Murder Mystery Detective Games – Case Files, Puzzles and Mysteries Compared

A case file is a detective game that can downloaded and printable, or bought pre-printed. Players read witness statements, examine evidence photographs, maps, and compare fingerprints to complete objectives and unmask the killer. You sit and a table with your evidence and play. There’s no acting, or dressing up required.

You basically take on the role of a detective and use your logic and the evidence in front of you to make connections between suspects to find out who has means, motive and opportunity to commit the crime. It can be played alone or with a small group. You can’t have 10 people all trying to look at the same page and all shouting over each other. These types of cases are for a max of 4 people.

It’s one of the few games on this list that works well for solo players, and can often be more fun alone.

In a murder mystery dinner party game, you’ll need to assign a character from the game to each one of your guests. Your guest will have to dress up as this character and take on their persona. This is done with character cards that each player has. It will tell them how they know everyone else at the party and what topics they should talk about, and actions they should take over the course of the night. During the evening, one of more of the guests will drop dead, and it’ll be up to all the player (including the deceased) to try and track down the killer.

The host sends character information to all guests before the event so they have time to prepare. Costumes are optional, but they do improve the atmosphere. Every games plays out differently, but with ours, the host will read an introduction out loud explaining how the game works and giving the guests a bit of background. During the night, the host will tap 3 people on the shoulder to inform them that they have been murdered, and that person will have to play out their own death. The host will then “find” evidence on the victim that will help with the investigation. By the time all 3 guests have been murdered, you’ll have a general idea of who could be involved, but you’ll need to talk to everyone at the party in order to be sure.

Every single guest will also have a secret that they’re trying to keep hidden. The evidence and general conversation will make some of these secrets more evident. Players can get points for discovering as many secrets as possible.

These games go by murder mystery puzzle games and escape room games. If you’ve ever been to a real-life escape room, you know what to expect. There are a bunch of puzzles, codes and/or riddles that you’ll need to solve in order to win the game. These games can be bought as digital products that you print out at home, or pre-printed.

Some of these games can be very difficult. The puzzles and the codes are designed to stump you. That’s the whole point of these types of games. If you’re looking for a challening evening, there’s nothing better than an escape room game. They usually don’t have the greatest story, as they’re more focused on the puzzle aspect. This is another format that works really well playing solo. You can play at your own pace and not have to take anyone elses ideas into account.

The term murder mystery puzzle games is very often used to encompass murder mystery case files. The names are used by various companies in different ways. As some case files do include puzzles (as you’ll see in the next section), the naming scheme is still technically accurate.

Escape room hybrids combine the puzzle mechanics of escape room games with a fun and interesting murder mystery story. Players will have to look through tons of evidence and also solve puzzles and codes. While we call all of our games murder mystery case files, they actually fall into this hybrid category.

Most people that enjoy murder mystery case files will enjoy these hybrid cases, but not all escape room fans with enjoy regular case files. It all comes down to the story element. With case files, you’ll have a rich story that keeps you hooked from the start. When you add in a puzzle or secret code, you’re simply expanding the story and the mechanics slightly. But if you’re a fan of escape rooms simply for the love of puzzles, a case file can seem like too much additional reading with far fewer puzzles. It’s a subtraction of the thing you enjoy.

These types of games are also available in both printable and physical formats.

This is the format that most of us grew up with. Games like Clue/Cluedo are the first thing that come to mind. Players take turns rolling dice and moving pieces and trying to find out who killed a character and in which room. This is done by through a process of elimination over many turns. It’s a classic that still fun to play today.

Cluedo has had various iterations since its official release in 1949. It’s still sells very well as a video game for PC.

While you can play solo on PC, in the regular board game version, you will need at least one other person to play against.

A murder mystery riddle is a short crime scenario created to confound and confuse players. You’ll need to think out-of-the-box in order to figure out either who the killer is or how they committed the crime. Riddles are self-contained and takes minutes to solve rather than hours. They are usually used as quick warm-ups before a another longer game, or light entertainment for a group while eating.

You usually don’t need to write anything down in order to solve one. Riddles only have a single correct answer that hinges on one logical observation, like a contradicting statement, an impossibility in the alibi, or a piece of information that rules out every suspect but one. Murder mystery riddles are never a full night activity, but instead used as something to break the ice before a larger event.