Some thoughts on games that have been mentioned that I've played.

- Disco Elysium: This is has made it to my list of all time greats but
I'm not sure I'd really describe it as a detective game. Yes you play as
a detective, with a case to solve, but that's more of a vehicle for
playing out a story and solving the mystery of who you are while
developing a relationship with your partner Kim. It's also very, and I
mean very, text heavy so not for everyone.

- The Wolf Among Us: An excellent game if you like the Telltale style if
point-and-click adventures cum walking-sim and even the QTE aren't that bad.

- The Return of Obra Dinn: Another excellent game with a playstyle to
match its graphics. I'd say it's biggest fault is that as the premise of
how you solve the cases is really quite different from other games you
can feel a bit lost at sea to start with. The good thing is you can just
watch some YT videos so it all clicks in place.

- Painscreek KIllings: I'd forgotten about this one and the fact you do
need to take your own notes adds to the enjoyment and the feeling that
you'll solving the mystery yourself and not being spoon-fed the
important parts. What killed it for me though, the bugs and in
particular the falling through the scenery into the void below meaning
having to go back to another save and hoping it didn't occur again. This
was a couple of years ago though so hopefully patches have addressed that.

- Firewatch: Another excellent game, well walking-sim really, but like
Disco Elysium I wouldn't really class it as a detective game. Instead
it, again like Disco Elysium, is more about you writing your own story
and also how the relationship with your 'partner' develops.

As a slight aside one of the problems I find with detective style games
is that PC's just aren't very good a judging when a player is struggling
with what to do next. What may have seen fairly obvious to the dev's
might not be quite so obvious to a player.