Online cold case files vs boxed kits like Unsolved Case Files and Hunt A Killer: price, waiting, hints, group play and replay. What each does better.
The boxed case-file game is a good idea. Someone prints a realistic dossier, seals the solution, and you spend an evening at the kitchen table finding the killer. Unsolved Case Files made the format popular; Hunt A Killer turned it into a subscription with episodes; smaller publishers followed. We play them too. Here is where the browser version is different, and where it is not.
Paper. Spreading forty documents across a table and moving them around is a genuine pleasure that a phone cannot fully copy. Boxes also make good gifts, and the tactile props, a matchbook, a photograph with writing on the back, are memorable.
| Online case file | Boxed kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting | None | Shipping, and stock |
| Price | Free to $9.99 per case | $30 to $40, more for episodic subscriptions |
| Group play | Each player has the whole file on their own phone; room of up to eight | One copy, passed round; someone is always waiting for a page |
| Hints | None, by design | Sealed hint envelopes, which most tables open |
| Remote friends | Join with a code from anywhere | Not practical |
| Replay | Host it for a new group | Buy it again |
Boxed kits include hints because a publisher cannot see you get stuck and a frustrated customer returns the box. We made the opposite choice. There are no hints on this site, no detective's notebook that summarises the evidence, no bold text. If the file is fair, and we check that it is, the solution is reachable from the documents alone, and getting there yourself is the whole point. If you are stuck, the honest answer is to reread the records folder.
If you want a present or a table full of paper, buy a box. If you want to play tonight, play with people in three cities, or play six times a year without spending two hundred dollars, play online. Start with our free case, which costs nothing and takes an evening.