Review – Unsolved Case by Eleven Puzzles
Website Link – https://elevenpuzzles.com
Price – $0 – free to play on Steam, iOS, and android!
The Product:
Unsolved Case is a cooperative two-player online experience that will have players working to solve puzzles. The game takes place in Eleven Puzzles’ Cryptic Killer line of digital puzzles. As a prequel though, it requires no knowledge from the other two games for success.
Each player (or team) will require their own separate device. The characters within the story will take different paths, so the real world players will have unique information and knowledge that they will need to communicate with one another. Players will need to figure out how their separate clues work together and what to do with what they discover.
Unsolved Case is available and free through Steam and its own app on iOs and Android. As a duo, the game took us around thirty minutes.
Our Thoughts:
We’ve enjoyed Eleven Puzzles’ Cryptic Killer series in the past, and thankfully Unsolved Case upholds their great track record. Unsolved Case works as a great introduction to Eleven Puzzle’s games.
The narrative felt in line with the rest of the series, setting a mildly dark and serious tone as the detectives hunt down a serial killer. The story is depicted in a comic panels-esque way with dialogue narrated aloud. The visuals, along with comic captions/dialogue bubbles allow for some fun storytelling. The story mostly takes place before and after each section of the game, guiding players to their next set of puzzles.
As a prequel to the other games, there is only so much story that could be told in Unsolved Case, but it was still sad to see the story end so abruptly. Right as things started to heat up, and we really felt in a good groove of puzzle solving, this case wrapped up. For new players, this should easily convince them to jump into the already released games. As returning players, we must sadly wait until the next game arrives.
As for the puzzles, this experience is a mix of actual puzzles and puzzles whose main obstacle is how to communicate the information you have/how to coordinate certain behaviors. Both types of puzzles work well for this type of corporate experience. The puzzles themselves were mostly on the easier side, but they were still entertaining.
The controls on this game remain mostly the same as the previous two. Players will be able to click and interact with items on the screen. The controls are easy, so they shouldn’t be a barrier to most players. We also liked this game’s option to draw on anything. This made note-taking easy without having to remember a bunch of information or seek outside notepaper. We hope that mechanic returns for future puzzles, especially for a fuller length experience.
Overall, we enjoyed Unsolved Case as a quick trip back into Eleven Puzzles’ world. This is a quick game, but it works a very accurate display of Eleven Puzzles’ other games. We recommend new players check out the free experience to see if the other Cryptic Killer games are for them (they probably are). Returning players should still have plenty of fun with the decent number of puzzles included here.
Official C&C Rating:
Narrative: 3.5/5
Puzzles: 3.5/5
Overall Fun: 3.5/5
Total Averaged Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Chaos & Confetti 