Your Fave Murder Mysteries

[Leonard Shelby]

Hello since it seems to be a resurrection of sort for this kind of AG with ATTWN, Law And Order : Criminal Intent or Phoenix Wright : Ace Attorney, I was curious to know what were your fave games into this specific genre .

Thanks for sharing with us your choices and telling us why u re enjoying so much looking for evidences and talking to witnesses :)

My greatest memory of "murder mystery" is Maupiti Island From french developper Lankhor (realeased in april 90 on Atari St and Commodore Amiga)

An astonishing and engrossing adventure on an island with murders, suspense, betrayal and a lot of potential assassins :P

U could follow one suspect when he was moving around on the island , corrupting them to make them talk and even hitting them hard (for talking too)

Really really unique and immersive

[Kurufinwe]

<slightly off-topic>

Ooooooooh... Maupiti Island...

:r :r :r :r :r :r :r :r :r :r :r :r

And :frusty: :frusty: :frusty: :frusty: :frusty: too.

Well, not that much, actually. It had a great plot, but the gameplay was just too open-ended. And really flawed: the game wanted to be super-realistic, with characters moving continually, lots of rooms to search, the mood to be careful of, etc. And yet, at the same time, it worked with a completely unrealistic system in which you simply could not possibly see and do everything you had to see and do in one session of playing, which meant that the game actually expected you to replay it over and over again to gather all the information needed to answer the questions in the end. For instance:

Marie's Lucie's body turned up at the beach late in day two, by which time it was no longer possible to go down the well (due to the rising tide) and complete the game there.

This system worked rather well in Mortville Manor (Lankhor's earlier game), because this game had a much simpler plot and was far less unforgiving. It was a nice game (still rather difficult, though), but Maupiti Island was just Mortville Manor to the tenth. And, you know, too much of a thing, however good, just makes you go :r.

I wish they could have kept the same intricate plot but with a less open-ended and more forgiving (and, basically, more fun) gameplay, and it could have been a fantastic game. It certainly had its followers, though, especially in France. I remember reading the correspondance between gamers in Tilt (the then-leading computer games magazine here), slowly discovering the mysteries of the game. I think it took almost a year before anyone claimed to have actually completed the game! :crazy: Needless to say, I had given up much earlier than that.

</off-topic>


Now, to answer your question: I'm very fond of the Pandora Directive, of the two Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes games, and of The Colonel's bequest. GK3 is nice too.

The thing is, I think there are many bad murder mysteries, with a possibly decent plot, but with terrible gameplay that makes them awful at the end of the day. I guess it's very difficult to design a good murder mystery as a game...

Anyway, you don't want to get me started on those: I've already said too much about Maupiti, so please everybody, don't mention either Cruise for a Corpse or Laura Bow II. :D

[Gknight]

For me it was Sherlock Holmes The case of the serrated scalpel.

[tsa]

I forgot the title, but it was the Tex Murphy adventure in which Sandra Collins was murdered.

[Kurufinwe]

I forgot the title, but it was the Tex Murphy adventure in which Sandra Collins was murdered.

That would be The Pandora Directive.
my most favourite game ever

[vivasawadee]

The Laura Bow series : Colonels Bequest and Dagger of Amon Ra

[Manny Calavera]

They say you never forget your first, so mine would have to be Cruise for a Corpse.

[Once A Villain]

Even though it has a supernatural twist, I'd say ANY game in the GK trilogy. Also The Pandora Directive, Sherlock Holmes: The Silver Earring, Still Life if it weren't for the godawful ending (and the fact that it seemed to end halfway through the story), and the Laura Bow games.

[SamNMax]

Last Express, Laura Bow Series, Gabriel Knight 1, Police Quest series. You know.

[ematoma]

I recommend Still Life and Jack the Ripper. Chances are you still can get them at your local store. Both of them have great puzzles, and very nice storylines. Hope you enjoy them! :)

[ematoma]

They say you never forget your first, so mine would have to be Cruise for a Corpse.

Excellent game, I have totally forgotten about this one. I think you can get it at the underdogs site.

[SamNMax]

I recommend Still Life and Jack the Ripper. Chances are you still can get them at your local store. Both of them have great puzzles, and very nice storylines. Hope you enjoy them! :)

I'm gonna have to disagree with you on Jack the Ripper. Most people would too. http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,352

[Lacrima]

Erm, difficult one.
Still Life is a (really, really) great game in my opinion. The art and such. But favourite Murder Mystery? The game won't solve a thing when it comes to the murders.
As does Jack the Ripper, I thought. (I never played it. I don't play First Person-games as a general rule.)

My favourite murder mystery, viewing at it as a game, would be then too Still Life, and Circle of Blood. And I don't call the game Circle of Blood instead of Broken Sword, because I want to brag, but because I quite dislike both sequels.

Focusing on the story...
Since most of the more 'rational' murder mysteries are first person, I don't have a favourite there, probably having missed a lot by not playing them.
I played games like the Sherlock Holmes-series, or Tex Murphy (though not all of the Tex Murphy-series), but none really convinced me when it came to the story. (Well, Sherlock Holmes never really was about a decent story, but more about Holmes' deductive skills.)

I really have to catch up there...

[LeisureSuitedLooney]

I really enjoyed Ripper, the blend of murder mystery and sci-fi was fun. Others I liked include both Lauara Bow games, and Post Mortem.

[Terramax]

Even though it isn't serious, the freeware 'Nick bounty' games are brill, and not forgetting my fav, Discworld Noir. Still Life deserves a mention as it is the first serious AG that I've ever liked.

I think you can get it at the underdogs site.

Yeah, how do you download on this site. I'm always getting an error message when trying anything.

[Manny Calavera]

Excellent game, I have totally forgotten about this one. I think you can get it at the underdogs site.

:D Nice to find a fellow fan! What's this underdogs site? Have you got a URL?

[RLacey]

:D Nice to find a fellow fan! What's this underdogs site? Have you got a URL?
It's an abandonware site, and downloading Cruise for a Corpse would be technically illegal. Linkage can't be provided, therefore.

[sethsez]

Amazingly enough... Phoenix Wright.

Since not many people here have played it I'm not going to spoil anything, except to say that there's a large, overarching mystery that covers all four smaller cases (especially 2 and 4), and solving it is immensely satisfying. Not due to any giant plot twists or overly complex conspiracies (although both do pop up), but because everything fits together perfectly and the conclusion just feels right. It doesn't survive based on a single stunning moment, but on very tight plotting from beginning to end.

Maybe I'm just happy to see a new plot-intensive, mostly verb-based adventure game make a dent, though. Who knows how it'll hold up (though I suspect it'll be quite well).

After that, easily GK1.

[Manny Calavera]

It's an abandonware site, and downloading Cruise for a Corpse would be technically illegal. Linkage can't be provided, therefore.

ah.