Thames & Kosmos - "Masters of Crime: Mosquito"
- Andrew Woods
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Photo above is property of Thames & Kosmos
Company: Thames & Kosmos
Game: Masters of Crime: Mosquito
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬
Genre: Detective, Adventure
Date Played: December 15, 2025
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 7/10
Size of Team: 1-6 Players (Ages 16+)
Time: Approximately 2-4 Hrs.
Price: $19.95
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You play a scholar/treasure hunter of archeology - think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - who's gotten caught up in a murder of a renowned archaeologist by a criminal syndicate known as “Mosquito”. You task yourself with both solving his murder as well as finishing his last expedition. You must explore the late professor's world in London, before taking off for the jungle. Be careful, not everyone is who they seem to be. Your choices matter, and they could be the difference between glory, or death.
Video above is property of Thames & Kosmos
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"Mosquito" is part of a new set of games in Thames and Cosmos Masters of Crime Series. Each game is color coded, and Mosquito is tinged with the dark mysterious green of the jungle. The cover is quite evocative - with the characters bursting through a clearing in the jungle - and indicative of promised adventures, and secrets held within. I love a good adventure, especially one made up of a rag tag group of less than trustworthy compatriots, and there's no better setting than the heart of the jungle and its mysteries. The game pieces themselves are extremely well done. They do a great job of presenting the game as well as giving the player a way of laying it all out before them - it feels like you're tracing your own perilous globe trotting expedition on some ancient treasure map.
Photos above are property of Thames & Kosmos
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The game is really smartly designed, with a board for organizing all the cards that make up the story, as well as to track one's progress. It also has these fun envelopes which gate developments and provide exciting reveals. Essentially the game is broken up into two parts: One a murder mystery, and then the other an expedition, of you and your carefully selected game character compatriots. So you're getting a nice mix of gameplay types, all while feeling the pressure of making the right decision as you advance the story along. It's never hard locked, but you are essentially playing against yourself to get as high and as fast and correct a decision making score as possible. I think the highest virtue of the game is just how organic the puzzles feel, and how much variety of puzzles there are. The writing and world building as well - while both believable and hammy - does a good job of making the game come to life. It's a great production for such a compact box.
Photos above are property of Thames & Kosmos
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The game's puzzles are designed and varied with extreme judiciousness towards giving a well rounded puzzling experience. It manages to combine a choose your own adventure, a murder mystery, and a puzzle hunt chain, all of which originate fairly organically from the premise of the game itself. The game manages to give you legitimately informed “choose your own adventure” type puzzles that avoids the pitfall of choices which are random and ungrounded, which is an impressive feat for a game of this compact scope. The fact that you get to choose which characters to take with on your adventure is such a fun proposition. The puzzles are perfectly on theme, bidding you to uncover secret knowledge, plots, and identities, as you hone in on your final destination, and your final perilous bid to uncover that treasure from its doomed temple. You will need to go beyond the information in the game to finish some of the puzzles - namely the internet, and doing real world research - something I think is perfectly suited to the idea of the explorative nature of a genuine adventure game. Imagine your Indiana Jones, but the library with the hidden panel is now the internet with the hidden hyperlink. In the end its all quite filling and satisfying, I just think they brought together so many strong puzzling elements and did it in good taste.
Photos above are property of Thames & Kosmos
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I recommend "Mosquito", it's a smart game with a great imaginative premise, and it's fun to play solo or in a group. The series itself does a wonderful job of adapting different scenarios into different puzzle structures, which keeps the format fresh. Thames and Kosmos has a track record of continuous innovation, and I think this series renews the imaginative possibilities of the choose your own adventure genre. These games are such a wonderful seamless bringing together of all the best puzzling elements, it's really a family affair from one of the best creators.
I am bias towards the utilization of digital tools - which this game implements quite well - and I do think the next frontier is furthering the possibilities of the digital game, possibly through more interactive A.I. elements to enliven the static informational nature of physical games. That being said they've done a great job of bringing these elements to life, while also making good use of their straightforward digital platform. Ultimately it has the advantage of being a physical game - which is easier to play in person - though it has the drawback of not being a full fledged digital game with all its expansive creative powers. I'm interested to see how Thames and Kosmos utilize a digital platform, as well as possibly new AI tools, to further the interactivity of their games.
Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of the 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 Thames & Kosmos for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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