Highlights

• Investigative games such as CSI often failed to hit the mark for Telltale Games in terms of critical reception and player enjoyment.
• Despite struggles with licensed games, Telltale's original IPs like Puzzle Agent and Sam & Max were better received by critics and fans.
• The success and impact of Telltale's The Walking Dead series solidified their position as a major game studio in the industry.

It could be argued that Telltale Games was responsible for bringing point-and-click adventure games back into fashion with modern audiences. Games like The Walking Dead and Back to the Future were incredibly successful - both commercially and critically - and remain some of the best licensed games on the market even to this day.

The studio's brand of interactive storytelling intuitively blends visual novels, interactive movies, and old-school point-and-click adventure game mechanics and quickly became the benchmark for similarly styled titles like Life is Strange. Despite facing some turbulent times in recent years, Telltale Games continues to pump out top-tier titles on a fairly regular basis.

Updated on March 27, 2024, by Mara Cowley: Telltale is a long-standing game studio that has a surprisingly extensive library of games in its history. Though most gamers might only be familiar with more recent, popular titles based on other IPs, such as The Walking Dead, Batman, or The Wolf Among Us, they have other great classic games they are responsible for creating, like Monkey Island or even a few CSI games. While they may not be as major as other releases, they still deserve their time to shine. And so, this article has been updated to include more of the classic Telltale games that might have been previously omitted.

Some games with lower Metacritic scores rank higher due to other reasons and features.

29 CSI: Fatal Conspiracy

Metacritic Score: 42

• Release Date: October 26th, 2010
• Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii
• Genre: Adventure

Developed by Telltale and published by Ubisoft, these two great studios weren't enough to save Fatal Conspiracy, nor was the casting of Laurence Fishburne in the role he plays on the TV show.

Set across five episodes, each containing a different case, what could have been an exciting game unfortunately falls short of deliver, making it one of the worst Telltale games to have ever been released. Only die-hard fans of the series are likely to derive any joy from this particular Telltale title.

28 CSI: Hard Evidence

Metacritic Score: 48

• Release Date: September 25th, 2007
• Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii
• Genre: Adventure

Telltale really does struggle when making CSI games, as Hard Evidence proved only to be a little better than Fatal Conspiracy, and still falls short of the just barely average Deadly Intent. Though it uses a few characters from the shows, their actors were not brought in to do the voice acting, something which die-hard fans are sure to pick up on.

The game is episodic in typical Telltale style, with each of the five episodes featuring the investigation of a unique case. Die-hard fans of the show and those who like investigative gameplay may find some enjoyment out of this, but other than that, it is less likely to appeal to gamers in general.

27 CSI: Deadly Intent

Metacritic Score: 51

• Release Date: October 20th, 2009
• Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS & Nintendo Wii
• Genre: Adventure

CSI: Deadly Intent differentiates itself from the majority of games on this list, as it wasn't published by Telltale Games themselves. Instead, industry giants Ubisoft handled the publishing side of things, while Telltale Games worked on development.

CSI: Deadly Intent coincided with the ninth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It featured an impressive amount of cast members, including Laurence Fishburne, Lauren Lee Smith, and Robert David Hall, who all reprised their roles.

26 Law and Order: Legacies

Metacritic Score: 53

• Release Date: December 22nd, 2011
• Platforms: PC, iOS
• Genre: Adventure

Another episodic game based on the famous Law and Order TV show, with some famous faces to go with the name. Though this will undoubtedly please fans, as will the generous length of seven episodes, which is longer than most of Telltale's usual affairs, it unfortunately does miss the mark in delivering a game of the studio's normal caliber.

Players will take to the streets investigating crimes, and then engage in the subsequent courtroom hearing, but unfortunately, with it taken down from stores, gamers will no longer get to experience this adventure themselves.

25 Jurassic Park: The Game

Metacritic Score: 54

Like most of Telltale's games, Jurassic Park: The Game was released as an episodic adventure that players experienced through multiple playable characters and their exploits within the famed IP of the same name.

The game is derivative of the movies, using plot points from the films in the game, but having the PCs as relatives of the main cast, or introducing new ones, which arrives as a disappointment for most fans. However, the game still provides heart-racing confrontations with dinosaurs that fans would hope for, including a confrontation with a T-Rex. With a new Jurassic Park game on the horizon, this title might serve to whet appetites until it releases.

24 Texas Hold 'Em

Metacritic Score: 63

• Release Date: February 11th, 2005
• Platforms: PC
• Genre: Card Game

Who doesn't love a game of poker? This must be the sentiment Telltale had when they decided to make their very first card game, Texas Hold 'Em, which aided in the development of other games such as Poker Night at the Inventory.

