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Best Mystery Games

Alan Wake 2 is the best mystery game on PS5 and PS4, with Life Is Strange and Until Dawn close behind: a novelist rewriting reality to escape a nightmare, a rewind-time disappearance in a coastal town, and a mountain whodunit where any of eight friends can die. This list ranks 12 narrative mystery games, from psychological thrillers and supernatural investigations to interactive crime dramas, and leaves the pure case-solving detective titles to our detective list.

How we rank games

Updated Jul 18, 2026

Top Picks

Alan Wake 2
#1 Pick

Alan Wake 2

★ 4.6Mixed
Life Is Strange™
#2

Life Is Strange™

★ 4.7Great
Until Dawn™
#3

Until Dawn™

★ 4.6Mixed

Discover Games

12 games found

1Alan Wake 2

Alan Wake 2

4.6(63,631)2023
PS+ TrialPS Plus PremiumESRB Maturehorror
MixedReview analysis

Overall, players express a high level of enjoyment and appreciation for the storytelling, atmosphere, and unique gameplay mechanics of Alan Wake 2, despite some frustrations regarding its pacing and navigation. However, a significant minority of reviewers have voiced strong dissatisfaction, particularly around the game's structure and backtracking elements.

Why it's here: Two mysteries run at once: an FBI agent working a ritual murder, and a lost novelist rewriting reality to escape it. Investigation happens on a literal mind-board where clues become theories. Whether that braided structure is the boldest mystery on this list or the reason some players got lost is the open question.

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2Life Is Strange™

Life Is Strange™

4.7(121,663)2015
FreeESRB Maturemysterious
GreatReview analysis

Overall, players overwhelmingly praise Life Is Strange for its captivating story, well-developed characters, and stunning visuals, with many describing it as a masterpiece of emotional storytelling. While some criticisms are pointed out regarding gameplay repetitiveness and texture glitches, the positive feedback far outweighs the negatives, indicating a strong emotional impact on players.

Why it's here: The mystery starts small, a missing girl in a coastal town, then warps when Max finds she can rewind time and test every choice. The hook is investigating by undoing outcomes to see what really happened. Whether the rewind power solves the mystery or only deepens it carries the whole story.

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3Until Dawn™

Until Dawn™

4.6(3,000)2024
ESRB Mature 17+
MixedReview analysis

Overall, player feedback on Until Dawn is largely positive, highlighting its engaging storytelling, emotional depth, and immersive horror experience, though some significant concerns were raised about technical issues, particularly in the Steam version. While many players praised the game's atmosphere and character development, a notable number expressed frustration over gameplay optimization and glitches, particularly on PC.

Why it's here: A whodunit where the victims are the players: eight friends on a mountain, and a system that lets any of them die on choices you may not realise mattered. Working out what is really hunting them is half of it. Best played with a group arguing over every decision, wrong or right.

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4The Quarry

The Quarry

4.3(18,191)2022
Co-op: 8ESRB Mature 17+horror
MixedReview analysis

Overall, player feedback about The Quarry is highly polarized. While many players praise the game's engaging story, immersive atmosphere, and strong character performances, others are frustrated by its gameplay mechanics, including slow pacing and unskippable cutscenes. The stark contrast between the positive and negative reviews results in a mixed overall sentiment.

Why it's here: Camp counselors, one last night, and something in the woods that turns a teen-horror romp into a survival mystery. Choices ripple across nine characters and dozens of endings. The pull is piecing together the local legend before it thins the group, and deciding who you are willing to lose to learn it.

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5Firewatch

Firewatch

4.5(39,000)2016
ESRB Maturemysterious
GoodReview analysis

Overall, players have responded overwhelmingly positively to Firewatch, praising its emotional depth, immersive atmosphere, and stunning visuals. However, a vocal minority criticized its gameplay mechanics and narrative resolution. Most players find it a touching and beautifully crafted experience, while some were disappointed with the story's pacing and character dynamics.

Why it's here: A slow-burn mystery: a fire lookout alone in the Wyoming wilds, a voice on the radio his only company, and signs someone is watching. The draw is unease built through conversation, not jump scares. Whether the payoff earns the dread it stokes is the debate that follows every playthrough.

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6What Remains of Edith Finch

What Remains of Edith Finch

4.5(28,305)2017
ESRB Teenmysterious
GreatReview analysis

Overall, players are overwhelmingly positive about 'What Remains of Edith Finch,' praising its emotional storytelling, beautiful visuals, and unique gameplay mechanics. Many express that the game is a profound experience that explores themes of mortality and family, leaving a lasting impact. However, there are some criticisms regarding its short length and the nature of its gameplay, with a minority feeling dissatisfied or questioning the depth of the narrative.

