Cryptic Killers Unsolved murder mystery game – Cold Case
Cryptic Killers Unsolved murder mystery game – Cold Case Files Investigation – Detective clues/evidence – Solve the crime – Individuals, date nights & party groups – Murder at the Movie Theate
TIME?
We expect this case to take 2 hours to complete and solve.
AGE?
Due to the content of the game, we advise this is suitable for ages 14 and above.
PLAYERS?
This can be played solo, as a couple or distribute the evidence amongst friends and solve as a group.
DIFFICULTY?
We give this a 3.0 difficulty rating out of 5. Found this too hard, or too easy? Then look out for new games in the series with different ratings.
 |  |  |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIFFICULTY | 3 out of 5 | 4.5 out of 5 | 4 out of 5 | 3.5 out of 5 | 4.5 out of 5 | 4 out of 5 |
| DURATION | 2 hours | 3.5 hours | 3 hours | 2.5 hours | 3 hours | 3 hours |
| PIECES OF EVIDENCE | 27 + online evidence | 26 + online evidence | 32 + online evidence | 27 + online evidence | 33 + online evidence | 30 + online evidence |
| NUMBER OF PLAYERS | Individual – Couples – Groups | Individual – Couples – Groups | Individual – Couples – Groups | Individual – Couples – Groups | Individual – Couples – Groups | Individual – Couples – Groups |
| SUITABLE FOR ADULTS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| ONLINE ACCESS (game play / hints / answers) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dimensions: | 33.9 x 27.3 x 1.8 cm; 260 Grams |
| Colour: | Multicolor |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Dimensions: | 33.9 x 27.3 x 1.8 cm; 260 Grams |
Brought for me and my husband. Had a lovely date night in. Was really exciting and thrilling to do! Started at 7:30pmm and finished at 10:15! Can’t wait to buy anthor and work it out again!
Good fun for 3 newbies. I like that it was not a set order of evidence, so you have to piece it all together in your own way. Took us a little over 2h but would easily take less if you are more familiar with the format.
It takes a few hours to get through with 2 people playing. Loads of physical and online evidence provided – keeps you guessing and going through a process of elimination. Second one we’ve done and we love them will definitely be getting through them all
This was our first time trying solve a murder by cryptic killers.
My partner and I both thought it was great fun to solve. We found it was not too difficult or too easy to solve. The level of detail that has been put into the evidence is excellent.
Will definitely try and solve another case soon!
You really have to look at literally every single clue. Took the 2 of us a couple of hours and can’t lie I sneaked a hint but really didn’t need to.
Brilliant couples game, I want anothe
it took me and my brother a little longer that it said it took. but we found it a really fun game and now trying to pick which one we would want to do nex
It was quite challenging in places but this meant it was a full evening of trying to solve the murder. This is now the second one we’ve done & just as enjoyable
Really good fun. My daughter and I did it one rainy afternoon. Takes about 2.5- 3 hours. Biggest advice….find a flat surface and lots of space to spread the pages out.
I did this with my partner and we both loved it. I myself have done two case files previous to this one and enjoyed doing them too. I highly recommend these to anyone over the age of 14 especially couples.
The story was interesting, with multiple possible motives and suspects. We personally like these types of games with more puzzles to solve, but as something different to the ones we normally do, we enjoyed it. We also liked the online bank of addition evidence too.
Bought this for myself and the Fiance to try as a date night.
I was apprehensive as this is my first time playing something like this as it’s not really my thing.
Boy was I wrong, from start to finish this whodunit is absolutely fantastic and drgas you in from the very start til the very end.
Can’t recommend this product enough! Fantastic fun for couples and groups alike.
have done 2 of these and loved them. you do need the online hints or there’s no way of completing it! they are difficult but really fun for a girls night or family ect. only took us an 1hr 15 but we love them xx
10/10 company and case files! , very fun and time consuming. The cases are hard but it gets you roped in and you can’t stop till you find who’s the killer. Done 2 so far and both times we felt like detectives couldn’t recommend more!
