Nina Moog

Notorious prankster & filmmaker Sven Larsgaard is found dead with an apparent gunshot wound to his head. Sven & his propensity for self-serving antics made him an unpopular guy with a lot of people. Was his death a suicide, murder, or a prank gone horribly wrong? If it was murder, whodunit & why?

This is the third (& final) interactive case files game we have played from University Games, and it was by far the best & most enjoyable. The ‘case file’ was full of interesting & engaging materials. The story was compelling, and all of the characters were well-developed. Pretty much everything we needed to know to solve the case was contained within the physical case file. It was fun to engage with the ‘case file’ & we really appreciated the complexity, yet solvability, of the ‘investigation’.

Overall, we had a lot of fun playing Murder Noir. However, there were a few things that prevented this game from being great.

First of all, you have to go online to find out if your solution to the mystery is correct. Why? Just put the solution/suspect envelopes in the case file! What an unnecessary aggravation. And, if everything needed to play the game were contained in the physical ‘case file’, the game would never expire; eventually the website is going to go away (in a previous game—Death in Antarctica, one of the web-based clues was already gone & inaccessible), so why not just put everything in the ‘case file’ to begin with?

Secondly, the phone number on the post-it note that should have provided a vital clue didn’t work. According to the game solution online, the phone number should have led us to the answering machine of one of the suspects. It didn’t. Instead, when we called we got the switchboard for some business. Whether this was a real business, or just a phony set-up for one of their other games, I don’t know. Either way, it sure didn’t have anything to do with the case we were working on. And it deprived us of an important clue. We didn’t end up needing it, but it sure would have been helpful.

Finally, the explanations for why suspects must be considered innocent don’t always make sense. For instance, one of the suspects is listed as ‘not guilty’ because the individual had an airtight alibi for the time of death. Well, (SPOILER ALERT) the method of killing used actually didn’t require the murderer to be present at the scene, so the fact this suspect was with someone else in another location doesn’t really matter. But the website declares this is definite proof this suspect can’t be the culprit. So illogical! This was a failing common throughout all the interactive case file games we played; the info on the website often made no sense or actually contradicted information contained in the physical case file. University Games clearly struggles with quality control & management.

If you are determined to play one of these games, Murder Noir is definitely the title you want to get. Despite its flaws, it was a fun way to spend an evening. Unfortunately, the company needs to do a lot of tweaking to this product line before it will be worth what they are expecting customers to pay.

We certainly won’t be buying anymore. Now, we just have to find a way to diplomatically tell people not to give us any more as gifts…… (más)