Any games with the crime-solving bits of Condemned in them?

I was playing the XBox 360 demo of Condemned from XBL Marketplace (looks like quite a good game, might have to get that one), and I thought the crime-solving bits were pretty good (zooming in on evidence and stuff like that).  Does anyone know of any games that have more emphasis on this type of stuff?  Something for PC, PS2, XBox, XBox 360 or even PSP (ideally PS2)?  I looked up CSI games and they all look pretty poor :P

I was playing the XBox 360 demo of Condemned from XBL Marketplace (looks like quite a good game, might have to get that one), and I thought the crime-solving bits were pretty good (zooming in on evidence and stuff like that). Does anyone know of any games that have more emphasis on this type of stuff? Something for PC, PS2, XBox, XBox 360 or even PSP (ideally PS2)? I looked up CSI games and they all look pretty poor :P

 

ianpwilliams

You might like Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit). It's got detective work in it - you play both the murderer trying to find out what happened to himself and the two detectives trying to solve the case. Very compelling story and very worthwhile.

The old Tex Murphy games for PC - Under A Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive, Overseer. Great first person adventure games where you're a down on your luck P.I. in a near future post-apocalyptic San Francisco. full of investigating, breaking in, interrogating, gathering clues/evidence, all sorts of fun detective stuff. But good luck finding copies, let alone a machine that runs 'em well.viberooni

I was just about to say that. I was looking into getting all the old games on CD, but I had worries about getting them up and running? Are there problems with this?

Wasn't there a CSI adventure game released recently? I don't remember who made it, but I think it was a dev with some merit.

EDIT: Strike that. Apparently the CSI games suck.

EDIT#2: read the OP again. Didn't catch it the first time : /

[QUOTE="viberooni"]The old Tex Murphy games for PC - Under A Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive, Overseer. Great first person adventure games where you're a down on your luck P.I. in a near future post-apocalyptic San Francisco. full of investigating, breaking in, interrogating, gathering clues/evidence, all sorts of fun detective stuff. But good luck finding copies, let alone a machine that runs 'em well.gaminggeek

I was just about to say that. I was looking into getting all the old games on CD, but I had worries about getting them up and running? Are there problems with this?

Overseer (which you can get on DVD) and Pandora Directive should work alright but I had trouble getting UAKM to run on my XP machine last I tried, it's not too friendly with modern PC's. I may try to get them all working again sometime today and I'll see how it turns out. You can check the Unofficial Tex Murphy site for troubleshooting if you get your hands on 'em.

It seems like those games are more kind of like adventure games with puzzles, I was hoping there might be something more specifically like in Condemned, analyzing crime scenes and evidence and stuff.  Maybe no-one's done anything exactly like that yet....

OMG Hotel Dusk.  I only played the demo for Condemned but Hotel Dusk's detective seems to make you think more rather than use a special scanner to see things.

Hotel Dusk deserves "Best new IP" and "Best Story" from game review sites. 

[QUOTE="gaminggeek"]

[QUOTE="viberooni"]The old Tex Murphy games for PC - Under A Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive, Overseer. Great first person adventure games where you're a down on your luck P.I. in a near future post-apocalyptic San Francisco. full of investigating, breaking in, interrogating, gathering clues/evidence, all sorts of fun detective stuff. But good luck finding copies, let alone a machine that runs 'em well.viberooni

I was just about to say that. I was looking into getting all the old games on CD, but I had worries about getting them up and running? Are there problems with this?

Overseer (which you can get on DVD) and Pandora Directive should work alright but I had trouble getting UAKM to run on my XP machine last I tried, it's not too friendly with modern PC's. I may try to get them all working again sometime today and I'll see how it turns out. You can check the Unofficial Tex Murphy site for troubleshooting if you get your hands on 'em.

That worries me. I'll have to do it one day, but I'm innudated with games at the moment.

It seems like those games are more kind of like adventure games with puzzles, I was hoping there might be something more specifically like in Condemned, analyzing crime scenes and evidence and stuff. Maybe no-one's done anything exactly like that yet....

ianpwilliams

I played the Condemned demo and Tex Muprhy is just as rewarding if not moreso when it comes to crime scene investigation, evidence collection/examination and just general detective gameplay. The game environments are 3d and you interact with them in first person view, so it's not just staring at a photo pointing and clicking. There's a few brain teasers but the detective work you're doing to further the plot makes up most of the puzzle aspect. The action doesn't compare though, it's got the gameplay you're looking for but in a different genre.

You could always try the Police Quest series, but that's much more of a straightforward adventure game. Phoenix Wright has a law and order vibe to it with detective/courtroom action but it's not close to what you're doing in Condemned. Hotel Dusk was fun as well, but again lots of reading involved. Maybe just buy Condemned and have fun with it :P