Do you enjoy true crime? It may be in the form of books, television shows or even listening to podcasts. If you enjoy true crime podcasts, one you may be familiar with is Casefile, an award-winning true crime podcast. Now you can play a game based on the podcast, Casefile: Truth & Deception from Goliath Games.
Casefile: Truth & Deception is a board game based on the very popular true crime podcast Casefile. It is a game for 3-4 players, aged 12+ and takes anywhere between 30 to 60 minutes to play and maybe by the end of the game you will have solved a murder. It could be described as being like the classic murder mystery game Cluedo but with elements of Guess Who.
In the box:
- Casefile Gameboard
- 4 Case Trackers
- 4 Dry-Erase Markers
- 44 Cards
- Deception Die
- Confidential Folder
- Instructions
In the game of Casefile, wealthy businessman Casey Parker has been murdered! His list of enemies is long, but the list of evidence is even longer. You and a group of detectives have been put on the case to find his killer and bring them to justice! Use your evidence cards to trade secrets and throw the other investigators off track. Will you use truth or deception to crack the case? Be the first detective to correctly guess who the murderer is, what weapon they used, where the crime took place and why – and win! With 44 cards, there are near infinite possibilities so you can solve a different crime again and again.
The aim of the game is to be the first detective solve a crime; the where, why and what – to find out where it occurred, the motive behind why Mr Parker was killed and what weapon was used to despatch the victim. Players use deduction skills, evidence cards, truth and deception to crack the case and unmask a killer. And you can solve a different crime, with the same victim, every time you play and have a different outcome.
To set up the game for play, each player (who is now a detective) is given a dry-erase marker and a case tracker. The Casefile gameboard is placed in the centre of the table. The cards need to be separated into the five different types: Weapon, Location, Motive, Suspect and False Evidence and shuffled thoroughly. Cards from the Weapon, Location, Motive and Suspect piles are selected at random without anyone looking at them and placed into the Confidential Folder – this folder now holds the solution to identify the killer. Then combine the five card piles together, shuffle them and deal five cards to each detective. The remaining cards and then placed on the gameboard in the centre of the table. Place the Deception die near the gameboard, and you are ready to play and hopefully be the first to solve the murder of Mr Casey Parker!
Casefile: Truth & Deception is a murder mystery game of evidence gathering, deduction and deception. Evidence gathered is recorded on each detective’s case tracker. When the game begins, after the shock of the murder has worn off, detectives look at the cards they have been dealt and can mark these off on their case tracker – as they are holding these cards, they clearly can’t be part of the solution and can be ruled out. The idea is to collect or eliminate enough pieces of evidence by asking questions, trading evidence cards and leading other players down the wrong path, to make an educated guess to who the killer is, where the murder happened, what weapon was used to commit the murder and what the motive was. Get it right and you win, get it wrong and you lose and are out of the game.
As with any investigation not everything will be the truth. There is false evidence circulating to throw you off the scent and other detectives can bluff, lie and deceive so you really do need to be 100% sure of the evidence you have gathered, or you could end up going done the wrong path and accusing the wrong person of murder.
Will you be able to gather enough evidence to deduce the killer and their reason for murder?
Overall, we loved playing Casefile: Truth & Deception – it is a great game. Packed with fun and exciting tension, you really do have to concentrate, pay attention and be organised with your evidence gathering. A challenging game of logic and deduction, one that is extremely interesting and entertaining – fans of Cluedo will love it!
The game is easy game to understand and play, you just have to find and gather clues, and put them together to find the solution. Evidence cards can be traded (they all have a numeric value to make it work), evidence cards and case trackers can be stolen by other detectives (this can be quite frustrating when losing everything that you have collected) and a wrong guess will see you as a failed detective and out of the game.
The artwork on the cards and case trackers is fantastic and family friendly. Whilst it is a murder mystery game, it doesn’t feature any gory images or murder, so is suitable for family play. We think that the card stock used could have been a bit thicker, it is a bit on the thin side, but that is personal preference, it doesn’t make any difference to the gameplay, it just would have given the game a higher quality feel about it.
The game is played until one detective successfully deduces the correct answers to the questions and unmasks a murder, or until all detectives are knocked out through giving incorrect answers. There is no time limit to the game play, but we found a game takes between 30 to 60 minutes to play. It is really satisfying to be able to correctly figure out the answers and solve a murder.
We loved that the game and it’s great that it can be played again and again as there will always be a different outcome. The victim always remains the same, but as the solution is random, depending on how the cards fall. The final answers alter each time that you play, with 44 cards there are plenty of possible solutions to keep the game fresh, exciting and extend its playability and longevity.
Casefile: Truth & Deception is an excellent game and being murder detectives for an hour is lots of fun. It is a simple game to set up, easy to play and gets those brain cells working. It’s fun for families, teenagers and adults to play. A brilliant game for family game nights.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £26.99
Available to buy from Amazon here.
