Telling Lies (Image credit: Half Mermaid) Set in an abandoned American town in the 1990s, you play as a journalist investigating a series of murders, and you really have to use your mind, intuitively piecing clues together, to get any kind of resolution out of it. Many games on this list are really good at simulating being a detective, but cult favourite The Painscreek Killings is one of the few where you actually have to be one. It's a spiralling conspiratorial thriller, and throws in enough twists and surprises to keep things interesting. In the dystopian Orwell (what else would it be with a title like that) you’re a government agent who’s been given permission to pry into people’s personal lives, digging through private chats, emails, and social media profiles to pin crimes against the state on them. Rather than solving a murder, you're covering one up, and helping Veronica get away with the crime is incredibly satisfying. Cleverly, it's a detective game in reverse. This is the devilish premise of Overboard, a superb interactive fiction game from Inkle, the studio behind 80 Days. Veronica Villensey has murdered her husband in cold blood, and you're going to help her get away with it.