This was such an amazing experience for me and my partner, we made an evening out of it and was fully immersed! I plan on getting the other sets as this one was very enjoyable! Great pack and I can’t wait to do another one!
Purchased for my husbands birthday who is obsessed with crime tv. We both had good fun solving the mystery and even the kids (8 & 12 years) joined in here and there. Would recommend as a gift or for anyone wanting something a bit different to do. Will be purchasing other titles.
My wife and I like watching crime programs so this is right up our street, having the chance to solve a murder was a load of fun, took us 2 1/2hrs to solve it. There’s a lot of evidence to get through and keep track of, but it’s great fun. Will definitely try more…..something totally different and well worth doing.
Fabulous dinner party game .After 2 hours , we had started to flag so guessed it, and right !
Quite expensive, but if you write notes, and not on the documents-can pass round family, and all buy a game .Well
worth it.
The website is fab, with the online hints if totally stuck.
A fabulous idea.Totally recommend .Can’t wait for the next one.
Great Game! Loads of fun and really detailed. Highly recommend! We played Murder at the Movie Theatre.
***Spoiler Alert Below**
**Spoiler Alert**
The only issues we found is that the GPS coordinates and Map is confusing and one of the pieces of evidence should never have existed. The police never should have had access to Sheena’s phone conversation with Ms Taylor because they didn’t know who the phone belonged to, unless they had the phone itself, but we are not told that they do unless it was found as the scene of the crime, which we are not told it is.
Aside from that, great game!
My partner and I really enjoyed our bank holiday completing this murder mystery. This was our first experience of a murder mystery so weren’t sure what to expect. We found this super immersive and enjoyed piecing together the varying pieces of evidence to catch our killer(s). We’ve already bought the next one which we will do with friends! Creators are super friendly too – couldn’t rate highly enough!
I enjoyed this little adventure and although it is based on reading quite a bit, it is interesting and entertaining. The working out of coordinates etc specific to this game is also quite good. I personally do not write on the purchased material but make notes as I go along on a PC – this makes replaying the game in the future a possibility.
Good value for money and excellent way to keep your brain working if you have time on your hands.
Did this with the wife, which to most people might sound like torture, but actually was a great bonding experience! She paid me really nice compliments like “you read it out, I can write better than you” and “I’ll read them out, I can read aloud better than you”! I thoroughly enjoyed watching my wife dig through all the evidence, shouting out theory’s at me and daring me to disagree with them! We solved the case in about 1.5 hours which was good considering one of us was basically spectating from a comfortable distance. Definitely advise using a laptop as the extra online evidence is crucial and apparently I’m also unable to use an iPhone as efficiently as my wife required. I’d also advise putting extra water in the kettle for the first boil, as many cups of tea will be needed to fuel this case solving and god forbid you aren’t quite ready with the Tetley. Definitely worth the money, gave my wife the perfect ego boost she didn’t need to believe that she could actually become a detective. I will now live out the rest of my days being reminded at every possible point that she can solve anything.
This is my first case and i throughly enjoyed it, i have bought them all mind. I actually got the killer correct too! The evidence provided is really good quality and you need access to the internet to find more evidence. This was so much fun and I can’t wait to crack open a new case file. Delivery super quick too.
Loved how it came and all the evidence, even enjoy having to unscramble the password at the very get go to be able to use the online part enjoyed the element of it all, easy to get in to the actual case and was able to enjoy time with my partner whilst we try to solve the case, took us just over an hour and half to solve but we both really enjoyed it and will be definitely looking at doing the other cases. The overall game it self was really fun and got us both talking and was good night in. Don’t want to give away to much.
My partner and I had a great time completing our second cryptic killers ‘murder at the movie theatre’. We decided to go for a slightly easier option , after taking considerably longer than suggested to complete ‘murder at Merrivale Manor’! (In our defence, it was our first ever attempt at anything like this, aha). I think we have now got the hang of it, and managed to complete this one in just over 2 hours!
