Case File 054 · Games by Player Preference

Games Where Your Choices Change the Investigation

Detective games where accusations, interrogation approaches and shared evidence change how the case ends, compared by what your choices affect.

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

In games where your choices change the investigation, you decide who to accuse, how to treat suspects or what information to pass on, and the story reacts to what you decide. Good examples, checked against their Steam pages, include:

Pentiment: its Steam page says each investigation decision has lasting consequences.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments: name the guilty party and decide their fate.
Paradise Killer: accuse anyone, then prove your case at trial.
Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure: the story branches and ends based on your actions, with no takebacks.
Aviary Attorney: three endings, and decisions have consequences.
Interrogation: You will be deceived: your interrogation approach leads to one of multiple endings.
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You: you decide what information security forces see.

Upcoming Murder Book takes a similar idea into the interrogation room, with development screenshots showing a branching case map.

Key takeaways

In these games, your conclusions can be wrong and the story carries on anyway.
Choices might mean who you accuse, how you question someone or what evidence you share.
Some games offer a few distinct endings; others let the outcome depend on the case you build.
Choice-driven investigations reward caution, because a confident wrong answer has consequences.
Murder Book is an upcoming interrogation game with branching cases, planned for the end of Q2 2027.

What makes a choice change an investigation?

Plenty of detective games have dialogue options that lead to the same result. For this list, a choice has to change something that matters to the case: who gets accused or convicted, what happens to a suspect, what information reaches the authorities, or which ending you reach. Each game below describes this on its Steam page.

If you want crime stories with choices in general, including thrillers that are not investigations, see Best Choice-Based Crime Games.

Games where choices change the investigation at a glance

Game	Developer	What your choices affect	How you investigate
Pentiment	Obsidian Entertainment	The fate of the community across decades	Conversation and choices
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments	Frogwares	Who you name as guilty and what happens to them	Evidence, deduction and interrogation
Paradise Killer	Kaizen Game Works	Who you accuse and the case you argue at trial	Open-world evidence gathering
Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure	DigiTales Interactive	How the story branches and ends	Questions, evidence and deductions
Aviary Attorney	Sketchy Logic	Which of three endings you reach	Witness interviews and court cases
Interrogation: You will be deceived	Critique Gaming	Your team, reputation and ending	Dialogue-based interrogation
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You	Osmotic Studios	What security forces learn about suspects	Searching online and private data

Pentiment

Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment, Xbox Game Studios, 2022) follows the artist Andreas Maler through a series of murders in 16th-century Bavaria, over the course of twenty-five years. Steam describes it as choice-driven storytelling: you conduct your own investigation to decide the fate of the community, and each decision has lasting consequences.

Best for: players who want investigation choices with long-term, uncomfortable consequences.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (Frogwares, 2014) contains six cases. According to Steam, you choose which lines of enquiry to follow, interrogate suspects, name the guilty parties from your deductions and can even decide their fate. The store page frames it as a choice between your moral compass and the letter of the law, with effects on your reputation.

Best for: players who want to reach a verdict themselves, not just watch Holmes reveal it.

Paradise Killer

Paradise Killer (Kaizen Game Works, Fellow Traveller, 2020) sets a murder on a surreal island. Steam says you can accuse anyone, but you must prove your case at trial. The store page also says there are many possible killers and many ways to build a case, so the outcome depends on the evidence you choose to present.

Best for: open-ended investigation where you decide when the case is strong enough.

Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure

Lacuna (DigiTales Interactive, 2021) casts you as agent Neil Conrad after a murder. You ask questions, collect evidence and make deductions. Its Steam page is direct about stakes: the story branches and ends based on your actions, there is no going back, and it offers "real choices and multiple endings".

Best for: players who want wrong conclusions to stick.

Aviary Attorney

Aviary Attorney (Sketchy Logic, 2015) is a courtroom adventure set in 1848 Paris. As bird lawyer Jayjay Falcon, you take on clients, interview witnesses and collect evidence. Steam lists four chapters and three fully developed endings, and says decisions have consequences.

Best for: fans of courtroom games who want branching outcomes.

Interrogation: You will be deceived

Interrogation: You will be deceived (Critique Gaming, 2019) puts you in charge of an investigation into a terrorist group. Steam says you choose whether intimidation, guile or empathy is the right approach for each suspect, while managing your team, budget and the police force's relationship with the public. The game leads to one of multiple endings. Its content notes mention symbolic, non-graphic depictions of torture.

Best for: players who want interrogation choices with moral weight.

Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You

Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You (Osmotic Studios, 2016) is a surveillance game rather than a classic detective story. As a researcher for a government programme, you search web pages, chats and private files to profile suspects in a series of terror attacks. Steam says only the information you provide is seen and acted on by the security forces, so you shape how suspects are perceived.

Best for: players interested in how selecting evidence changes a case.

Why do choice-driven investigations feel different?

When a game lets you accuse the wrong person, every clue carries more weight, and you start asking whether the evidence really supports your theory. That connects to a real risk in investigations: settling on an answer too early. Our explainer on how confirmation bias can affect an investigation covers that problem in more depth.

It also changes how you play. Instead of trying every dialogue option, you think before you press. For a design view of that tension, read How Dialogue Choices Create Tension.

Which game should you choose?

If you want the biggest consequences: Pentiment.
If you want to decide a verdict and a punishment: Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments.
If you want freedom to build your own case: Paradise Killer.
If you want interrogation choices specifically: Interrogation: You will be deceived, or see Best Games Where You Question Suspects.
If you want a surveillance angle: Orwell.

Is there an upcoming game where interrogation choices shape the case?

Murder Book: The Art of Interrogation is an upcoming narrative interrogation game from Gungrounds, an independent studio in Zagreb, Croatia. Development screenshots show a technique menu with options such as Build Trust, Bluffing, Baiting and Confrontation, and a branching case map with achievement endings and a completion percentage. A case select screen in development materials also shows results, including a "not guilty" result.

Cases are designed for focused 5–10-minute sessions, which makes replaying a case to explore another branch a short commitment. 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 for more.