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

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!

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

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.

I have wanted to try the murder mystery games for a long while but could not see spending $30-$50 for one evening of play. When I saw this one had TEN cases to solve, I pulled the trigger (see what I did there?). I played the first case with my parents and my brother (my brother and I are late 40s) and it was the most fun that I have had in a long while! It was challenging but not crazy hard. It was easy to follow and the clues, written in old English are sometimes hysterical (I had no idea what a "peccodillo" was). We played the second case with my parents and my niece (late 20s) and it was equally fun! Once you get started, the play is very logical. I also love that the game can be gifted to someone else because it is not consumable and there are no small pieces to be lost. SO MUCH FUN!One pro tip: it is much easier to keep track of everything with a couple of pieces of paper and a pen.

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!

I've been drooling over getting this for some time. It did not disappoint. Reminds me of a choose your own adventure but with red herrings/time wasting that if you play against the point system adds an element of urgency and careful planning. You can ignore this and play without points and still have an enjoyable experience unravelling the story/crime in a relaxed manner. I definitely recommend taking notes. It is time consuming and if you are not a reader than this will probably not be your cup of tea. But for those that enjoy an in depth interactive read than this game is for you.

Not sure what I expected with this, but very interesting game style. Felt more like a cooperative book telling a story that we were all weighing in on rather than a traditional cooperative board/card game. So far we've taken on a single case and it was pretty clear, having started the game without a summary or video tutorial, that only some of our players were really having fun with it. The discussion among the group was entertaining, but at a certain point, you're either in agreement or chasing false leads. Definitely recommend assigning roles and having an overall leader that keeps everyone focused. We didn't understand that you achieved a higher score with correct predictions with the fewest interviews/character witnesses. As a result, we got as much info as we could and, as you can imagine, came up with the answer without much of an "AH-HA" moment at the end. Our own fault. Be sure your entire party are on board for a lot of reading/dialogue and you'll likely have a blast.