A brilliant idea for date nights, or family nights in! The price you pay is definitely worth it! (A game of bowling for two will cost you the same and last a fraction of the time). If you are careful not to write all over the evidence, you can pass it on to family and friends to have a go too. Will definitely be giving the others a go!
Didn’t know what to expect really as had never played before, I thought it would come with a few documents and some images
This game came with lots of paperwork to read through, a few props to connect with the paperwork and a physical website which assists as an extension of the game which really brings it all together.
It’s very cleverly well made and made us feel very curious for at least 3/4 maybe 5 hours starting after dinner and picking it back up again over breakfast.
Keen to try out more games from this company and other games in this style.
My partner and I are new to this sort of mystery game. We took this one on holiday and found it to be a great activity and a fun way to spend an evening. The writing and production quality are good, it felt like we got something that’s had care and attention put into its creation, so pretty good value for money there. A couple of the points used to eliminate suspects were a little more of a leap than I’d like which is the only minor criticism I’d throw at it, but we were able to check we weren’t missing a trick on the hints website before we submitted our answer. The hints site itself does a good job of giving several hints per investigation thread, from vague pointers through to detailed instructions so will likely do a good job of keeping players on track without immediately spoiling a whole thread.
This worked well for two people, I can see it also being good for solo play or up to maybe four players; any more than that and you may want to look for something a little more structured as there’s no concrete division of labour with this style of game in which you simply pick up any piece of evidence and take whatever approach you see fit to connect the dots. They mark this one as 3/5 difficulty and I’d say that’s about right, you can expect it to take somewhere in the 2-4 hour range to complete. This mystery isn’t replayable but one thing I like about this package is that there’s no destruction or modification of the materials required; they provide suspect note sheets but so long as you have pens and scrap paper for taking your own notes you can complete the entire thing without leaving a mark, meaning you can sell it on or pass it to a friend for them to enjoy.
If you’re curious about this style of game then I’d say it’s a good one to start with, so long as you’re playing in a small group, have space to spread out a bunch of evidence, and have at least one phone or computer you can use to access some internet resources which are a necessary part of the solution.
bought as a gift. After using and playing with it, they let me know they found it great fun. Sent it along with a drink so they enjoyed a nice night!
This game was really fun and was enjoyed by the family. It did take us a lot longer than 2 hours (about 4-5). This was probably as we played with young teenagers. The game is very detailed and has authentic-looking police records as well as multiple forms of evidence.
Overall a very well thought out mystery and lots of fun to play.
This was the first game of this kind we’ve played and it was great fun! Really enjoyed everything about it and well worth the price. Would love to say we got the killer right first time, but we did miss a small (but important) detail, so it was second time lucky!
me and my girlfriend thought this was a fun thing to do while we were away for a few nights, it took us around 3 hours to complete and using the internet database was an amazing experience too! would highly recommend for nights or days in when you wonder what can i do today..
his was our first time trying these and it wont be our last. We really enjoyed this murder mystery game and it made a change from the regular board games we play, we decided to read all the paper evidence first and then look through the online evidence. not sure if we did this in the right order but we were still able to figure out who the killer was. i think it took us around the 2 hours that was advertised but it didnt feel like it as your immersed into reading and cross referencing notes. the only suggestions i would have are to laminate the evidence and provide a dry wipe marker so that we could have done it again with the children on another date. and possible more online evidence with a read aloud function as not all players are good reader and that spoils some of their engagement in the game.
My housemates and I finally got around to solving this murder and we loved it! The pack is very thorough and it’s perfectly complimented by the online prompts. The beauty is you can take as long as you like!
Excellent and very clever game, really well thought out. The extra clues online are very good, nice videos, audio files to help out the pieces of the puzzle together. It took us a couple of hours, and over a beer, is a great way to puzzle!
We played this with some friends and it was an incredible night of fun! I would highly recommend and we will be buying another one! So great guys, Thank you for such a great take on the murder mystery idea, very original and so effective at making anyone feel like a Sherlock style sleuth. Bravo !!!!!
