Case File 059 · Games by Player Preference

Realistic Detective Games

Detective games that feel grounded in evidence and reasoning, with a clear look at where fiction still departs from real investigations.

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

No detective game is a true simulation of police work, but some are more grounded than others. The most realistic-feeling detective games drop superpowers and instant answers in favour of evidence, records, careful observation and conclusions you have to reach yourself. They are still fiction. Good examples include:

Scene Investigators: reason from reconstructed crime scenes, sometimes with evidence missing.
The Painscreek Killings: investigate a cold case with no quest markers or hints.
Her Story: search a database of live-action police interview footage.
The Operator: analyse evidence with databases and lab-style software for a fictional agency.
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You: profile suspects from online and private data.
L.A. Noire: crimes inspired by real cases from 1947 Los Angeles, alongside action.

Upcoming Murder Book, inspired by real police footage and psychological interviews, focuses on the uncertainty of reading a suspect.

Key takeaways

"Realistic" in detective games usually means grounded evidence and reasoning, not an accurate model of police procedure.
Every game here is fiction, even when a developer mentions real crimes or real-world investigation.
Real case files are long, organised records; games compress that work into playable puzzles.
Research shows people judge lies and truths only slightly better than chance, so no behaviour in a game should be read as proof.
Murder Book is an upcoming interrogation game planned for the end of Q2 2027.

What does "realistic" mean in a detective game?

For this list, a detective game feels realistic when most of these are true:

No supernatural shortcuts: you solve the case with evidence, not visions or powers.
Ordinary tools: documents, databases, photographs, recordings and interviews.
No handholding: the game does not highlight the answer for you.
Uncertainty: evidence can be incomplete, and conclusions can be wrong.

That is a feeling of groundedness, not accuracy. We have not assessed any game against real police procedure, and none of them should be treated as a guide to it.

Realistic detective games at a glance

Game	Developer	What feels grounded	What is still fictional	Combat
Scene Investigators	EQ Studios	Observation, inference, missing evidence	A near-future licensing test with reconstructed cases	No
The Painscreek Killings	EQ Studios	Self-directed investigation, notes and photographs	An invented town and murder	No
Her Story	Sam Barlow	Live-action police interview footage	A scripted crime story	No
The Operator	Bureau 81	Databases and evidence-analysis tools	A fictional agency, the FDI	No
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You	Osmotic Studios	Profiling suspects from digital records	A fictional state and surveillance programme	No
L.A. Noire	Team Bondi	Period setting and crimes inspired by real cases	Its detective and story; includes action	Yes

Scene Investigators

Scene Investigators (EQ Studios, 2023) casts you as a trainee trying to become a licensed investigator in the near future. Steam describes it as a deductive reasoning game with no hints, where you observe environmental details such as lipstick on a wine glass or boot marks on a windowsill. Its "70/30" idea means some evidence is simply missing, so you make reasoned assumptions. The official site lists eight case scenarios.

Best for: players who want investigation without a neat trail of clues.

The Painscreek Killings

The Painscreek Killings (EQ Studios, 2017) sends journalist Janet into an abandoned town to find out who killed Vivian Roberts. The developer says on Steam that it "mimics real world investigations", with note-taking, photographs and no quest markers or hint system. That is the studio's own description; the story itself is invented.

Best for: slow, self-directed investigation.

Her Story

Her Story (Sam Barlow, 2015) presents a police database of video footage from seven interviews in 1994 with a British woman about her missing husband. Steam describes it as crime fiction with non-linear storytelling, performed by actress Viva Seifert. The realism is in the format: you study recorded interviews rather than walk through action scenes.

Best for: players who want to analyse testimony. See Games Like Her Story.

The Operator

The Operator (Bureau 81, 2024) puts you behind a desk at the FDI, a fictional agency. Steam says you help field agents by fact-checking, searching citizen and vehicle databases, and using video, photo and chemical analysis tools. The work happens at a desk rather than in the field, but the agency and its cases are invented.

Best for: players who like evidence analysis on screen.

Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You

Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You (Osmotic Studios, 2016) is a surveillance game set in a fictional state called the Nation. As a researcher for a government programme, you search web pages, social media, emails and chats to profile suspects in a series of terror attacks.

Best for: players interested in digital evidence and its ethics.

L.A. Noire

L.A. Noire (Team Bondi, Rockstar Games; PC 2011) follows LAPD detective Cole Phelps. Steam says its crimes are inspired by real crimes from 1947 Los Angeles, and it uses facial animation technology that captures actors' performances. It also includes action such as chases and gunfights, and its cases are dramatised for a game.

Best for: players who want a period crime drama with investigative scenes.

How do real investigations differ from detective games?

Even grounded games simplify a great deal.

Real case files are large and organised. The LAPD's Murder Book format, described in a 2018 Police Foundation profile, is a binder with 28 indexed sections, from a chronological record of every investigative step to witness statements, lab reports and search warrants. Games reduce this to what is fun to examine. Read more in What Is a Murder Book?.

Reading lies is harder than many games make it look. A meta-analysis by Bond and DePaulo (2006), covering 206 documents and 24,483 judges, found that people averaged 54% correct when judging lies and truths without special aids. A separate meta-analysis by DePaulo and colleagues (2003) found that many behaviours showed no discernible link, or only a weak link, to deception. Nervousness, avoidance or an odd story can have innocent explanations. See Can You Actually Tell When Someone Is Lying? and Why There Is No Single Reliable Sign of Deception.

Games usually have an answer. A game can tell you whether you were right. Real investigations often cannot offer that certainty, and confessions are not always reliable, as our explainer on why innocent people sometimes confess shows.

Is there an upcoming detective game inspired by real interrogations?

Murder Book: The Art of Interrogation is an upcoming narrative interrogation game from Gungrounds, an independent studio in Zagreb, Croatia. It is inspired by real police footage and psychological interviews, but it is a game, not a simulation or a training tool. Players examine unreliable stories, behavioural changes, narrative gaps, avoidance and contradictions.

Development screenshots show an in-game casebook that names behaviours such as Stress Response, Avoidance and Emotional Fading, with the Acting Emotion entry linking a failure to sustain a performed emotion to cognitive load theory. In keeping with the research above, a behaviour should be treated as a reason to look closer, not as proof that someone is lying. Development materials also show a case select screen that includes a "not guilty" result. 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.