Cold Case Crackers | Murder Mystery Game | 12th Street Theater Case | Can You Crack The Case?

I loved this case. Was great for a good hour and a half of fun. The case made a lot of logical sense. And I got that great aha feeling as soon as I put the clues together. Not too difficult or graphic (mentions of an affair, as well as a fairly brief mention of the method of murder) Probably okay for kids around 13+ , although I'd definitely have them play with an adult. Or even maybe an adult playing "lead detective" who has already solved the case. But also awesome for adults. I probably wouldnt play with more than 2 people total. Maybe 3 if you are new to these types of games. But this is easily solvable by a solo player. Only negatives are one or two phases of the case were a little shorter than I would have liked. (I was having so much fun I wanted to keep sleuthing) The hint system isn't quite robust enough. There appeared to be only one hint per phase. And the one time I needed it it told me to do something I had already been doing. Finally the voice acting in the final interview with the killer was quite cheesy. I definitely get that professional actors were not available , but honestly most of the problem was the lines that were written for them to say , and not how they said them (because they honestly did a decent job). I just think when writing that final scene it felt like the writer forgot that this scene was gonna be heard and not read like the rest of the case. But it by no means took away from the victory and was still a nice little reward for all the hard work

If you love solving mysteries, this game is for you. You really feel like a detective, and it's a good difficulty. Three of us solved it in about 2.5 hours. After opening it and reading the instructions, you will find a folder of evidence. It's a bit overwhelming at first because of how realistic it is. You have a pile of evidence to parse through such as call logs, police interview transcripts, newspaper articles, and more. They have a unique take on the structure for a mystery game. It is divided into phases with a clear goal for each phase. Each phase brings a few new items into evidence as well. Considering how much raw information there is in the evidence, the clear goals were helpful to keep us on track to solving the mystery. You check your answer to each phase online, which makes it impossible to accidentally see the solution. But if you have to play without Internet access, you'll just have to assume you got it right and move on. If you get stuck, they've provided a "tip-line" website which will give specific hints. Also you can check a solution to a phase online to rule something out. This game could work well with both larger and smaller groups. It's easy to split up and rotate the evidence around so everyone can be looking at something. It's a single case in the pack, so I'm excited for the next one to come out! You can tell a lot of work goes into the detail of the case, so I guess that's why they don't have a lot yet. Overall, it's an engaging game that's fun for the whole family.

This is the first mystery game I have ever played and it was great fun! My husband and I played a little each night and probably spent about 3-5 hours on it total. You could easily play this by yourself or with more people. The storyline was well-written, the evidence was interesting, realistic and well-designed, and it obviously took a lot of thought and time to develop this game. I liked the concept of the 4 phases you work through as it leads you to solving the mystery without overwhelming you with all the clues at once. I was disappointed at first that you need to go online to verify your theory for each phase (I bought this as an alternative to tv or screentime) but I actually ended up liking that part. When we guessed wrong on an answer, verifying online told us we were wrong without giving away the right answer. I also enjoyed how one of the of the clues requires you to look online as it made it feel more realistic. I plan on buying another cold case crackers mystery and hope the creators keep developing more.

I purchased this game after playing a very similar game from another company. I did not realize that I was purchasing from a different company as they looked very much the same. These games are very fun if you enjoy solving cases. You do have to read a lot and really think. The reason I gave it a four is simply because I liked the first game we played from a different company. The first case was more challenging and extremely rewarding when finished. I found this case to be rather easy and we solved it in about an hour. The last task took my daughter less then a minute to solve. Therefore I recommend this case if you are a beginner at these time of criminal case solving games. The material is of good quality, though some of the handwriting that was used to simulate different people writing was a little hard to read. I still struggle with the price of these games, while the price is cheaper then maybe an escape room with multiple people which isn't the same concept but the best thing I could compare it too. The price is hard to swallow when you can only play once. The best thing to do is get several people to chip in for the game so you can pass it on to the next group of people when you are done. Definitely still a fun game!

Cold Case Cracker is a fun and challenging murder mystery game where players analyze clues and evidence to solve a crime. Engaging gameplay, great for individuals, date nights, or parties.

We had a Girls Night In & played the 12th St Theater Murder Mystery Game. We had been on a cruise & liked the murder mystery game we played then so we decided to buy & give this one a try. It was four of us, two of us actively played (aka the other two became...a little under the influence lol). We solved it within an hour or so. That was fine with us. We didn’t want it to be so hard that we were up all night solving it, nor did we want to solve it within 30mins because of it being easy. So, it worked out perfectly! If you’ve never done one, I’d say this is a good starter game. Keep in mind that’s it’s not reusable so after you solve it, it’s best to regift to someone. Overall, I think the value is there if you’re able to, at the least, regift it. I could possibly even host a family game night & just moderate/host the game lol.

Well, it's good for beginners or for kids, I guess. I started with another brand and decided to try branching out because the other brand was producing limited batches due to a COVID-19 company slowdown. I've done two cases with the other company so I can't help but compare... and I found this case a bit campy. There's a few audio clips they provide online that are a bit cringey for an adult to listen to, though I bet an elementary or maybe even a middle schooler would find them exciting and cool. The interviews made me very conscious of how fictional this all was, around the writing level of the Bailey School Kids or the Boxcar Children. But I could've looked past all that if the 4 mysteries you needed to solve (which build on each other, can't be solved independently) weren't so straightforward. The questions basically tell you where to look for something suspicious, so I ended up solving the entire thing alone in about half an hour while chugging a beer. So enjoyment level: frankly, one star. Immersion: half a star. Disappointed. But I also felt that I wasn't their target audience, so cutting them a break and adding two stars to make it a "if it floats your boat". I would've loved the fingerprint-matching gimmick when I was 9.

Wow. Found a review that is over a year and a half old as of this writing which mentions a mistake that prevented the reviewer from solving the mystery. Here I am a year and a half later and my mystery has a mistake that nearly kept my wife and I from solving the mystery. I won't go into details as I don't want to ruin the mystery for others who might not have a kit that's screwed up like ours was. There are hints available and after listening to the hint, we realized that the kit maker had screwed up this critical part of the mystery. Anyway, my wife and I got to spend some great time together on a really arctic cold winter day, so you still get 2 stars. I should ask for a refund, this thing was "broken" and it cost a fair amount of money. I can provide details of the error if the game maker would like to reach out to us. But since I see that there were errors a year and a half ago, and that there are still errors in it a year and a half later, I doubt that they care enough to do so. EDIT- I sent a note to the seller and they could not have been nicer. They sent me a replacement mystery right away. So yeah, I was initially not happy with my purchase, but the seller's willingness to make things right really won me over. I'll leave a review on the replacement game that they sent me once Detective Wifey and I crack the case.

It was a fun purchase ! We got everything we needed , unlike other reviewers stated we weren’t missing anything and it was challenging but fun we were able to solve on a cold Sunday in October !

Claro que nos gustó y obvio que ganamos pero la fase 3 está medio rara! Ahora que pienso en retrospectiva está muy caro. Resolveremos otro pq ya lo compré pero viendo lo que es no volvería a pagar eso por estos juegos. Pagaría la mitad.

My daughter liked this product. She is taking her time in solving the mystery but she brings it out every now and then. It’s a good gift for those who like to solve problems.

Had a blast playing this. Perfectly for game night. Only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars? It’s a little pricey