Cold Case: End of the Line review – This case is closed

We’d all like to think we could solve a crime mystery, particularly those cold cases we hear about on the television, however not everyone can be a detective — well, until now. Developer Thinkfun has come up with a way for fans of crime dramas and murder mysteries to feel like they’re stepping into the shoes of a detective who is trying to solve one of the department’s cold cases. In Cold Case: End of the Line, you’re trying to solve the mystery behind two murders that are 20 years apart, connected by a jewelry heist gone wrong. The police never found the culprit(s). Can you?

The Cold Case games, of which there are three, can be played either solo or with friends if you want to combine brainpower. I chose to go at it alone, testing my own skills of reasoning, investigation, comprehension, and more, as I tried to piece together the puzzle of the two murders. I was presented with a simple manila folder full of documents, photographs, and other items to peruse. There’s no real setup or teardown, there’s no rules, or anything else like that. You take this file and its contents and try to figure out what happened. When you think you have the answer, if you think you’ve cracked the case, you head over to thinkfun.com/coldcase to submit your answers to the many questions being asked.

I love how simple this is. Inside the folder you’ll find news clippings, photographs, police interviews of suspects and other individuals, and more. Keep in mind, this is a lot of reading, so it can be a bit of a mind slog trying to get through it all. I quickly became captivated as I started digging through the evidence, noticing the little connections here and there, seeing the possible motives, and also the gaps in peoples’ stories. I immediately singled out individuals who I thought were the most suspect and then I tried to work out the hows of their involvement. Not to brag or anything, but I solved the case after only an hour or two of sleuthing. I submitted my evidence online, which confirmed my suspicions.

When you go to thinkfun.com/coldcase, first it will ask for the case number, which can be found at the top of multiple documents within the folder. Once you’ve entered the case number, you start making your submissions to each of the questions asked; who killed who, how it all started, and why was there evidence missing from the first murder? After answering each question, you are met with a response that indicates whether or not your submission was correct. However, fret not, if you are incorrect, you can simply go back through the evidence and resubmit your answers.

The Cold Case games are simple one-and-done ventures, however, while there is zero replayability once you have solved the case, it’s the perfect kind of game to pass on to a friend or family member to see if they can figure it out. As I mentioned before, I was able to solve the case within an hour or two, making the game great for parties and get-togethers. These games are particularly fun for those who love a good mystery, and I’d even venture to say that fans of escape rooms and puzzle solving would enjoy this as well.

The design and packaging are as simple as the game itself. The box it comes in isn’t the most durable, but there are no breakable parts to worry about. The packaging artwork is eye-catching, showcasing the theme of this particular case as well as a short description on the back/bottom of the case you’ll be solving.

Everything inside is of the quality you would expect for a pile of papers and photos. While there are no official rules, the very first page serves to introduce you to the case and provides a list of the contents that you’ll be viewing. (If anything is missing, you are instructed to reach out for replacements at no additional cost. Can’t solve the crime if you don’t have all of the evidence, after all.)

The photographs are on actual photograph paper, documents from 20 years ago feel a little more fragile and are discolored due to ‘aging’ to help signify the passing of time, and everything is well organized and easy to read. The only detail that I wish they would have put more into is the newspaper clippings. They aren’t printed on newsprint paper, which I feel would have been a cool detail to add.

The developers wanted to make sure no one ever felt the case would result in another dead end. Everything that is included is meant to make you circle back, eventually pointing out the answer. It would be a fair assessment to say that Cold Case: End of the Line is not a difficult case to solve. You can pick it up on Amazon for just $15-ish, and once you’ve cracked this case, you can snag the other two, Cold Case: Murder with Interest and Cold Case: A Story to Die For, from Amazon for only $15.99 (USD) each.

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