Four characters partake in a fictional poker tournament based in the City of Gambling, Las Vegas, but the game lacks a multiplayer element, which could have otherwise elevated this rough but mildly entertaining game.

23 Puzzle Agent 2

Metacritic Score: 63

• Release Date: June 29th, 2011
• Platforms: PC & Mac
• Genre: Adventure

The sequel to the first Puzzle Agent game, Puzzle Agent 2, is a mix between a puzzle game and an adventure game, where ace puzzle investigators will travel to the Midwest to meet up with Agent Tethers and help him solve the mystery that surrounds the area.

Players will follow a linear adventure story, solving puzzles while interacting with the world and speaking to the other characters that populate it. Dialogue can sometimes lead to puzzles of various kinds, from jigsaws to mathematical equations to logic puzzles. Players will need a sharpened mind to bypass all the puzzles and win the game.

22 Back to the Future: The Game

Metacritic Score: 66

Back to the Future: The Game is one of Telltale's episodic games based on a cinematic classic, the famed 80s time-traveling movie that has garnered many fans over the years.

Telltale Games tried its best to ensure that its fanbase would be happy with Back to the Future: The Game by asking for their input via online surveys. The studio clearly wanted to stay true to the IP's roots, as the film trilogy's co-writer, Bob Gale, was hired as a story consultant for the game. The care and concern for the Back to the Future franchise were evident in the final product, making the game a great choice for fans of the films.

21 CSI 3: Dimensions Of Murder

Metacritic Score: 67

• Release Date: March 14th, 2006
• Platforms: PC & PlayStation 2
• Genre: Adventure

Telltale took up the mantle of developing a CSI game, based on the TV show it shares a name with, resulting in CSI 3: Dimensions of Murder. With the use of a new 3D game engine, this title had improved visuals compared to the previous entries.

Rather than split into five episodes, the game is split among five cases, with the fifth case tying all the previous ones together. Players will need to don their investigator hats as they work alongside Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows to try and solve the cases and arrest their suspects. While not on the same level as LA Noire, it is still a mildly impressive game, especially considering the time of its release.

20 Game Of Thrones

Metacritic Score: 64

At the height of the HBO show's popularity, Telltale secured the license to create their own spin on the dark fantasy show, resulting in an above-average Game of Thrones episodic game, bringing with it court intrigue, combat, and even performances by some of the series cast members such as Lena Heady, Kit Harrington, Emilia Clarke, and Peter Dinklage reprising their roles.

Game of Thrones also brought in a host of original characters for the player to experience their story through, scattered across the Seven Kingdoms, and like the main characters from the show, some aren't as trustworthy as others. Despite earning a 64 rating on Metacritic, this game is ranked higher as it showed fans a new side of Game of Thrones, and the efforts of the original cast were nothing short of fantastic.

19 Bone: Out From Boneville

Metacritic Score: 68

• Release Date: September 15th, 2005
• Platforms: PC & Mac
• Genre: Adventure

Telltale's first foray into adventure games arrived in the form of Bone: Out From Boneville, which was split into multiple episodes as fans have come to expect from the studio. The three characters are known for robbery and are run out of their hometown, Boneville, by the citizens fed up with their racketeering. Once split up by a swarm of locusts, the player must help Fone Bone and Phoney Bone reunite with their cousin, Smiley.

It's a simple and light-hearted adventure game that won't necessarily blow anyone away, but it will provide some mild enjoyment and fun for those who give this lost diamond in the rough a try.

18 Minecraft: Story Mode

Metacritic Score: 67

• Release Date: October 15th, 2015
• Platforms: PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Switch, iOS & Android
• Genre: Adventure

Minecraft: Story Mode provided a fun, family-friendly frolic through the pixillated world of Minecraft, following the story of the playable character, Jesse, and their rise from a zero to a hero with a little help from their friends along the way. The premise is simple, but there is plenty of fun and laughs to be had along the way.

The gameplay brought elements central to Minecraft gameplay such as combat, crafting, and building, but with the mechanics of QTEs that Telltale is known for. And with the power of the Minecraft IP behind it, this game was viewed very favorably by its fans, even if the critics don't necessarily agree.

17 Puzzle Agent

Metacritic Score: 70

• Release Date: June 30th, 2010
• Platforms: PC, iOS
• Genre: Adventure/Puzzle

The very first Puzzle Agent game brought players the story of Neslon Tethers, an agent from the US Department of Puzzle Research. Nelson has been summoned by the White House for help looking into the Scoggins Eraser Company.

