Case File 034 · Interrogation and Detective Games

Best Games About Analyzing Evidence

Games where studying the clues is the puzzle, grouped by the type of evidence you analyse, from scenes and documents to audio and phones.

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

The best games about analysing evidence make the clues themselves the puzzle: you study a scene, a document, a recording or a phone, and work out what it really shows. Strong picks, grouped by the kind of evidence you handle:

Return of the Obra Dinn: work out what happened to a ship's missing crew.
The Rise of the Golden Idol: turn observations and testimony into precise deductions.
The Operator: run photo, video and chemical analysis for field agents.
Unheard – Voices of Crime: solve crimes using only audio recordings.
Papers, Please: check travellers' documents for discrepancies.
Sara Is Missing: search a missing woman's phone and decrypt her files.
Do Not Feed the Monkeys: watch strangers through cameras and research what you see.

Coming later, Murder Book is an upcoming interrogation game where a suspect's statements are the evidence you connect.

Key takeaways

Evidence games reward close attention: the answer is already in front of you, and the challenge is reading it correctly.
Evidence can be visual, written, audio, digital or testimonial, and each type creates a different kind of puzzle.
The strongest games make you prove a conclusion instead of just collecting items.
Several picks are short or split into cases, which makes them easy to play in sessions.
Murder Book is an upcoming game that treats testimony as evidence to be linked on an evidence board.

What makes a good evidence analysis game?

Plenty of games let you pick up clues. Far fewer make you analyse them. In a strong evidence game:

The evidence is complete but not obvious. Everything you need is there, but you have to notice it.
Your conclusion is checked. You fill in a deduction, answer a question or make a decision, and the game tells you if the evidence supports it.
Wrong answers are possible. Clicking every object does not solve the case for you.
Different evidence types interact. A document can confirm or contradict what a recording suggests.

This list is about the act of analysis itself. If you prefer games where two claims cannot both be true, see Best Games About Solving Contradictions.

Games about analysing evidence at a glance

Game	Developer	Evidence you analyse	How you show your answer	Platforms (examples)
Return of the Obra Dinn	Lucas Pope	The ship and what happened on board	Logical deduction about the crew's fate	PC, Mac, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
The Rise of the Golden Idol	Color Gray Games	Frozen crime scenes and witness testimony	Fill in deductions with key words	PC, Mac, iOS, Android
The Operator	Bureau 81	Databases, photos, video and chemical samples	Support field agents with your findings	PC, Mac, Linux, Switch
Unheard – Voices of Crime	NEXT Studios	Audio recordings of a crime scene	Identify voices and who did it	PC, Mac
Papers, Please	Lucas Pope	Travellers' documents	Approve or deny entry	PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android
Sara Is Missing	Kaigan Games	A found phone's messages, files and videos	Unlock files and reconstruct events	iOS
Do Not Feed the Monkeys	Fictiorama Studios	Surveillance camera feeds and in-game research	Decide whether to interfere	PC, Mac, Linux, consoles, iOS, Android

Return of the Obra Dinn

Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope, 3909, 2018) is a first-person mystery built on exploration and logical deduction. As an insurance investigator aboard a ship whose crew has vanished, you examine what happened on board and assess the fate of those who sailed on it.

Best for: players who love methodical deduction. See Games Like Return of the Obra Dinn.

The Rise of the Golden Idol

The Rise of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games, Playstack, 2024) presents frozen crime scenes. You collect key words from what you observe and from witness testimony, then use them to fill in deductions about who did what and why. Steam and the official site describe 20 cases, and the official site says new puzzle types conclude every chapter. It is also available on iOS and Android.

The fill-in format is a precise test of analysis: you cannot vaguely suspect someone, you have to state exactly what happened.

Best for: players who want structured deduction with clear right and wrong answers.

The Operator

The Operator (Bureau 81, 2024) puts you at a desk at the FDI, a fictional agency. You use in-game tools, including databases and photo, video and chemical analysers, to help field agents solve crimes. The evidence arrives as files and data rather than as a scene you walk through.

Best for: players who want the lab and database side of investigation. See Games Like The Operator.

Unheard – Voices of Crime

Unheard – Voices of Crime (NEXT Studios, 505 Games, 2019) is built around sound. You listen to audio recordings of a crime scene and work out who each voice belongs to and who is responsible. A developer note on Steam said the first version had five chapters.

It is an unusual reminder that evidence is not only something you see.

Best for: players who want a completely different sense to investigate with. See Games Like Unheard.

Papers, Please

Papers, Please (Lucas Pope, 3909, 2013) is not a detective game in the usual sense, but few games are more focused on analysing documents. As an immigration inspector at a border checkpoint, you check each traveller's papers for discrepancies and decide who gets in. The official App Store description says the game includes 31 days and 20 endings.

Best for: players who enjoy careful detail-checking. See also Games Like Papers, Please.

Sara Is Missing

Sara Is Missing (Kaigan Games) is a free iOS game built around a found phone. According to its App Store description, you search the owner's messages, notes, emails, pictures and videos, unlock password-protected files and decrypt data to reconstruct her final days. It is currently confirmed on iOS only.

Best for: players who want digital evidence in its most personal form. Kaigan's SIMULACRA, which uses a similar found-phone structure, is also available on PC and Android.

Do Not Feed the Monkeys

Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios, Alawar, 2018) describes itself as a "digital voyeur simulator". You watch strangers through surveillance cameras, research what you observe on an in-game computer and decide whether to interfere in their lives. It is not a crime investigation game, but gathering fragments of observation and checking them against research is its core loop.

Best for: players curious about observation and the ethics of watching.

What types of evidence do these games use?

Evidence type	What you do with it	Examples
Visual scenes	Notice details and deduce events	Return of the Obra Dinn, The Rise of the Golden Idol
Documents	Compare claims against rules and records	Papers, Please
Audio	Identify voices and who did it	Unheard
Digital devices	Search messages, files and media	Sara Is Missing
Lab and database results	Interpret analysis for others	The Operator
Surveillance	Watch, research and decide	Do Not Feed the Monkeys
Testimony	Test statements against each other and against facts	Murder Book (upcoming)

Is there an upcoming game about analysing testimony as evidence?

Murder Book: The Art of Interrogation is an upcoming narrative-driven interrogation game from Gungrounds, an independent studio in Zagreb, Croatia. Its evidence is mainly what people say. Players examine unreliable stories for contradictions, narrative gaps, avoidance and changes in behaviour.

Development screenshots show an evidence board that links statements together. In one example, a suspect's "I NEVER met her!" and "I had no idea" are connected to a fabricated description of a gun, turning separate remarks into something that can be tested. An in-game casebook lists behaviours such as Fabrication, Avoidance and Stress Response, and a technique menu includes options such as Demonstration and Confrontation. Cases are designed for focused 5–10-minute sessions.

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