Murder of a Marine Biologist

My partner and I (both in our early 30s) enjoy doing these sorts of murder mystery packages together for date nights, and this was our first "Cryptic Killers" box. We really enjoyed it!The story was fun and I liked the mix of some puzzles with a lot of logical thinking and piecing things together. We talked through a lot of stuff together, which is always fun when you're doing these as a pair/group. We also thought everything was fair -- no wide leaps in logic or any guessing games were needed on our end. Everything made sense when we connected the right clues together. The documents were also well-made overall (some typos here and there, but nothing major) and high-quality.We read through everything and this ended up taking us a few hours over a couple of nights, so it was totally worth the money.The ONLY thing is we would have loved it if it was all on paper with no real online elements -- this game has a few online clues/pieces of evidence and we didn't have a laptop with us when we did it, so we were having to read them on our phones. It wasn't a huge deal, and mostly a personal preference.We'll be getting more of these in the future for sure!

This was so fun for date night. It wasn’t too easy but also not so hard we couldn’t solve it. 10/10 recommend!

Fantastic! Mind altering! Makes you think!

We have done a few of these case files and this one was tricky—in a good way! Ciphers, fingerprint comparisons, and hidden details. We really enjoyed this case and it took us a couple of hours to dig through all the evidence and prepare the answers to each objective.Cons we disliked about this one specifically: the amount of internet use age required. There are emails and websites to check for information, and we ended up printing them because we wanted everything to be available in front of us, rather than going back and forth between phones and papers to compare evidence. We prefer everything we need prepped and in front of us as we open each envelope. Also, figuring out the ciphered letter required more scrap paper than we’re used to!I’d say this one was also organized differently than ones we’ve done in the past, with a lot of information/documents from the “part one” envelope being much more important in “part two” than others we have done. Going back and forth isn’t as ideal, but more “realistic” as a detective, so that could vary as a pro or con for others.We definitely enjoyed this one as a challenge for people who have done multiple similar case files before. Definitely would not recommend for beginners, but experienced players. However, if you really want to START with this one, be prepared to look everyWHERE. But I won’t give it away.

I absolutely love these. It was easy to follow and fun for all ages. If you really like murder mysteries. I recommend these.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:These are our hands down favorite brand of crime scene mysteries. This is our 2nd favorite; the first being Murder at Merivale Manor. This mystery required deciphering coded messages. Internet is needed for extra evidence. There is a play on words a few times that’s fun. There are hints if one gets stuck, but we live to go back after we finish to see if there was a clue or interpretation we didn’t consider. Always so much fun. Lots of cool evidence and the story eventually all comes together. Few hours of fantastic family fun that really lets everyone participate. Most times there is some sort of decoding to be done which we love. Consistently great mysteries with great stories, great clues that are just challenging enough to put together, and great characters. Very well written and always all the information one needs to solve the mystery. We have 6 who play together, 2 adults & 4 18 year olds.

This was a very fun game. I would definitely buy more. Very good idea for a weekend in.

Our Family has enjoyed escape room, logic puzzles and mystery games for many years. We discovered Cryptic Killers fairly recently and have played 5 of them so far. Each one had been varied in story, clues and characters, so they are always fresh and challenging. It takes us (2 twenty somethings and 2 sixty year-olds ) about 2 to 2.5 hours to get through all the information and puzzles. Some, like this one has two steps with separate packets to be open in succession as the game proceeds. I recommend using a laptop for the online information as it is easier to read than on a phone, but it can be done. The materials are plentiful and of good quality - except the CCTV shots that are always just a little too grainy or dark - Mostly, purposefully, but still a bit too hard to make out, even for the younger two. We thoroughly enjoy these games and look forward to the next challenge!