The premise itself is simple, but serves as a nice enough backdrop to lead the players into a game of solving challenging but fair puzzles. While its Metacritic score may be higher than games ahead in this article, the greater complexity of these games, as well as the famous IP to back them, justify their higher ranking.

16 The Walking Dead: Michonne

Metacritic Score: 67

The Walking Dead: Michonne was released in 2016 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. It was comprised of three episodes that were set during the events of Michonne’s departure from the TV series.

It didn’t quite receive the critical acclaim of the main series; however, many fans thought that the second episode was one of the best in the series. The game did a great job of providing some strong character development for a popular character from the TV show, and there are no more fans loyal than those of TWD, which grants it a higher ranking than one might expect due to its lukewarm Metacritic score.

15 Poker Night At The Inventory

Metacritic Score: 71

• Release Date: November 22nd, 2010
• Platforms: PC & Mac
• Genre: Card Game

If anyone has ever wondered what video game characters play in their downtime, Poker Night at the Inventory might hold the answer to that. This lesser-known Telltale title brings the simple and well-known card game of poker to computer game form while featuring a host of familiar faces.

Characters from franchises such as Sam and Max and Team Fortress 2 gather in this game for some friendly rounds of poker. It's a simple premise but one that is sure to appeal to poker players and fans of the games featured here.

14 Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures

Metacritic Score: 74

• Release Date: March 23rd, 2009 - July 30th, 2009
• Platforms: PC, Mac & Xbox 360
• Genres: Adventure

From one beloved film series to another, the Wallace & Gromit franchise has warmed the hearts of many over the years with its wholesome tales of an inventor and his highly expressive dog. The franchise isn't only beloved for its quintessential British humor, but also for its clay animation. The series is meticulously crafted to pack each scene with as much life as possible.

Telltale Games' Grand Adventures does a fantastic job of replicating the weird and wonderful world of Wallace & Gromit. It ensures that the episodes never take themselves too seriously and are packed with over-the-top humor.

13 Sam & Max: Save The World

Metacritic Score: 74

• Release Date: October 17th, 2006, April 26th, 2007
• Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Wii & Nintendo Switch
• Genres: Puzzle

Sam & Max: Save The World was originally released in episodes for the PC between 2006 and 2007 but was later released for the Nintendo Wii and on Xbox Live in 2008. It was based on the comic book series of the same name and was developed by former members of LucasArts along with Telltale Games.

The game managed to capture all the magic that fans of LucasArts’ previous works loved. In addition, the visuals and writing perfectly captured the essence of the comics, and the game’s tough puzzles had much of the same charm as the classic Monkey Island series.

12 Sam & Max: Beyond Time And Space

Metacritic Score: 75

• Release Date: November 8th, 2007 - April 10th, 2008
• Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 & Nintendo Switch
• Genres: Adventure

Sam & Max: Beyond Time And Space was the second episodic adventure based on the Sam & Max comics. The complete series of five episodes was released for the PC, Xbox Live, and the Nintendo Wii in 2009.

Even though the game ran on the same engine as its predecessor, it featured several improvements, such as smoother animations and more interactivity with the game’s world and its NPCs. Many critics praised the game’s story, with every episode improving upon the quality of the last.

11 Bone: The Great Cow Race

Metacritic Score: 76

• Release Date: April 12th, 2006
• Platforms: PC
• Genres: Adventure

Bone: The Great Cow Race was initially released in 2006 as the sequel to Bone: Out from Boneville from the previous year. The Great Cow Race is based upon Jeff Smith's 1996 comic of the same name and lets players control all three Bone cousins in a similar way to LucasArts' iconic graphic adventure, Day of the Tentacle.

Unfortunately, Bone: The Great Cow Race is over very quickly for a mid-2000s game, with a runtime of just 3 hours. Still, the game is worth checking out for fans of the genre; it crams tons of entertainment into its limited time.

10 Batman: The Telltale Series

Metacritic Score: 64

Batman: The Telltale Series was released in 2016 on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile devices. It was the first game from the developer to feature Crowd Play, which allowed players to get an audience online to help with making decisions in the game’s branching story.

Being a Telltale game, the main draw of playing Batman in this title is the detective and investigation sequences as Batman. However, it's also refreshing to play the story from Bruce Wayne's perspective. This aspect helps show a more human side to the man, which is especially satisfying since fans don't often get to see that in video games. As such, this sets the Telltale Batman game as a fantastic entry in the Dark Knight's library of games, even if some game critics didn't quite agree. Any true Batman fan will find much to enjoy with his Telltale outing.