This week I have a mystery game for you. The Cold Case: End of the Line game from Thinkfun is an escape room type game where you have to look through the evidence to find the clue to solve the case that has gone cold.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll notice that we love these types of games. We’ve cover the Clue Escape, the Exit line, and the Unsolved Case Files. As well we have the more traditional Murder Mystery games like this and the board game type like Mystery Train. We even have a line of kid escape rooms in the shop. So I think it’s safe to say we’re fans.
Let’s get into this line—without any spoilers!
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The Cold Case: End of the Line Story
In 1961 there was a jewelry warehouse break in that resulted in the death of one of the owners. The thief and murder was caught and sent to prison. But years later when he was nearing his release for his crimes, he is found dead outside the same train station where he was arrested for the original crimes. The case ran cold and now it’s up to you to figure out how the two murders are connected and solve the decades-old murder mystery.
What’s Inside
To start, the first page describes that detectives in the case believe that the two murders are connected and have been thoroughly investigated but the second murder was never solved. It also gives you four questions to answer.
The following documents include police interviews from the 1961 and 1982 case. It has newspaper clippings from both time frames as well as diagrams and photographs. It also contains evidence collected at the scene in the forms of train tickets and a train schedule. As it is a police file, there are also ballistic reports, autopsy reports and a few other reports on the case.
How You Play Cold Case: End of the Line
The way that we go about playing one of these games is that we first each take a piece of evidence and read it. Then we share what each one held with each other. In this case, we decided to look at the papers about the 1961 crime first.
After discussing the evidence and our suspicions we moved on to the files about the second murder.
We read more, looked at the photographs, and other evidence. The whole time we were always thinking of the four questions that were mentioned in the opening letter. We discussed different scenarios and who we thought might be the culprit.
Winning Cold Case: End of the Line
What makes this game fun is that when you think you have the answer to the first question, you go to a website where you are taken to the question. There is a drop down menu of answers. If you choose incorrectly, a popup window shows up explaining that you need to look at certain documents. You can try again. On the other hand, if you have correctly answered the question it congratulates you and leads you to the next question.
When you have answered all of the questions correctly, you win and solve the case.
What We Like
First, we like the overall attention to detail. We like that you have to find the hidden clues (as most or all of these games do). We like the variety of different types of evidence. Best of all we didn’t feel overwhelmed while playing (although we did over think).
Overall it is a well thought out game that wasn’t too difficult or too easy. Some clues and answers were more straight forward and some were trickier—just the right amount.
What We Didn’t Like
First, I want to say that we’re obviously mystery fans—we love a good Hallmark mystery. But that means that we were trying to get clues from everything. And we also assumed that everyone was either lining in there police interviews or at least had the possibility of lying. To say that we over thought it, would be an understatement. I will say that is more on us than on the game.
Next, once we decided that we were thinking too badly of all the suspects and that we could take all the statements as fact, it did go better. But there is a suspect that does lie in their statement. That was frustrating.
Next, there was a piece of evidence that we were convince held the key to the answer but we had no way of getting more info on. It did turn out to be what we tough it was but was looked at as almost an afterthought. But we were able to get the right answer. Again, it might just have been our other thinking.
Should You Add Cold Case: End of the Line to Your Family Game Shelf?
First, this is a one-time only kind of game. But should you make space on your game night? We say yes. If you love puzzles and mysteries, then this is a great game that hits the right amount of difficulty. Just don’t over think things like we did. The fact that you don’t have to destroy anything to play makes this game great for playing and then sharing with a friend.
To get your copy shop here. Canadians can shop here.
If you’re wondering about other escape room / cold case games check out our reviews on The Exit line, The Unsolved Case Files and the Clue Escape games. No spoilers anywhere. And if you’re looking for some puzzling fun for the kids or family game night, check out our Save the Day line of escape rooms where you get to be the hero!
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