Me and my boyfriend ordered this for a date night in for a rainy weekend. It took us around 3 hours for the two of us to complete and we had so much fun doing it! Everything was very well thought out and put together and it was great working out all the clues and how everything was linked. Everything was well designed and just a fun experience! We can’t wait to order our next one!
This us our 3rd one now as a couple and we love them. Each one is individual in itself and doesn’t use methods from other ones. Great way to spend the evening.
This a great and really fun way to spend a couple hours. All the documents are interesting to read and to piece together the story to find the murderer! Also loved the puzzle and online aspect using video and audio evidence. Highly recommend!
We didn’t know what to expect. I bought this as some fun for my wife and I to do for our wedding anniversary. We both thoroughly enjoyed it, piecing it all together getting the connections etc and the small details you need to look for made it “real”.
We will be buying the others in the next couple of weeks and cracking those ones too
Worth the buy
So much fun !! Bought for my boyfriends birthday ands we were not disappointed. The detail in each piece of evidence was amazing and made the experience so much more immersive. The clues and red herrings were brilliantly done and we second guessed our choices multiple times. Will definitely be purchasing the rest of the cases !!!! 🙂
This was a challenging game, but I loved it. The clues all came together by the end, but enough red herrings that I needed to take a few breaks! It took me much longer than the estimated playing time, but I was working on my own and taking breaks. I might just be bad at this! That had no bearing on the game though, I’m glad it took longer, and I really enjoyed the process. You will definitely need to be able to access the internet for this though, because there are clues you can only get online.
This kept me and my partner entertained for a good few hours, it was bought as a birthday present for him. As the winter nights draw in I think one of these would be perfect for an evenings entertainment, even with a couple of friends too. If you like the idea of trying to be an amateur sleuth, these are well worth a go!! The evidence package is well done, and the online content (access is a must) completes the evidence. Would recommend!
This is the third of these we have done, great to do as a family group or with friends. Each pack we have had has contained an interesting set of evidence with many twists and turns. This time we managed to solve the murder without any additional clues! Everyone can get involved and you can get as carried away as you like! Great pack, something different to do and a fun way to fill a couple of hours. Plus you can keep the pack and pass onto others to solve!
It took us longer to get past the first step to access the website using the password lol liked the idea of the online evidence especially the audio, although was a little overwhelming when trying to match it with the paper content, but was still really good and will purchase more. Took nearly 3 hours to solve. Great fun.
Good way to pass a few hours. Guessed the killer early on but spent time eliminating the others to confirm.
Does say to leave a review tagging them for a discount, but although I did, no discount sent.
Bought this for weekly girls night activity- absolutely amazing only really needed a hint for the password amazing story and all the extra story lines going on too definitely be doing another soon and recommend to everyone!! ( only reason not a 5 star wish the paper evidence was laminated to save from spillages/snacks – so I can keep them going longer)
Great fun with family. We spent the afternoon solving this mystery. The documents and information are fab and very authentic looking. We really enjoyed getting involved and figuring out the clues.
This was the second case we absolutely loved it really got the mind going and was a great activity for me and the husband to do together away from the kids perfect for a little escape from personal reality
Great little Saturday night activity at home. There was a lot of evidence to sift through so it does take time to figure it all out, so you do get your moneys worth. I love the packs these games come in, though I don’t write on them so I can pass it on to someone else to play. The additional evidence you access online adds to the fun of it. Not only are there reports and interviews to read through there are videos and audio files and other bits and bobs. I can’t wait to do the next one!
For someone who loves murder mysteries and whodunnits, these games are truly amazing! Really enjoy going through the evidence and theorising who the culprit.
Great addition to our games nights! I will be purchasing all of them at this rate
We enjoyed the amount of characters and the different types of evidence provided. We enjoyed playing the detective and formulating a plan of how to catch the killer. The evidence is very detailed and all connects well. It was very fun and we were impressed with our first attempt at one of these cases. The only thing is that we were quite quick at working out the murderer once we had read their evidence as it all weighed too heavily against that person.
