoxicating game of deception and death.
The nightmare of cliques and peer pressure in school is amplified with murderous intent. Best hope you were handy at the debate club to win folks over to your way of thinking, because the consequences could be devastating.
Strange Antiquities
Not all point-and-click mystery games have to be grim and gritty. Sometimes you just want a big warm mug of comfy deduction while you tend to some cozy, mundane tasks. Bad Viking’s Strange Antiquities (and its predecessor, Strange Horticulture) have you running a store that happens to coincide with occult activities. In this game’s case, it’s unsurprisingly antiquities. You find and identify arcane artefacts, and use your strange collection to help out the townsfolk of Undermere.
It may have a cozy glow, but Strange Antiquities’ mystery takes you down some dark paths. Thankfully, petting the cat is a nice emotional equaliser.
The Dark Rites of Arkham
Lovecraft’s influence can be felt in many horror games of the past few decades. Some pay lip service to tentacle-faced monsters and insanity as a mechanic, but others really dip all their toes into the murky waters of the author’s world of cosmic horrors.
The Dark Rites of Arkham uses mythology and characters from Lovecraft’s work and funnels it through a noirish detective story. As with some other games on this list, a routine investigation unveils a seedier underbelly, and before you know it, you’re knee-deep in ritual murder and the strange history of the city of Arkham, which goes back to the Salem Witch Trials.
The Dark Rites of Arkham is a deliciously pulpy tale of conspiracy and untold horrors that drags you into a world of nightmares typical of a Lovecraft story.
The Case of the Golden Idol
Why solve one murder when you can solve a dozen? The Case of the Golden Idol puts you in the shoes of an 18th-century detective who must solve the mystery behind twelve bizarre deaths that span 50 years. Stranger still, they could all be connected to a mysterious idol.
You get to reconstruct each crime scene and put together the evidence in a way you see fit. You have an intimidating level of freedom in your deductions. Each case has an absurdly gruesome hook that leaves plenty of room for interpretation, and the overarching mystery that connects them is enough to keep you on the hook.
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