Joy Swift's Murder Mystery Investigations - "Cold Case #2: Family Ties"
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Joy Swift's Murder Mystery Investigations - "Cold Case #2: Family Ties"

Updated: 4 days ago


Photos above are property of Joy Swift's Murder Mystery Investigations

Company: Joy Swift's Murder Mystery Investigations

Games: Cold Case #2: Family Ties

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Language: English

Type of Game: Digital Mystery Game 💻

Genre: Detective, Murder Mystery

Date Played: September 28, 2021

Difficulty (based on 1 player): 6/10

Size of Team: Minimum 1 Player (Ages 16+)

Time: 10-20 Hours

Price: £9.99


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After the success of your last cold case, Superintendent Marcus Beard has brought together DCI Trish Roberts and ex-DI Ian Rutherford to undertake the task of continuing to investigate the backlog of cold cases in the UK. The case you have been handed today involves the Thornton Family where, over a period of six years, a large number of family members died from apparent accidents, suicides, and unsolved murders. It is up to you and the Cold Case Squad to uncover what is happening behind the doors of this esteemed manor house.

Trigger Warning: This game contains references to self-harm and suicide, including photos and incident reports describing these events.

Video above is property of Joy Swift's Murder Mystery Investigations


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If you have played the previous Cold Case, which I highly recommend before undertaking this one, you know this game starts with watching an introduction video and reading an incident report regarding the first victim who caught the eye of the investigative team. After this you will have access to over 160+ pieces of evidence ranging from music, suspect reports, pictures, threatening letters, phone calls, videos of key moments in the investigation, and more that are divided into 12 chapters. Each chapter also contains a victim report and/or a suspect report. The chapter division makes exploration much easier as you can easily pace yourself to see how much you want to do. If you’re like me, you may want to binge the whole mystery in a day or you might want to break it up over 12 days with a nice cup of coffee or tea in the evening. There is the same investigation board and notebook that can be utilized on the website if you prefer but I found I much rather enjoyed pen and paper for note taking. I recommend labelling your evidence in your notes and note down beside it anything noteworthy or any questions you have about it. You will then have an easier time referring back to the evidence if you suddenly found the answer to that question two chapters later.


There is one change with this Cold Case that caught me off guard for the first bit. As there was before, there is a Chapter Summary section where you can turn to for hints, help, and debriefs if you ever get stuck or confused. Under the “A Little Bit of Help” for each chapter there will be translations and help with codes and puzzles while “A Lot More Help” will go through key pieces of information evidence-by-evidence. Previously the language translations and full translations of codes were placed with the conclusion with only clues in the Chapter Summary but now you will find full translations in the Chapter Summary if you require it. This does help people a great deal who want to double check their work before submitting their conclusion report.


The conclusion report asks you to identify the killer(s), the motive, and other related aspects to the case in multiple choice fashion. I divided my notes by chapter before taking time to build a chronology with all the key dates. Once I had this organized, I felt better prepared to complete my report and submit my answers.


One thing to note is that the amount of information you receive can be overwhelming so take your time. If you need help organizing, the chapter summaries are an excellent resource. Reviewing the conclusion questions can also give your more guidance but they also may provide some spoilers. Once I felt like I had the main points of a chapter, I moved onto the next – if I missed something there was usually a reference in later chapters that would direct me to look back, which I appreciated. So don’t worry if not everything makes sense first run, you will likely come back to it later once the lightbulb goes off. This game took me a little less time to beat than the first game – around 7 hours – but by no means was it easier. The suggested game time is around 10-20 hours.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers


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If you enjoy the thrill of investigating a string of murders, then you are quite familiar with the deduction side of puzzling. The main “puzzle” revolves around you unpacking the narrative and examining how the victims and suspects connect. This particular experience has multiple narratives entwined that you must tease apart to identify motive and suspect. Another component to this deduction is to cross reference. If you see a date or a name, double check if you have seen it before. If you see a photo of someone, can you find that person elsewhere or do you know who it is? This form of puzzling is more labor intensive, and I recommend split screen if you can, but it’s equally rewarding. You truly get to feel the thrill as the thread of inquiry you’ve been tugging at finally leads you towards the correct suspect and I loved that feeling.


There are two codes you are encouraged to decipher. I will note that not solving them will not terribly impede your investigation as later chapters will provide information but, if you enjoy that head scratching puzzling, they are present and rewarding to the narrative. The one cipher I think could have used a bit more sign posting before giving you the cipher key in the chapter summary. I will admit it was a very interesting and fascinating puzzle, but I needed a nudge to figure it out. It used a medium I had never seen before in decoding, and I loved that. The other puzzle was very light and is a traditional logic puzzle.

Photos above are property of Joy Swift's Murder Mystery Investigations


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Cold Case #2: Family Ties was a riveting and dark mystery that thoroughly drew me into the investigation. The storytelling shared so much without exposition and the puzzling revealed little nuances to the experience that flavoured your view on characters that encouraged you to examine them from another angle. The amount of content is enormous but none of it felt out of place, and I left feeling satisfied that I have had made it through all the information with an excellent comprehension of the experience. The illustrated certificate was lovely, and the final conclusion has made me excited for the next cold case! This is definitely a game for people that love Hunt a Killer or Murder Mystery in A Box but with a much better price tag and a lot more content to work through. I look forward to seeing what Joy Swift’s Murder Mystery Investigation has coming next as the last two experiences have been wonderful!

 

Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

 

(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)


Disclosure: We thank Joy Swift's Murder Mystery Investigations for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.


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