Investigative or detective games actually have their own genre, but you wouldn't know it from the few successful titles there have been. The genre involves solving a mystery or mysteries through, well, investigation, clue and fact-finding, evidence gathering and using sleuth skills in whatever role the game puts you in. Usually, it's that of a detective, but some games involve characters outside that role.

This genre has woefully fallen to the wayside recently, which is a shame; who doesn't love a good mystery? The problem is that these games are usually one-trick ponies -- that is to say, there's usually only one answer or conclusion and a singular way to get there. It reduces replay value, but we're in a new generation now and there are plenty of ways to add diversity to the detective genre.

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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is an excellent example of this issue. The series is awesome and doesn't hand out answers. It makes you really look at the evidence but also requires you to recall or take note of information for yourself. It makes the game harder, but you really feel like you're solving the case. However, once it's solved, that's it. There's only one answer, and the playability goes out the window until you've forgotten those answers years down the line. It's a problem many games in this genre have.

L.A Noire and the Sherlock Holmes series by Frogwares did things a little differently. Both have alternate outcomes for cases (the ending to L.A Noire is the exception), making solving them interesting. There's obviously a perfect outcome but different ways to get there and other conclusions to come to for missing evidence or making the wrong calls. While the Sherlock Holmes series may not be as well known as L.A Noire, both stand out more than most in the genre. L.A Noire was particularly unique because of its interrogation aspect. Many games in the genre have the player asking characters questions but it often plays out like speaking to NPCs in RPGs. L.A Noire took it further, actually having the player determine if NPCs were lying, telling the truth or hiding something. This gave it a new level of RPG aspect, which the genre desperately needs more of.

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Investigative games need to borrow more from the RPG genre to give players more freedom and options in solving mysteries. There should be multiple solutions but not just one correct answer. Private investigators have a bit more leeway when it comes to solving mysteries, and they shouldn't always need to be crimes. There are plenty of options for other mysteries as well, and they don't need to always fall directly into the mundane or the occult; there's room for a little bit of everything. This genre often sticks to very grounded rules, even though, over the years, RPGs have shown us there's plenty of room for the genre to grow.

The Witcher 3 did a great job using investigation as part of Witcher contracts, and some even had unexpected outcomes or swindlers. Having a superhuman use senses to follow trails in a medieval world was innovative. Plus, hunting down monsters was awesome. Arkham Knight had Batman using his tools to search for clues and ways to utilize the map to find secrets and find out what was happening in certain areas. Cyberpunk 2077 has its new Braindance feature allowing the player to see past events and pick-up details. Even most isometric RPGs have plenty of dialogue and skill dependant options for characters to uncover secrets. There's so much to work with, but we're often still stuck with being a detective and finding footprints on the ground.

We're in the next-gen of gaming with plenty of innovation on the horizon, so it's time for the detective genre to step up its game and developers to create some really innovative mysteries. Even if you don't play detective games, you've probably at least enjoyed the aspects of them in other games. There's so much room for this genre to grow and really put out some great concepts.

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