Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective - The Thames Murders & Other Cases Board Game - Captivating Mystery Game for Kids & Adults, Ages 14+, 1-8 Players, 90 Min Playtime, Made by Space Cowboys

So so so fun but really hard!!You actually have to focus and think hard about the puzzles

I really love this game and find it unique. The basic mechanism is simple: you are given a case to solve with a brief introduction that already contains many important clues. Then you can gain additional clues by going anywhere on the map (using the directory to look up addresses) or reading the newspaper. If there’s an entry for that location, you read it and hopefully gain some more clues. When you’re ready to solve the case, you turn to the back and see how well you did.What I love about this is that despite the simplicity of the mechanics (which means anyone of any age can play, and I’ve heard about people even playing this in the car, with one person reading the entries), the cases have great depth and nuance. You’ll be discussing the case with your partner (I enjoy playing this two-player) and trying to piece together clues and evaluate theories. Eventually you’ll have enough clues to think of a coherent theory.I’ve played this with my mother, who doesn’t play board games but enjoys watching Colombo and such shows, and it works great. We’ve solved the first two cases with 70 and 85 pts—very respectable scores. Some people find it too hard, but if you are willing to keep investigating, you’ll eventually have plenty of clues. It’s also great that the game allows you to bring in your real world knowledge to help you solve the case: the battle of Trafalgar, the way people smoked cigarettes, etc. The detail is fantastic.The materials are also top notch. Everything looks and feels great. I’m very much looking forward to the future cases and future boxed sets. There’s nothing else I’ve come across that’s quite like this game!

Interesting game. Takes a little getting used to the thought process it wants you to use -- it is helpful if you have read the Holmes stories to understand the style of thinking/inference.

If you are okay reading this is a very detailed engaging mystery to solve! lot's of reading especially aloud if there is someone you are doing it with but is fun to piece it all together and the whole experience was challenging. We got lost a couple times but taking our time we managed to get through it and loved every second of it.

Honestly I don’t know that I’ve ever taken the time to write a positive review but I really feel the need to with this game.I bought it for my birthday to play with my SO and didn’t really know what to expect. But this game is so detailed and in depth and AWESOME!I’ve seen a few reviews of disgruntled people saying you have to jump to crazy conclusions or they’re upset that they can’t beat Sherlock. So far we haven’t had to jump to any crazy conclusions and the solutions have made sense to us and we got them right. Even when we were wrong once the real solution still made sense and made us feel dumb for following the wrong lead for so long and fitting the clues to our theories. Of course Sherlock does everything perfectly and usually figures it out following HALF the leads we do but the rules even say try to beat him if you want but that’s not really the point of the game. The point is to solve the case! And that’s totally possible and so much fun to do. The closest we have come to beating him so far is 85 to 100 but we don’t mind at all. At least we solved the case 100% correctly even if it took us just a bit longer than the famous Holmes 😂Also the game says 90+ minute play time for each case... heavy on the + for us but we go all out. Wear our top hat and detective cap, drink our tea, have our fake pipes, take tons of notes on notepads, etc.

My kids and I play a lot of escape room and cooperative games, and this is by far my favorite. It is very challenging and beating Sherlock Holmes is impossible. So we just try to solve the mysteries (answer all the questions correctly) instead of trying to beat Holmes. We've only played the first few cases, but we've enjoyed them all. Each one has taken 2 to 3 hours. Playing with 1 to 4 people seems to be the best. More than that and I feel like someone will be bored. I played one by myself and missed some clues but still enjoyed it. I think playing with someone else would have been better, but not necessary.The game itself is beautifully made. Even the storage box feels like a better quality than the usual game box. It's pricey, but with 10 cases in it I think it's a great price. If you are gentle with the pieces you can easily pass it on to someone else to play.I'm very excited that there are 3 more boxes to buy! We'll be getting them all for sure! If you are hesitating because this isn't a replayable game, don't! You'll get many hours of fun and I'm sure you won't feel cheated.

For anyone who loves who-dun-it mysteries, this game is a must! Particularly appealing is working with (versus against) your friends to beat Sherlock in solving the mystery. It's not for those who don't want to be fully immersed for several hours in shear, mind-churning, mystery solving. But if that's your thing . . . you'll love it. The amount of detail, complexity, and well thought out clues makes the game incredibly fun to play (and solve). It's not easy, but even coming to the wrong conclusion proves to be enjoyable. There are ten mystery games within the game, so you are bound to have hours and hours of fun!