Case File 026 · Interrogation and Detective Games

Best Games About Catching Lies

Games that make detecting deception your job, and why the best of them reward evidence over hunches.

By Murder Book Editorial TeamPublished 16 September 2026Updated 16 September 2026

The best games about catching lies make deception something you have to detect for yourself. You aren't simply told who is guilty. Strong choices:

Papers, Please: spot forged or inconsistent documents at a border checkpoint.
Contradiction: Spot The Liar: catch villagers contradicting themselves on video.
Interrogation: You will be deceived: break down suspects who are actively misleading you.
The Shapeshifting Detective: question suspects in a murder mystery where the killer changes each game.
Telling Lies: uncover secrets hidden in recorded conversations.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy: expose false testimony in court.
Overboard!: flips the idea, and you are the one doing the lying.

Coming later, Murder Book is an upcoming interrogation game about reading unreliable stories in short 5–10-minute cases.

Key takeaways

Games about catching lies usually test consistency: whether a story matches evidence, documents or earlier statements.
Reading behaviour can suggest where to look, but good lie-catching games reward proof over hunches.
The genre covers paperwork simulators, video mysteries, courtroom games and interrogation games.
Overboard! is a rare game that lets you play the liar instead.
Murder Book is an upcoming game built around unreliable stories and interrogation.

What makes a good "catch the liar" game?

Real research on deception is humbling. A widely cited meta-analysis by Bond and DePaulo found that people judged lies and truths correctly only about 54% of the time, barely better than chance. Another large review, by DePaulo and colleagues, found that many behaviours people associate with lying have weak or no links to deception.

The best games in this genre handle that honestly. Instead of pretending a nervous glance proves guilt, they give you something firmer to work with:

Contradictions between two statements.
Mismatches between a story and a document or piece of evidence.
Omissions and gaps that only make sense once you know more.
Pressure, where choosing the right moment to challenge someone matters.

Games about catching lies at a glance

Game	Developer	How you catch lies	Format	Combat
Papers, Please	Lucas Pope	Check travellers' documents for discrepancies	Document inspection sim	No
Contradiction: Spot The Liar	Baggy Cat	Point out contradictions in villagers' statements	Full-motion video	No
Interrogation: You will be deceived	Critique Gaming	Question suspects through dialogue puzzles	Stylised 2D	No
The Shapeshifting Detective	D'Avekki Studios	Question suspects and shapeshift to hear private conversations	Full-motion video	No
Telling Lies	Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid	Search recorded video calls to uncover what people are hiding	Full-motion video	No
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy	Capcom	Investigate cases and defend clients in court	Visual novel	No
L.A. Noire	Team Bondi	Question suspects as a 1940s LAPD detective	3D open world	Yes
Overboard!	inkle	Lie your way out of a murder investigation as the killer	Narrative, replayable	No

Papers, Please

Papers, Please (Lucas Pope, 3909, 2013) makes you an immigration inspector at a border checkpoint. Your job is to check each traveller's documents for discrepancies and decide who gets in. The lies are on paper: a mismatched date, a wrong seal, a detail that does not line up. It is lie detection as careful, pressured attention to detail.

Why it fits: you catch lies by comparing claims against evidence.

Contradiction: Spot The Liar

Contradiction: Spot The Liar (Baggy Cat, 2015) is a live-action murder mystery. As detective Jenks, you question the residents of a village and point out contradictions in what they have told you. The title is the whole design.

Why it fits: the core mechanic is literally catching people contradicting themselves.

Interrogation: You will be deceived

Interrogation: You will be deceived (Critique Gaming, Assemble Entertainment, 2019) casts you as a detective hunting a terrorist group. You question suspects through dialogue puzzles, and the subtitle is a warning: suspects will try to mislead you. Steam's content notes mention manipulation, threats and symbolic depictions of torture among the methods available, so the game also asks what it costs to get the truth.

Why it fits: deception is expected, and working through it is the challenge.

The Shapeshifting Detective

The Shapeshifting Detective (D'Avekki Studios, Wales Interactive, 2018) is a full-motion video murder mystery. You question suspects and can take the shape of other characters to unlock conversations they would never have with you directly. Steam notes that the murderer is chosen at random at the start of each game.

Why it fits: you cannot rely on memorising the answer, so you have to judge what people say.

Telling Lies

Telling Lies (Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid, Annapurna Interactive, 2019) gives you a stolen database of secretly recorded video conversations. You search by typing words and watch the clips where they are spoken. Because you often see one side of a conversation at a time, working out who is lying to whom is part of the puzzle.

Why it fits: secrets and deception unfold across many relationships. See also Games Like Telling Lies.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (Capcom, 2019 collection) collects the first three Ace Attorney games. As defence attorney Phoenix Wright, you investigate cases and defend your clients in court, where false testimony stands between your client and a verdict.

Why it fits: courtroom drama built around exposing untrue statements. See Games Like Ace Attorney.

L.A. Noire

L.A. Noire (Team Bondi, Rockstar Games, 2011) makes questioning suspects a central part of its detective work, alongside crime scene investigation. It also includes chases, fistfights and gunfights, so it suits players who are happy to mix deduction with action. See Games Like L.A. Noire.

Overboard!

Overboard! (inkle, 2021) reverses the formula. You play the killer, with eight in-game hours aboard a cruise ship to avoid being blamed by steering conversations and evidence. Steam says a single play-through lasts about 30–45 minutes.

Why it fits: playing the liar is a sharp way to learn how lies fall apart.

Can games actually teach you to spot a liar?

Games can train useful habits, such as checking a story against evidence, noticing what someone avoids answering and not jumping to conclusions. They cannot give you a reliable real-world lie detector, because research does not support one. The strongest games in this list reward reasoning about consistency and evidence, which is also the more defensible skill.

For more on the questioning side of the genre, see Best Games Where You Question Suspects and Best Interrogation Games for PC.

Is there an upcoming game about catching lies?

Murder Book: The Art of Interrogation is an upcoming narrative interrogation game from Gungrounds, an independent studio in Zagreb, Croatia. It is built around unreliable stories. An in-game casebook documents behaviours such as fabrication, avoidance, narrative gaps and emotional leakage, and players connect statements that cannot both be true before deciding how to press. Behaviour is treated as a reason to look closer, not as proof. Each case is designed to take 5–10 minutes.

Murder Book is in development for PC (Steam) and mobile, with release currently planned for the end of Q2 2027. Learn more in How Murder Book Turns Interrogation Into Gameplay.