Games like this, but harder

[ziroonderel]

So - I liked Case of the Golden Idol. It was fun, the plot that took turn for the supernatural and political was fun, the puzzles were logical and all information was there, but it was really kind of... too easy for me? I've beat the main game in 4hrs, the expansion in one more hour, and I'm honestly missing the sort of brain pain I've got with Return of Obra Dinn (which was for me the perfect difficulty - I solved it, but it took some serious thinking and I needed a paper notebook to make notes and cross-reference stuff). Are there any more games in the deduction/puzzle genre that are closer to Obra Dinn on the difficulty scale than Case of the Golden Idol?

[Rick Dagless]

I also came here looking for more deductive reasoning games. If anything, this thread is making me think i should try Outer wilds again. Though it would be my third attempt. Obra Dinn and Golden Idol are two of my favourite games in recent memory, but Outer Wilds always bores me to tears. I don't think reading mostly dead npc's text logs is a compelling way to tell a story. But everyone seems to love it so I guess I should try beating it at least once.

But first, I'll be checking out Unheard, Hypnospace and Heaven's vault. Thanks for the suggestions!

[ziroonderel]

Thank you all for the suggestions! I loved Unheard - so clever! and Heaven's Vault - especially on new game plus where language gets more complex. And I have now Hypnospace Outlaw and Forgotten City in my collection, will try them soon. Need to try Outer Wilds again, because on my first attempt I was discourage by having to steer a spaceship (my 3D maneuvering skills are very bad).

[Dodier]

I also felt as a detective with "Her story", as I had a notepad besides me, writing all the words I considered important.

[Centipede]

I mean Myst was kinda hard right? I remember I tried it some time ago without a guide and got stuck. But Myst is a surreal/fantasy game, so if you meant purely detective investigation, I don't know one that is particularly difficult. They're generally designed to not get people stuck in recent years.

EDIT and Rusty Lake: Roots, while not hard, has a slightly similar story and vibe to Golden Idol.

[tasselfoot]

Biased, since I worked on it... but I'd suggest taking a look at Nauticrawl:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/922100/Nauticrawl/

It's not the same type of deductive logic, but it is immersive and has no handholding.

[Voodoo King]

Escrito originalmente por tasselfoot:

Biased, since I worked on it... but I'd suggest taking a look at Nauticrawl:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/922100/Nauticrawl/

It's not the same type of deductive logic, but it is immersive and has no handholding.

this looks really good ! I'll pick this up :)

[Mca]

Escrito originalmente por ziroonderel:

So - I liked Case of the Golden Idol. It was fun, the plot that took turn for the supernatural and political was fun, the puzzles were logical and all information was there, but it was really kind of... too easy for me? I've beat the main game in 4hrs, the expansion in one more hour, and I'm honestly missing the sort of brain pain I've got with Return of Obra Dinn (which was for me the perfect difficulty - I solved it, but it took some serious thinking and I needed a paper notebook to make notes and cross-reference stuff). Are there any more games in the deduction/puzzle genre that are closer to Obra Dinn on the difficulty scale than Case of the Golden Idol?

Sorry, I may arrive too late, but I would recommend you this game (Paradise Killer):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1160220/Paradise_Killer/

[Flyin' High]

Adding to this conversation for other game suggestions:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/624270/The_Painscreek_Killings/

and the brand new release from the same developers:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1159830/Scene_Investigators/


Both games require deductive reasoning and were very fun to play through and figure out the mysteries.

[fatigue]

You people are my kind of people. Look at all these great suggestions.

[Nico]

I second the recently released "Scene Investigators", which is very much like this game. You're playing a detective being presented with a crime scene and you have to figure out what happened and answer questions by simply examining the scene, frozen in a moment in time. It's in 3D and takes place in a realistic contemporary universe (no magic or anything like that), but the gist of the game is very much the same as Golden Idol.

The difficulty depends on the chapter, but some of them are definitely harder IMO.

[Kazza]

It's not on Steam, but there's this free game on itch.io called The Roottrees Are Dead, which has a similar vibe to it. Investigating a family of candy billionaires, sifting through evidence and reasoning where you have to.

[Evil Trout]

I found this post while searching for something else and I am happy to report the Roottrees Are Dead is coming to steam, and you can wishlist it now.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2754380/The_Roottrees_are_Dead/

[Ceci n'est pas un nom]

Recently came across this one.
I cannot comment on the difficulty as I haven't played it yet.
It has good reviews though, so I hope it was ok to mention it here.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1746030/__Murders_on_the_Yangtze_River/

[Baseman]

Thanks everyone for these great suggestions.

[purposesequence]

Thank you everyone!
This is one of my favorite discussion.