Murder of a Marine Biologist

My partner and I (both in our early 30s) enjoy doing these sorts of murder mystery packages together for date nights, and this was our first "Cryptic Killers" box. We really enjoyed it! The story was fun and I liked the mix of some puzzles with a lot of logical thinking and piecing things together. We talked through a lot of stuff together, which is always fun when you're doing these as a pair/group. We also thought everything was fair -- no wide leaps in logic or any guessing games were needed on our end. Everything made sense when we connected the right clues together. The documents were also well-made overall (some typos here and there, but nothing major) and high-quality. We read through everything and this ended up taking us a few hours over a couple of nights, so it was totally worth the money. The ONLY thing is we would have loved it if it was all on paper with no real online elements -- this game has a few online clues/pieces of evidence and we didn't have a laptop with us when we did it, so we were having to read them on our phones. It wasn't a huge deal, and mostly a personal preference. We'll be getting more of these in the future for sure!

These mystery games are tons of fun and make for a great date night idea!

This is my second review for the wonderful and amazing Cryptic Killers games! Again, this game just BLOWS me away. Everything is so well constructed, easy to understand (minus some challenging puzzles of course!) and easy to read through. Everything is exciting and I truly felt like a detective! This case follows the murder of Trudy Erhardt, a Marine Biologist at the University of Brisbane. She discovers some pretty hinky stuff happening and is silenced for it. You're tasked with finding out the true killer among a large list of suspects, including the decedent's brother. This case is split into two parts, requiring internet access to be able to lock your answer in for Part One in order to head to Part Two. Another beautifully constructed murder mystery game and I cannot wait to start the next!

We have done a few of these case files and this one was tricky—in a good way! Ciphers, fingerprint comparisons, and hidden details. We really enjoyed this case and it took us a couple of hours to dig through all the evidence and prepare the answers to each objective. Cons we disliked about this one specifically: the amount of internet use age required. There are emails and websites to check for information, and we ended up printing them because we wanted everything to be available in front of us, rather than going back and forth between phones and papers to compare evidence. We prefer everything we need prepped and in front of us as we open each envelope. Also, figuring out the ciphered letter required more scrap paper than we’re used to! I’d say this one was also organized differently than ones we’ve done in the past, with a lot of information/documents from the “part one” envelope being much more important in “part two” than others we have done. Going back and forth isn’t as ideal, but more “realistic” as a detective, so that could vary as a pro or con for others. We definitely enjoyed this one as a challenge for people who have done multiple similar case files before. Definitely would not recommend for beginners, but experienced players. However, if you really want to START with this one, be prepared to look everyWHERE. But I won’t give it away.

Why did you pick this product vs others?: These are our hands down favorite brand of crime scene mysteries. This is our 2nd favorite; the first being Murder at Merivale Manor. This mystery required deciphering coded messages. Internet is needed for extra evidence. There is a play on words a few times that’s fun. There are hints if one gets stuck, but we live to go back after we finish to see if there was a clue or interpretation we didn’t consider. Always so much fun. Lots of cool evidence and the story eventually all comes together. Few hours of fantastic family fun that really lets everyone participate. Most times there is some sort of decoding to be done which we love. Consistently great mysteries with great stories, great clues that are just challenging enough to put together, and great characters. Very well written and always all the information one needs to solve the mystery. We have 6 who play together, 2 adults & 4 18 year olds.

I absolutely love these. It was easy to follow and fun for all ages. If you really like murder mysteries. I recommend these.

This was so fun for date night. It wasn’t too easy but also not so hard we couldn’t solve it. 10/10 recommend!

Our Family has enjoyed escape room, logic puzzles and mystery games for many years. We discovered Cryptic Killers fairly recently and have played 5 of them so far. Each one had been varied in story, clues and characters, so they are always fresh and challenging. It takes us (2 twenty somethings and 2 sixty year-olds ) about 2 to 2.5 hours to get through all the information and puzzles. Some, like this one has two steps with separate packets to be open in succession as the game proceeds. I recommend using a laptop for the online information as it is easier to read than on a phone, but it can be done. The materials are plentiful and of good quality - except the CCTV shots that are always just a little too grainy or dark - Mostly, purposefully, but still a bit too hard to make out, even for the younger two. We thoroughly enjoy these games and look forward to the next challenge!

This is the perfect gift for any friend/relative who enjoys crime investigations and detectives! We completed this together, it was challenging whilst fun. The hints offered useful help where necessary. The gameplay took longer than advised however was our first Murder Mystery. Great quality of materials makes it more realistic and worthwhile the money. My friend has since purchased more!

Was super fun, definitely needed brain power lol

If you ever played game of this sort you will be heavily dissapointed. The case file consists only of 2 folders with paper hints, nothing much else. The riddle is written very poorly, and the main difficulty is not in solving it but undertanding what the creator had in mind. I agree with other people being dissapointed in the clues not leading you in an organised way to a conclusion - after all you have only 2 tasks. Only will give one extra star for the print quality, as it wasnt bad at all, but its only because it wasnt terrible. Will definitely not buy any more games from this author as its very dissapointing - 'detective for a day' stories are much much better.

Had a blast solving this mystery! It took us the recommended amount of hours to finish it, but it was so engaging you couldn't stop. The time just flew by because we didn't want to stop and lose our traction. The pack provided (and the packaging looked super nice) had so much information in it from different parts of the investigation process which made it all the more fun. Would absolutely recommend this game to others, excellent work by the creators!

More fun than a board game. Immersive design. So much fun. Everything is designed to make you feel like you are in the game. Photos on photo stock, newspapers, tickets, reports - all done to be as realistic as being part of the police department.