Hook me with a good mystery and you’ve instantly got me. But, there’s a nuance to a good brainteaser - you can’t just have everything spelled out, but you also need to be able to connect the logical dots. These are the best of these in 2022 - indie or otherwise.

Strange Horticulture

A cosy plant growing and identifying game, wrapped around occult theming, with puzzle and mystery elements pulling you through a clever and intriguing story. One of those "overlooked and somehow forgotten" January releases when it comes to GOTY time, but it’s Overwhelmingly Positive score speaks for itself.

Mind Diver (Student Version)

Free

A really cool sci-fi idea lies in this one - diving into people’s minds to uncover repressed memories. A nice free slice of what is sure to be a very interesting full experience down the road.

Chinatown Detective Agency

A “Cybernoir” point and click detective game who’s hook is that you need to go outside the game and research actual real world facts on the internet to discover the truth. An truly fascinating way to squeeze some edutainment into a game, and a cool mystery thriller to boot.

The Case of the Golden Idol

An incredibly compelling detective game that really pulls you in through the need to build the story yourself. I mean that almost literally - the game is essentially made up of nearly a dozen chapters, containing a few fantastically animated static screens frozen in time, where you must deduce what the bloody hell is going on by finding descriptor words and placing them in paragraphs telling the story. The Case of the Golden Idol is a case study in how rich the vein still is we’ve yet to mine in clever non-violent mechanical design.

Betrayal at Club Low

There’s nothing out there like a Cosmo D game, and Betrayal At Club Low is unmistakably that. At the same time, it’s very different from Cosmo D’s previous titles - specifically in that it is much more mechanically driven, and less heavy on the narrative beats. This is more of a narrative dice based RPG, all set within a single building. And it is, without question, absolutely fantastic.

Karisvale