Why it's here: A house of sealed rooms, each holding how a family member died, and a last survivor walking through to uncover the curse that took them all. Every room reinvents how you play. This is a mystery about grief more than a whodunit, and how it lands is deeply personal.

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7Control

Control

4.4(46,359)2019
PS+ ExtraPS Plus ExtraESRB Mature 17+mysterious
GreatReview analysis

Overall player feedback for Control is overwhelmingly positive, with many players praising its unique atmosphere, engaging combat mechanics, and intricate storytelling. Although some reviews mention concerns regarding story clarity and gameplay balance, the majority of players found the experience to be immersive and enjoyable, making it a highly recommended title.

Why it's here: A government agency studying things that break reality, housed in a building that rearranges itself around you. The mystery is environmental: redacted files, impossible rooms, a brother who vanished into it, and telekinesis makes investigating it a fight. Whether the labyrinth rewards exploring or just disorients is where players split.

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8Oxenfree

Oxenfree

4.6(4,800)2016
ESRB Teen
GreatReview analysis

Overall, player feedback for Oxenfree is overwhelmingly positive, highlighting its engaging narrative, unique characters, and atmospheric design. Many reviews appreciate the dialogue system, replayability, and immersive story, though a few users voiced dissatisfaction regarding pacing, audio controls, and character interactions.

Why it's here: Tune a radio on an abandoned island and you tear open something that talks back. The mystery unspools entirely through conversation, friends talking over each other in real time as the night bends around them. Short enough to finish in an evening, branching enough that the version you got may not be the whole truth.

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9As Dusk Falls

As Dusk Falls

4.5(1,000)2024
Co-op: 8ESRB Mature 17+
GoodReview analysis

Overall player feedback on 'As Dusk Falls' shows a predominantly positive outlook, with many players praising its engaging storytelling, character depth, and choice-driven gameplay despite some mixed feelings regarding the visual presentation. However, criticisms concerning the cliffhanger ending and multiplayer functionality have been noted, leading to a mix of high praise and frustrations among players.

Why it's here: One motel robbery in 1998, two families, thirty years of fallout, told in painted stills rather than animation. The mystery is how a single night keeps reshaping lives long after it ends. Built for a group voting on choices, so the real question is whether your table can live with where they lead.

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10IMMORTALITY

IMMORTALITY

4.5(352)2024
ESRB Mature
MixedReview analysis

Overall, player feedback on "Immortality" presents a stark division between appreciation for its artistic ambition and deep storytelling, and frustration with its gameplay mechanics. Many praise its unique narrative approach and strong performances, while others criticize its lack of intuitive gameplay and repetition, leading to mixed reviews overall.

Why it's here: Three films an actress made and never released, then she vanished. The only tool is the editing desk: scrub the footage and match-cut from any face or object into another scene. The real mystery is buried in the frames for those who look. Whether that discovery thrills or frustrates depends on how much direction you need.

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11Twelve Minutes

Twelve Minutes

4.2(737)2021
ESRB Mature
MixedReview analysis

Overall, player feedback for 'Twelve Minutes' is divided, with many praising its unique storytelling and engaging mechanics while others criticize its repetitive gameplay and disappointing narrative twists. The game has moments of brilliance juxtaposed with significant frustrations, leading to a mix of strong recommendations and outright dismissals.

Why it's here: A man relives the same ten minutes as a violent night keeps resetting, and the only way out is using what he learned last loop. Every object and line of dialogue is a clue to reorder. Whether the tight time-loop puzzle earns its late reveals is the argument this one always starts.

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12Night in the Woods

Night in the Woods

4.6(6,900)2022
ESRB Teenmodern
GreatReview analysis

Overall, player feedback for "Night in the Woods" is overwhelmingly positive, with many praising its beautiful storytelling, relatable characters, and emotional depth. While a few players expressed dissatisfaction with the pacing and slower plot progression, the majority found great value and connection in the game’s themes and characters.

Why it's here: A dropout comes home to a dying mining town and finds it quietly wrong, friends changed, something moving at the edges of Possum Springs. The mystery is a slow burn under sharp writing about decline and coming home. It suits anyone who wants a mystery with something real to say over a puzzle to crack.

