Detective / Mystery

A mystery is something that is unexplained, unknown or kept secret. In the Mystery genre, gameplay or story usually revolves around solving or shedding light on the "mystery". A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. Some are private persons, and may be known as private investigators. Informally, and primarily in fiction, a detective is any licensed or unlicensed person who solves crimes, including historical crimes, by examining and evaluating clues and personal records in order to uncover the identity and/or whereabouts of the criminal.

Gameplay

Detective games generally have three styles of gameplay:

Types of Mystery

Sub-Themes
	Western / Whodunnit	Features a main character, usually a detective or policeman, who performs feats of analysis by combining intuitive logic, astute observation, and perspicacious inference. The goal is to ascertain the truth, even if that means establishing the innocence of the police's favorite suspect or revealing ways in which the law protects the murderer while destroying innocent lives. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced and is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of deduction as the protagonist throughout the investigation of a crime. Supernatural elements and unaccountable intuition or accidents are not used. Body doubles and twins are also rarely present in the genre.	Example: Return of the Obra Dinn
	Gong'an / Inverted	Chinese mystery genre involving government magistrates who solve criminal cases. Gong'an fiction was one of the most popular fiction styles in Ming and Qing dynasties. Gong'an differs from the Western style in that the criminal is introduced at the very beginning of the story and his crime and reasons are carefully explained, thus constituting an inverted detective story rather than a "puzzle". They also digress into philosophy and feature supernatural elements, such as ghosts explaining their death or accusing the criminal.	Example: Overboard!
	Historical Mystery	Set in a time period considered historical from the viewer's perspective, with the central plot involving the solving of a crime, usually murder. Methods considered acceptable in the era for extracting the 'truth', such as abductive reasoning, coercion through torture or the use of superstitious practices like cruentation, may be present and the supposed culprit likewise dubious.	Example: Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments The Last Express
	Police Procedural	Emphasizes the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agencies as contrasted with other genres that focus on non-police investigators such as private investigators. The defining element of a police procedural is the attempt to accurately depict law enforcement and their procedures, including such police-related topics as forensic science, autopsies, gathering evidence, search warrants, interrogation and adherence to legal restrictions and procedures. The genre is often criticized as "copaganda" for shying away from some of the more negative issues faced in the real-world, such as racism, sexism, and abuse of power.	Example: Her Story
	Hardboiled	The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence of organized crime, while dealing with a legal system that has become as corrupt as the organized crime itself. These detectives are emotionally involved in the crime they're investigating - often presented as being on a quest, and it is the quest itself, rather than its solution that forms the main source of interest. Viewers want to find out what will happen next and how the detective will deal with physical and moral difficulties encountered along the way. Because of this focus, the actual solution to the mystery is often unsatisfactory or contrived.	Example:
	Cozy Mystery	Features minimal violence and sex, or they occur off stage. The detective is typically an amateur sleuth in a small, closed community. A solution is achieved by intellect or intuition rather than police procedure.	Example:
	Legal Thriller	The system of justice itself is a major part of the work, at times functioning as one of the characters. They usually start with the court proceedings following the closure of an investigation with particular reference to the impact on the lives of the characters.	Example: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
	Locked Room / Impossible Crime	A crime—almost always murder—is committed under circumstances in which it was seemingly impossible for the perpetrator to commit the crime and/or evade detection in the course of getting in and out of the crime scene. The literal "locked room" is a classic setup in the genre: a murder victim is found in a windowless room locked from the inside at the time of discovery. The viewer is normally presented with the puzzle and all of the clues, and is encouraged to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed. The solution always has a rational explanation and does not use supernatural entities or defy the laws of nature.	Example:
	Occult Detective	Features a detective, sometimes with psychic or other paranormal/magical powers, employed to deal with cases involving ghosts, demons, curses, magic, vampires, undead, monsters and other supernatural elements.	Example: Murdered: Soul Suspect Cate West: The Vanishing Files