Steam Launches Giant Mystery Sale

Valve is keen on dropping massive sales on gamers from out of nowhere. This is always a great thing. This particular mid-week event happening on Steam is a giant mystery sale. No, I don't mean that it's a giant mystery and we don't know what games are available for sale, I mean that it's a sale on mystery games.

During the middle of the week Valve usually lets loose a sale on games up until the weekend. The mid-week sale this time around features a bunch of mystery, noir and adventure titles, hence the “giant mystery sale” in the title of this article.

So what are some of the games that are up and available for you to purchase at discounted prices? Well, quite a few titles actually.

Some of the more well known titles on sale include Rockstar and Team Bondi's L.A. Noire. You can grab the game for 75% off the normal price. That means you can pick up a digital copy of L.A. Noire for only $4.99... and the best part about it is that it doesn't include any of the drama that came along with Rockstar and Team Bondi leading up to the release of the game.

Other noteworthy games on the list include the complete first season of Sam & Max from Telltale Games, which is also 75% off for only $4.99. It's kind of amazing but Telltale's re-imagined take on Sam & Max is what helped them shape how they eventually tackled more mature games later on down the road, such as The Walking Dead or their recently released point-and-click adventures set within George R.R. Martin's world of The Game of Thrones.

Some of my absolute favorites are also on the list, such as Max Payne 1 and Max Payne 2. I played the absolute crap out of those games when they first came out. You can grab the original Max Payne for only $2.49 and the sequel for the same price. The third game is also discounted to 75% off, bringing the total to only $4.99. Plain and simple: Max Payne 3 is well worth the price of entry, and if you can stomach the gore and brutal violence, it's a game that will stick with you well after the credits roll. Also that soundtrack from Health... oh man, oh man. It kicks butt.

Pendulo Studios' Runaway series also makes the list. It's a somewhat underrated series with a risque edge and a story that pops thanks to the deep reliance on a vibrant visual art-style. You can grab the Runaway games for 75% off as well, bringing them down to only $2.49 each. Pendulo's more tame yet quirky adventure mystery title, The Next Big Thing, is also discounted, but less so than its counterparts, being available at 60% and carrying a price tag of $3.39.

More obscure and culturally divisive games are also on the list, such as The Shivah, which is about a Jewish rabbi trying to keep his synagogue open, as well as Gone Home, the mystery game that spawned a lot of discussion when it first released.

Long-running franchises like Broken Sword are also available. Man, I remember this game from way back when. The terrorist clown who blows up that coffee shop is still one of the most striking visual images that have stuck with me for as long as I've been playing games. Beautifully animated and challenging in most of the right places, Broken Sword has been a consistent adventure series throughout the years.

Even more recent games fleshing out the adventure/mystery genre are also on the mid-week sale list, including the critically acclaimed game from Remedy Studios, Alan Wake, and the lesser known but thematically poignant gem from Wadjet Eye Games, Gemini Rue (it's another game with pretty spiffy cyber-noir soundtrack, if you're into that sort of thing).

You can also grab Sherlock Holmes titles, Gun Point and the female-led crime-noir series, Memento Mori, from the Steam digital storefront as well. All of the games are discounted either moderately or heavily. You can check them out over on the Steam store page.