Games Like Return of the Obra Dinn

Games for Obra Dinn fans who want more patient observation, exploration and logical deduction.

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

If you loved boarding a ghost ship and reasoning your way through what happened in Return of the Obra Dinn, these games reward the same patient observation and logical deduction:

The Case of the Golden Idol and its sequel The Rise of the Golden Idol: reconstruct deaths from frozen scenes.
Papers, Please: Lucas Pope's earlier game, about spotting discrepancies in documents.
The Painscreek Killings: investigate an old murder in an abandoned town, with no quest markers or hints.
Scene Investigators: study reconstructed crime scenes and answer questions about them.
Paradise Killer: explore an open-world island, gather evidence and build a case.
Shadows of Doubt: a detective simulation in a procedurally generated city.
Chants of Sennaar: a notebook-based deduction puzzle about deciphering languages.

Upcoming Murder Book asks for the same careful reasoning, applied to what a suspect says.

Key takeaways

Obra Dinn is a first-person mystery based on exploration and logical deduction.
The Golden Idol games are the closest match for proving what happened from careful observation.
Painscreek, Scene Investigators and Paradise Killer offer first-hand investigation of places and scenes.
Papers, Please, Shadows of Doubt and Chants of Sennaar suit players who want different forms of deduction.
Murder Book is an upcoming interrogation game with 5–10-minute cases, planned for the end of Q2 2027.

What makes Return of the Obra Dinn stand out?

Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope, published by 3909, 2018) begins with a mystery at sea. In Steam's description, the merchant ship Obra Dinn set out from London for the Orient in 1802 and was declared lost after missing its rendezvous. In 1807 it drifts into Falmouth with damaged sails and no visible crew. As insurance investigator for the East India Company's London Office, you board the ship to prepare an assessment.

Steam sums it up as "a first-person mystery adventure based on exploration and logical deduction". The official site lists it on Steam, Humble, GOG, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.

A good "game like Obra Dinn" should share some of these qualities:

Logical deduction you carry out yourself, not a detective character who explains it.
Exploration of a place that holds the answers.
A distinctive presentation, where how you look at the world matters.
No combat: the tension is intellectual.

Games like Return of the Obra Dinn at a glance

Game	Developer	How you deduce	Combat	Platforms (examples)
The Case of the Golden Idol	Color Gray Games	Observe frozen scenes, then identify suspects, motives and methods	No	PC, Mac, Linux, consoles, iOS, Android
Papers, Please	Lucas Pope	Check travellers' documents for discrepancies	No (brief pixel-art violence)	PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android
The Painscreek Killings	EQ Studios	Explore a town, take notes, photograph clues, solve logic puzzles	No	PC
Scene Investigators	EQ Studios	Examine crime scenes and answer questions about what happened	No	PC
Paradise Killer	Kaizen Game Works	Gather evidence, interrogate suspects and build a case	No	PC
Shadows of Doubt	ColePowered Games	Gather evidence and track suspects in a procedural city	Some; see below	PC, Xbox Series X and S, PS5
Chants of Sennaar	Rundisc	Decipher invented languages in a notebook	None mentioned	PC, iOS, Android

Platforms were checked against Steam, official sites or official app store listings. Availability can change, so check the store before buying.

The Case of the Golden Idol

The Case of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games, published by Playstack, 2022) presents 12 strange deaths connected by a mysterious Golden Idol. You observe each crime scene, build your own theory and, as Steam puts it, "pick your suspect, deduce the motive". Its sequel, The Rise of the Golden Idol (2024), adds 20 more cases in which you collect key words from scenes and testimony to fill in deductions.

Why it fits: like Obra Dinn, it asks you to prove exactly what happened, not just guess. See Games Like The Case of the Golden Idol.

Papers, Please

Papers, Please (Lucas Pope, published by 3909, 2013) is the developer's earlier game. As a border-checkpoint immigration inspector, you check travellers' documents for discrepancies and decide whom to let in. The official mobile listing says it includes 31 days and 20 endings.

Why it fits: it comes from the same designer and is also built on noticing small details that do not match. More in Games Like Papers, Please.

The Painscreek Killings

The Painscreek Killings (EQ Studios, 2017) casts you as a journalist named Janet. You freely explore an abandoned town, take notes, photograph clues and solve logic puzzles to find out who killed Vivian Roberts. Steam says there are no quest markers or hints.

Why it fits: a first-hand investigation of a silent place, where you must work out the story without guidance.

Scene Investigators

Scene Investigators (EQ Studios, 2023) comes from the same studio. As a trainee investigator, you examine reconstructed crime scenes and answer questions about what happened by observing details and reasoning from them. The official FAQ lists 8 case scenarios.

Why it fits: each case is a snapshot to study closely, with answers you must justify from what you see.

Paradise Killer

Paradise Killer (Kaizen Game Works, published by Fellow Traveller, 2020) sets its investigation on a surreal open-world island. You explore, gather evidence, interrogate suspects and build your case.

Why it fits: a self-directed investigation where you decide what the evidence means.

Shadows of Doubt

Shadows of Doubt (ColePowered Games, published by Fireshine Games) is a detective simulation set in a procedurally generated city. You gather evidence, break into apartments, hack security systems and track down suspects. It entered Early Access in 2023 and fully released in September 2024. The developer calls it a detective stealth game, and there can be hostile encounters, so it is not combat-free.

Why it fits: open-ended deduction with no set path, though with more stealth and risk than Obra Dinn.

Chants of Sennaar

Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc, published by Focus Entertainment, 2023) is not a crime or detective game. You observe, listen and decipher five interconnected invented languages, writing glyph meanings in a notebook to solve puzzles.

Why it fits: it captures the notebook-and-logic side of deduction games, for players who enjoy testing a theory until everything fits.

Which one should you try first?

Want the closest deduction puzzle? The Case of the Golden Idol.
Want more from Lucas Pope? Papers, Please.
Want to explore a place first-hand? The Painscreek Killings or Paradise Killer.
Want a systemic sandbox? Shadows of Doubt.

For a broader list, see Best Deduction Games for Mystery Fans or Best Detective Games Without Combat.

Is there an upcoming deduction game about reading people?

Murder Book: The Art of Interrogation is an upcoming narrative interrogation game from Gungrounds, an independent studio in Zagreb, Croatia. Obra Dinn gives you a silent ship to read. Murder Book gives you a suspect who is talking, and asks you to reason about their account: what fits, what contradicts itself and what has been left out.

It is inspired by real police footage and psychological interviews. Development screenshots show an in-game casebook of behaviours such as Avoidance, Stress Response and Emotional Fading, and an evidence board that links statements together. The casebook's Acting Emotion entry links failing to sustain a performed emotion to cognitive load theory, but behaviour is not proof on its own, so deduction still matters. 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 What Is Murder Book?.