Unsolved Case Files - Avery & Zoey Gardner
The Game: Unsolved Case Files - Avery & Zoey Gardner
The Creators: Pressman Toys
Age Level: 14 +
Average Completion Time: 180 minutes
Player Count: 1 - 8 People
Type of Box: Single One Story Box
Can it be replayed? Yes! This box can be 100% reset to be replayed again.
Difficulty Level: None Provided
Disclaimer: We purchased this box on our own from Amazon.
Pre-game Research: A cursory glance at reviews promised this box to be multifaceted, complex, and difficult. We were ready to dive in.
Unboxing:
The unboxing of this game was pretty disappointing. For such a large box, once you opened it, all it contained inside was a slim 8 x 10 ziplock bag. Inside the bag were a letter, a detective's notebook, and assorted documents and photos.
Lastly it contained 3 envelopes numbered objectives 1-3.
Synopsis:
Unsolved Case Files is a murder mystery game that lets you solve a fictitious murder investigation just like a detective.
DAVENPORT, OR - At 4:23 this morning, a man broke into a remote lake house where 19 year-old twins Avery and Zoey Gardner were asleep. The unidentified man murdered Avery and abducted Zoey before first responders could arrive.
Police departments across two states are hunting for Avery’s killer and her twin sister Zoey, but neither has been found.
Homicide detective, Angie Cullen, made a breakthrough in the case but then mysteriously disappeared. She left her detective’s notebook behind but authorities aren’t sure what to make of it.
The killer is on the loose. Can you solve the case and get to Zoey, and also find the detective, before it’s too late
CASE FACTS:
• VICTIM: Avery Gardner
• CASE NUMBER: G-668H
• LOCATION: Davenport, OR
This case is unsolved and lives are at stake. Are you ready to take a crack at it?
Storyline:
We found the storyline to be cohesive and when played right, you didn't have to question your instincts and answers. We did feel it lacked a lot of personal interaction. Very short interviews, and suspects clearly defined for you in the beginning which did a lot of the work of eliminating half of the characters right off the bat. For a case involving a murder and a kidnapping, we felt it was a little lackluster.
Gameplay:
After reading the introductory letter, the game is completely open for you to review things in the order you choose. Your primary goal is to answer the question on the Objective 1 envelope. Once you do this, you get your next objective and finally the 3rd.
As we dove into the clues, we reviewed photos, business cards, police reports, and the detective's notebook. We found the notebook to be long winded and a poor attempt at lengthening gameplay just by giving more content to read that wasn’t necessarily valuable.There was no audio/visual aspect which we found disappointing after experiencing the chilling recordings companies like Hunt A Killer offered.
The one thing we did enjoy was the online aspect. Most business cards had a phone number to contact and a website which we were able to visit and look over. This was perhaps the most interactive and fun piece of the entire box.
Difficulty:
I think the cohesiveness of the storyline may have done the game a disservice because we were able to figure out Objective 1 within 45 minutes. From there the last 2 objectives for us, were common sense answers. We opened the final envelope in 10 minutes, ultimately finishing the game in just under an hour.
On our scale, this ranks a 1 out of 5 for difficulty.
Final Thoughts:
We had high hopes for this game out of the gate, but in the end we were disappointed at the ease of completion. Ages 14 and up is pretty liberal. Mike said “this could easily have been done by a 10 year old”. With that in mind, I’m also compelled to mention that there is no way this game can be played by 8 people. We feel this is a 2 player max game. It would also be reasonable to say solo play is entirely possible. To elaborate further on the included content, while there were a decent amount of documents and pictures and such to review, the real let down was the detective's notebook. It was very long winded and took me as long to read the notebook as it took Mike to read everything else in the box. It is also important to note this brand of games does not have any puzzles or ciphers, so it really is a game of logic alone. There was also very little immersive effect. Instead of feeling like we were part of an investigation, it more felt as though we were going through the motions to complete the game. Once we did it was very anticlimactic. We spent no more than a minute discussing the game when we completed it, only commenting that we guessed it was over with an obvious tone of disappointment.
In conclusion, despite a promising storyline, good reviews, and a good amount of original online content, this was ultimately a predictable let down.
Our Completion Time: 55 minutes
Our Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 - We would not invest in other games from this series.
Where To Get It: Want to play this game? Here’s where to buy it!
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