Fun murder mystery, this is the second pack we’ve completed – and enjoyed them both. A mixture of hard challenges with a few easier to grasp clues, so everyone can have fun playing together. Supported by online portal with hints if you’re really stuck, and some nice video/audio clips in this particular set which were high quality and a nice complement to the other documents.
Overall took us 2 dedicated hours and we had a lot of fun (and stress lol). We actually towards the end thought phew, he do poloc officers do it haha. Hardest part overall for this game was trying to get into the online police evidence. All the evidence and online evidence is so professional and alot harder than what we originally thought it would be. A must do game for any crime fa
I really liked the problem solving and not needing a group to do the challenge. It’s easy to pick it up in your own time/take breaks and it’s a fun challenge trying to figure out timeline based on evidence. Would recommend to anyone that likes a puzzle with a storyline
I bought this because I’d seen it on TikTok! Held off getting one because I was sure it wouldn’t live up to the hype but it really did! We are quite into escape rooms and puzzle games so we weren’t sure how this would compare but we found it just the right level of difficulty- it wasn’t so hard we got stuck but it took us long enough that it felt satisfying to solve. But also I have recommended it to a few of our friends who have never done anything like this before as I think they’d manage it too. Can’t wait to try out more of their sets!!
We enjoyed working out who the killer was this case got your mind working in all different directions using the evidence and statements to help catch the killer!
Only downside is the Internet required to see some of the evidence, if we had no Internet er wouldn’t of been able to dolve the case.
Would definitely do another!
This was a great idea to buy. We used it as one of our date nights and thought it was great fun! Really well thought out and just the right amount of challenging. Particularly enjoyed having all the paperwork sprawled across the floor like proper detectives!
Can’t wait to buy another one for the next date nigh
I opted for this one because it’s meant to be the easier one out of the collection from cryptic killers and as I wanted to do it by myself I didn’t want to set the bar too high.
I had so much fun doing it and found it enticing and interesting throughout. It was fine to do without hints but I did read up on the hints at the end and they don’t give too much away while still being helpful at the same time.
I wanted to find a new way to spend some of my spare time rather than scrolling on social media or binging a show, and I’m glad I’ve found it. I can’t wait to do more, would definitely recommend.
I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys puzzle solving.
Also I wanted to add, I just read the negative reviews and nearly of them missed the point or couldn’t figure out the puzzles so just guessed the killer without doing to process properly. The negative reviews made me laugh because it’s pretty obvious they couldn’t solve some of the basic initial puzzles. A lot a lot if people complained about irrelevant evidence I mean that’s the point you figure out why the evidence doesn’t fit and then eliminate the suspect. It’s not a guessing game it’s putting together alibis for all the suspects and removing them until you find the killer with the motive. I don’t think any of the low reviews hold any water, and we’re just made by people are aren’t very good at puzzles.
After looking on Amazon for some new Escape Room style games, I saw the link to Cryptic Killers and thought ‘why not give it a go’ having never bought a murder mystery style game before. All of the reviews were excellent and they’re all absolutely right, Cryptic Killers is fantastic fun and the investigation really does get you thinking! The evidence is really well thought out and put together, and the additional evidence online is a brilliant addition to add another layer to make the game even more immersive. Simply can’t wait to buy and play another of these fantastic mysteries. Fantastic fun, fantastic value!
Me and my partner absolutely loved this game. We used it for a date night and really enjoyed it. There was so much information to get stuck into and the online evidence like the news report, the voice recording and the interview with the bar owner etc where a really nice touch. There was so much information that seemed to throw a spanner in the works and have you second guessing if you were on the right track. We are definitely going to be getting the other titles in the series for more date nights.
My partner and I love problem solving games and activities that involve puzzles as well as watching crime documentaries. We’d not tried anything like this before but we’ll definitely be checking out others in the series after doing this! This one is rated the easiest of all the cases and we definitely breezed through it and would have liked more of a challenge. BUT we knew the rating when we got it and wanted to try it out and the description of age suitability and time to complete is definitely accurate from my experience. This was a lot of fun and we’re definitely keen for more!
We did notice one mistake in the evidence but it did not affect our experience or the way we approached the case once we realised the error!