In the detective game, however, the narration often takes up more space than the puzzle passages. That is why there is a special affinity to point & click adventure: They are often designed to be very narrative, but also allow puzzles that fit perfectly with the tricky murderer hunt. A good detective game needs a meaningful combination of plot and puzzle elements. We just don't get drawn into the mystery. Without a coherent narration, we don't really care who Lieschen Müller's murderer is. Often either the puzzles are boring or the story is so flat that the hunt for the perpetrator is no fun. This is exactly where the crux of the matter lies: Many detective games fail because of this middle ground. Detective adventures are strongly tied to a coherent storyline, but shouldn't neglect the gameplay. Of course, a good story on the screen doesn't have to be a good game and vice versa. Why are many detective games so unsuitable for the masses? Or, to put it more provocatively, what is so difficult about creating a good detective game? Even the mother of the genre, the narrative thriller adventure, has only a few box office hits. We play bad cop – bad cop: challenges of the genreĭetective games come in a wide variety of shapes and colors, but most of them are more of an insider tip. But we also find some corpses in the basement that we want to relentlessly drag into the daylight. But what is there for detective games? And perhaps the biggest mystery: Why are there relatively few good crime novels in the gaming world?Īs hobby investigators, we go on a search for clues, identify the pearls of the genre and make an unconventional plea for an underrated genre of games. But what do detective games have in common? The answer is as simple as it is banal: We always try to solve a case as investigators – no shit, Sherlock! So the points of contact are primarily in the plot. Crime plots can be found everywhere in the gaming world – from simple casual games to complex RPGs.

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