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About Mystery Games

Mystery games put the slow uncovering of a hidden truth at their centre, whether that truth is a disappearance, a haunting, a crime or a family secret. This list gathers the narrative and psychological end of the genre: choice-driven thrillers like Until Dawn, The Quarry and As Dusk Falls, atmospheric investigations like Firewatch, Oxenfree and What Remains of Edith Finch, and format-breaking mysteries like Immortality and Twelve Minutes. Every pick is hand-curated for genuine mystery storytelling and ranked on aggregated player review sentiment, not marketing. Games built around playing a working detective live on our detective list; here the emphasis is mood, consequence and revelation. If you want the mystery to stay with you, prioritise the picks with the strongest writing over the flashiest set pieces.

Curated by Ugur Saritepe. Rankings weigh aggregated player ratings and review sentiment collected from the stores each game is sold on — Steam and the PlayStation Store — with catalogue data from RAWG. How we rankPlayStation StoreSteamRAWG

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Best Mystery Games Compared

  • Alan Wake 2
    ★ 4.63 / 5PS Plus Premium

    Braids two investigations at once and builds cases on a mind-board where clues snap into theories.

  • Life Is Strange™
    ★ 4.69 / 5Free

    Investigates by rewinding time, replaying choices to test what really happened to a missing classmate.

  • Until Dawn™
    ★ 4.59 / 5

    A branching slasher whodunit where any of eight teens can die on a single overlooked choice.

  • The Quarry
    ★ 4.26 / 5

    Spreads its summer-camp mystery across nine playable counselors and dozens of survival-shaped endings.

  • Firewatch
    ★ 4.5 / 5

    Builds dread through radio conversation alone as a Wyoming lookout suspects he is being watched.

  • What Remains of Edith Finch
    ★ 4.55 / 5

    Uncovers a family curse room by room, reinventing how you play with every relative's death.

  • Control
    ★ 4.38 / 5PS Plus Extra

    Investigates a reality-warping agency through redacted files and telekinetic combat in a shifting building.

  • Oxenfree
    ★ 4.56 / 5

    Unspools a supernatural island mystery entirely through real-time, overlapping, choice-driven conversation.

  • As Dusk Falls
    ★ 4.52 / 5

    Tracks one Arizona robbery across thirty years in painted stills, built for a group to vote through.

  • IMMORTALITY
    ★ 4.49 / 5

    Hands over three lost films and asks you to match-cut through footage to find what was hidden.

  • Twelve Minutes
    ★ 4.18 / 5

    Loops the same ten minutes until you reorder objects and dialogue into the truth of a violent night.

  • Night in the Woods
    ★ 4.63 / 5

    Wraps a slow small-town mystery in sharp writing about decline, mental health and coming home.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best mystery game on PS5?
Alan Wake 2 is the best mystery game on PS5: a Remedy survival horror that braids an FBI ritual-murder case with a novelist writing his way out of a nightmare. Life Is Strange is the top pick for a choice-driven mystery, and Until Dawn for a branching horror whodunit you can play with friends.
What are the best mystery games on PS4?
Most of this list is cross-gen. Life Is Strange, Until Dawn, Firewatch, Oxenfree, What Remains of Edith Finch and Night in the Woods all play on PS4 as well as PS5, so you do not need a PS5 to work through the strongest narrative mysteries here.
What is the difference between mystery and detective games?
Mystery games centre on uncovering a hidden truth through mood, choice and revelation, like Firewatch or Immortality, where you are rarely a professional investigator. Detective games put you in the role of one, gathering clues and interrogating suspects. Games like L.A. Noire and Return of the Obra Dinn sit on our separate detective list.
Are there mystery games you can play with friends?
Yes. Until Dawn is built for a group passing a single controller and voting on choices, The Quarry adds a dedicated couch co-op mode, and As Dusk Falls has a companion app that lets up to eight players weigh in on every decision.
What is the best short mystery game?
Oxenfree, Firewatch, Twelve Minutes and Immortality can each be finished in an evening or two. Oxenfree and Firewatch lead on atmosphere and writing, while Twelve Minutes and Immortality are tighter, single-mechanic puzzles built to be replayed for the branches you missed.
Do these mystery games need PlayStation Plus?
Most are standalone purchases that need no subscription. Two are available through PlayStation Plus at the time of writing: Alan Wake 2 on the Premium tier and Control on the Extra tier.
How is this mystery games list ranked?
This is an editorially curated list. Games are hand-picked for genuine mystery storytelling, then ordered by overall quality using aggregated player review sentiment and critic reception. Pure detective and open-world crime games are deliberately kept to their own lists.

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