8 lists · 84 games
Detective cases, open-world crime, heists, the Rockstar catalogue and the Yakuza series for PS5 and PS4, plus an indie mystery shelf for PC — every one a ranked list.
Crime is two genres wearing one trench coat. On one side you solve it: interrogations, case boards and murder scenes, led by L.A. Noire at ★4.67 from 9,931 PlayStation players and Disco Elysium at the same score. On the other side you commit it: Grand Theft Auto V carries ★4.46 from 956,165 ratings — the largest sample of any game on this site — and Red Dead Redemption 2 sits above it at ★4.75 from 443,735. The store shelves both sides under "action" and calls it a day, which is why this shelf exists.
The lists below split it properly. Detective and mystery cover the solving side, crime and heist cover the committing side, the Rockstar and Yakuza lists give the two catalogues that define the second category pages of their own, and the indie mystery list takes the solving side to PC, where three of its picks never shipped on a PlayStation storefront. The highest-rated thing on the whole shelf is on neither extreme: Yakuza 0 at ★4.81 from 22,000 ratings, a crime drama that swings between brutal and absurd without dropping either.
One honesty note: the mystery list starts in investigation territory with Alan Wake 2 at ★4.63, then widens into horror. Its blurb below says where the crime ends and the scares begin.
Pick the side of the law you want to spend an evening on. The rating floor holds across the whole shelf.
15 games
Detective games are the door most people are actually looking for when they search this shelf, and L.A. Noire is the easiest recommendation on it: ★4.67 from 9,931 players, self-contained cases, and interrogations that still read faces better than most games made since.
The solving side of the shelf: interrogations, deduction and evidence that has to hold up. L.A. Noire leads at ★4.67 from 9,931 players with its facial-read interrogations, Disco Elysium matches it at ★4.67 as the best-written detective on the platform, and Judgment at ★4.64 runs investigations through Yakuza's Kamurocho. The deepest list in the cluster at fifteen picks, and the right first stop.
Top picks: L.A. Noire, Disco Elysium - The Final Cut, Judgment
12 games
Narrative mysteries, and the point where this shelf stops being purely about crime. Alan Wake 2 opens it inside a genuine murder investigation at ★4.63 from 63,631 ratings and is on PS Plus Premium. Past that the list widens into supernatural and horror territory — Life Is Strange at ★4.69 from 121,663 ratings and Until Dawn at ★4.59 are mysteries, not crime stories. Treat it as the story-first neighbour rather than five more case files.
Top picks: Alan Wake 2, Life Is Strange™, Until Dawn™
12 games
The solving side taken to PC, and the only list on this shelf ranked on Steam reviews rather than PlayStation stars. Return of the Obra Dinn leads at 97 percent positive across 35,048 lifetime reviews, The Case of the Golden Idol sits at 98 percent, and The Roottrees are Dead — one of three picks that never shipped on a PlayStation storefront — holds 96 percent. Twelve small-studio investigations where the deduction is the whole game; open it when the question is what to play on a PC rather than a console.
Top picks: Return of the Obra Dinn, The Case of the Golden Idol, The Roottrees are Dead
13 games
The committing side: open worlds where you are the problem. Grand Theft Auto V leads on sample size at ★4.46 from 956,165 ratings, Red Dead Redemption 2 leads on score at ★4.75 from 443,735 and is on PS Plus Extra, and Yakuza 0 at ★4.81 is the highest-rated game anywhere on this shelf. If you only open one list here for the sandbox side, it is this one.
Top picks: Grand Theft Auto V (PlayStation®5), Red Dead Redemption 2, Yakuza 0
13 games
The job itself: planning, execution and the getaway. PAYDAY 2: CRIMEWAVE EDITION at ★4.3 from 38,000 ratings is the co-op standard, GTA V's heists remain the best setpieces in the genre, and Teardown at ★4.46 turns the perfect break-in into a physics puzzle you rehearse and then run in real time. The most co-op-friendly list in the cluster.
Top picks: PAYDAY 2: CRIMEWAVE EDITION, Grand Theft Auto V (PlayStation®5), Teardown
9 games
One studio, ranked. Red Dead Redemption 2 at ★4.75 from 443,735 ratings and the original Red Dead Redemption at ★4.7 — both on PS Plus Extra — bracket GTA V and L.A. Noire in between. Nine games, no filler, and the shortest answer to "which Rockstar game first" the site has.
Top picks: Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto V (PlayStation®5), Red Dead Redemption
14 games
One series, all of it: the 14 Yakuza and Like a Dragon entries playable on PS5 and PS4 in a single ranking, led by Yakuza 0 at ★4.81 from 22,000 ratings with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth at ★4.73 behind it. Four picks are included with PS Plus Extra, and the play-order question gets a straight answer. Open it when the question is which Yakuza game, and in what order.
Top picks: Yakuza 0, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth PS4 & PS5, Yakuza Kiwami 2
Sly 2: Band of Thieves™
Sly Cooper™ and the Thievius Raccoonus
Urban Myth Dissolution Center
Return of the Obra Dinn
Yakuza 0
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
The Warriors
Red Dead Redemption 2
The solving side head-to-head: facial-read interrogations against Yakuza-studio combat, and which detective game to play first.
Rockstar’s two open worlds compared — pace, tone and which one to play first.
