I enjoy a good puzzle every once in a while. I love being challenged by interesting mysteries and well-made clues to follow. I also enjoy role-playing and getting into fun characters and weird situations. With all that said, it makes me sad that a game specifically designed to cater to players who enjoy puzzles and mystery-type games left me so unsatisfied in the end and with how the mystery played out.
Crimes & Capers: And The Winner Is…DEAD is a cooperative murder mystery game that needs to be played with four to six players. There are several different games in the Crimes & Capers series, but they all have a similar setup. Each player receives a character and some notes about them and specific information that can help solve the mystery. There are some general puzzles as you’d find in an escape room and other puzzles that are more about gathering information and facts as players discuss the events of the night. Dressing up and taking part in the theatrics of the game is encouraged and can add a lot of fun for sure. I think the concepts are creative and fun to have in a simple box, but the execution of it all gets a bit rough.
I was happy with most of the puzzles, but some of them felt too sporadic and relied too heavily on players randomly throwing things together or looking at specific things from a certain perspective to be understood. It is an interesting idea to have players have their own information to share with other players, but because there are no competitive incentives, i.e. one player being the murderer, then the character sheets and information really don’t matter after the first couple of minutes. The major mechanics as a whole are fine, but more refinement is needed.
The biggest problem with the game was that the ending was terribly unsatisfying. I understand that red herrings and misleads are common, but after we had put all the pieces together, the end reveal seemed terribly disconnected and slightly unfair to us as players. We tried to stay as close to the facts as possible, but the ending relied on a number of assumptions and generalizations instead of sticking to what we had known according to our information. If your group of friends really enjoy getting into the spirit of murder mysteries and want to do an escape room-type puzzle, then this could easily be perfect for you. Be warned though that some of the things might not completely add up from beginning to end.
