In need of a game

[Genesistt]

Hello fellow Forumers

I need your excessive knowledge.

I'm looking for a game where you have clues that you have to follow and the clues you follow leads you to the next and the next, but if you follow the wrong clues you get killed and have to start over. Kinda like those "decide your own fate" books meet CSI.

Something like you get a package in the mail. Your uncle, the archeologist, is missing. So you go and start investigating in his hotel room and you find a post card. You investigate the postage stamp to see where it came from. You also find a glass with a woman's lipstick on it and you dust for prints. You run both clues and it gives you 2 options to follow. Now you have to decide do I follow the stamp or the finger print. One leads to the next clue. The other could eventually lead to "Game Over" or "Sorry, but you've hit a dead end. Please start again".

Is there anything like that out there?

Oh, and it has to be for PC.

PS: If there isn't a game like this out there yet, dear game designers, how about making one? ;);)

[Chyron8472]

The Last Express (http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/last_express_the) sounds like a good game regarding what you're looking for. From what I understand, it's an open-ended mystery adventure game which you can fail at and have to start over if you don't make the right choices.

I'm not really sure if I know about any other open-ended adventure games. Certainly I know of adventure games where death and/or dead-ends are a real possibility, and at least one where major puzzles can be solved in multiple ways (KQ6), but in that case they only somewhat affect the ending cutscene.

I think the sort of game you're looking for also depends on what sort of setting-genre you're interested in (eg. fantasy, horror, sci-fi, etc.), and how well you deal with ingame deaths and/or dead-ends.

Phantasmagoria (http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/phantasmagoria) comes to mind as a game where there is somewhat of a mystery to be solved, and you can most certainly die, but death does not cause the game to restart (instead, making you go back to before you died and try again). The King's Quest (http://www.gog.com/en/catalogue/?search=king%27s%20quest) series (and free fan remakes (http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/games.html)), among other old-school Sierra adventure titles do include death and dead-ends, such that if you don't save regularly there's a potential for really screwing yourself over, but I wouldn't call them "mysteries."

Also, I haven't played it, but I hear TTG's The Walking Dead (https://www.telltalegames.com/store/walking-dead) is potentially open-ended and includes death, though such death is not game-ending like you may want. It also doesn't have dead-ends.

[Icedhope]

Police Quest series. Was a lot like that.

[Darth Marsden]

I seem to recall there being an Alternate Reality video game that kind of crossed the boundaries by making you do real life detective work. I think it was a missing persons case? Can anyone remember more about it?

[Chyron8472]

I thought Police Quest didn't really have a plot so much as you went out on calls and did police-related work.


I seem to recall there being an Alternate Reality video game that kind of crossed the boundaries by making you do real life detective work. I think it was a missing persons case? Can anyone remember more about it?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8b/Where_in_the_World_Is_Carmen_Sandiego_1985_Cover.j pg/250px-Where_in_the_World_Is_Carmen_Sandiego_1985_Cover.j pg


:D

[Icedhope]

I thought Police Quest didn't really have a plot so much as you went out on calls and did police-related work.



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8b/Where_in_the_World_Is_Carmen_Sandiego_1985_Cover.j pg/250px-Where_in_the_World_Is_Carmen_Sandiego_1985_Cover.j pg


:D

You did do that, but there was also a larger story line.

[Martindn]

Gabriel knight?

[RetroVortex]

EDIT: @DM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_(video_game)

Thats one of the earlier ones but I'm not sure its the one being thought of here.
(I'll do some more digging)

[Darth Marsden]

Might wanna fix the link, it's missing the closing bracket.

But yeah, that's exactly the sort of thing I was thinking off. I'm positive there was another one though. The plot was (IIRC) a couple of people had been abducted and the kidnapper had dropped off clues in the form of puzzles. The cops, being baffled, opened it up to the public (via the game).

[Genesistt]

Wow! I knew I asked the right people. I'll give some of them a try. Keep the suggestions coming! :D

[Juicius Maximus]

I second Last Express, designed by the legendary Jordan Mechner of Prince of Persia fame. They just came out with an iOS version!