Mystery Suspects / Cold Case Detective games: 5 quick spoiler-free reviews (4k)

A discussion of a sub-genre of detective tabletop game and brief spoiler-free reviews of 5 representative games: Fire in Adlerstein, Death in Antarctica, Unsolved Case Files: Harmony Ashcroft, Cold Case Files: A Story to Die For, Murder Mystery Party: Underwood Cellars.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Start of video
0:40 - Discussion of genre
13:32 - Review of IdVenture Detective Stories Fire in Adlerstein and Death in Antarctica
19:50 - Review of Unsolved Case Files: Harmony Ashcroft
26:22 - Review of Cold Case Files: A Story to Die For
29:34 - Review of Murder Mystery Party: Underwood Cellars
33:39 - Final thoughts

[timothywatt]

Awesome review of these cold case detective games! These are the type of mystery games that I’ve always wanted, but didn’t know existed. I’m currently playing the online version from Cold Case Inc., but I also want to buy the ones from Unsolved Case Files.

I never cared for the mystery genre before, until I was called for jury duty. Now I’m obsessed with true crime and murder mystery. These games mimic what a real-life detective, or juror does: going through every piece of evidence, documents, witnesses, etc and determining who committed the crime.

[Bot]

I have always skipped these beacuse they felt too simplistic, but it is interesting to hear that there is a substantial quality difference between series. Will be trying out the iDventures for sure. Looking these up, I also stumbled upon Cold Case Investigation Unit (seemingly also called The Detective Project for some reason), written by a former UK police detective. Don't think you covered that one, but it would be interesting to hear where it places on this list.

[tempusavatar]

Thanks for the video.
My wife and I played 'Cold Case Files: A Story to Die For, ' and had a lot of fun. Something to consider regarding these reviews: Cold Case Files has a price tag of half of what the Unsolved Case Files games are going for. For $20 CAD we had a fun date night at home, maybe if we try one of the Unsolved Case Files in the future we'll be able to compare the value of fun/quality compared to the price tag.

[lalavelazquez]

I would love for you to do hunt a killer review, you can get either a 1 episode box or a monthly subscription, usually 6 monthly boxes on each cas, or you can get all 6 boxes for older cases at one time, i like them

[jaynejeapes]

i have played two in the unsolved case files and the jamie banks one was harder. it just depends what you find early on in the case. i enjoyed both and will be purchasing more in that range.

[dorpth]

I've only played the Unsolved Case Files out of these. I mostly enjoy them, but I do have a recurring complaint. While I like the IDEA of the envelopes with shifting objectives and story, I feel like they make it too easy. Once you find the answer to the first question and open an envelope, you're usually presented with one new piece of evidence. That new evidence is always THE key to the next envelope, and you usually know exactly the one thing to look at to quickly get the answer. Hypothetical example: you'll get a newspaper article about "Bob Smith". You go over all the documents for mention of Bob Smith. Once you find it, you know for certain that one piece is going to be the answer to the next envelope, and it's not that hard to see how in the context of applying the new piece of envelope evidence.

So all the difficulty is frontloaded with the starting document dump. I guess you could make the argument that it's all the dominoes falling into place, but it never felt like that. It feels like someone forcibly grabs your hand and leads you straight to the solution after only solving the initial question. A lot of time, the only reason we solved some stuff on our own was KNOWING what was in the envelope was a neon sign pointing straight to the answer and ignoring everything else. Considering most of the envelopes follow the pattern of 1. Prove this one person didn't do it 2. Prove this person is lying 3. Prove the liar committed the murder, it means you're almost coasting on auto-pilot after eliminating just one suspect.

[leda]

Hello ! Are the games role play games? Like do you have personality cards that you give to the players before the game or are all just detectives ? I’m looking for an interactive game where everybody has a role they have to play. Thanks 🙏

[michaeldeleo]

Any recommendations on a good murder mystery game where the players are the suspects, rather than the players being the detectives?