There are a ton of home mystery games nowadays, much to my delight. They range from escape room inspired stuff like the Exit series, to competitive mysteries like Watson & Holmes and Kronologic to more real life detective simulations like Detective and Guilty.
Here’s a SPOILER FREE look at an entree from a series that looks to emulate investigating cold cases.
This is the first Cryptic Killers game I’m writing about, but I’ve played several. This series is very much in the “real life detective simulation” category, and the premise has players taking the role of consultants reviewing evidence in an unsolved murder case.
So the entire game is a folder of documents to peruse. There’s extensive printed material as well as heavy integration with online elements, all presenting a mystery to be solved by teasing out what happened and who had (and who didn’t have) motive and opportunity.
There’s good depth to the included materials. Photos of suspects and ancillary items (like a show poster for this case) add immersion. Witness statements, newspaper clippings, and things like blueprints or other case specific evidence make the bulk of the material players will peruse.
There’s also usually some sort of online portal players will have to solve a puzzle to access, which then provides more documents, videos, and/or other additional evidence. As well as possibly other internet elements.
This is very much a “what you expect is what you get” type of game. It’s a mountain of evidence to read and sift through to solve a mystery. If that sounds intriguing you’re in the right place. If it sounds like a chore I’d recommend more puzzle forward mystery games such as the numerous escape room inspired game series.
Games like this hinge entirely on the strength of the mysteries themselves. This one in particular I really enjoyed, and this series in general is quite solid. The theme here was another positive, as I like magic and the premise of solving the murder of a magician killed during a show was intriguing. I got hung up on one small element for a little while where I inferred more than what was intended into a clue, but overall everything fit together well and the mystery was logical and well presented.
Another interested aspect of this type of game is there is leeway in the order of investigation and that can affect the experience in small ways. For example since I just happened to leave a certain document for last, by the time I read it I had puzzled out some information I assumed had to be deduced that was actually straight up given to me. It was actually pretty cool that things were so well flushed out the information could be pieced together.
I’ve played Murder of a Magician solo but have also played some with a small group. There’s a lot to look at and no set order to investigate so it worked well either way. Solo I made my through the investigation as I saw fit, while with others we each grabbed different documents to start with and exchanged/discussed/helped each other as we went.
These are fully resettable (unless you decide to makes notes, etc) as it’s essentially a stack of paper that just has to be put back into the folder. So it can be passed on for others to play.
I enjoy this series quite a bit and intended to play them all. Murder of a Magician in particular is one of my favorites and is highly recommended.
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