雾鸦馆

As this is a commercial boxed game, many Chinese reviews exist; you might want to check them out too.

Played at: 无序·探案馆 UNORDERED
6 players (2 female, 4 male)

To date, this has been the case where our group’s opinion differs most from the apparent prevailing view.《雾鸦馆》has a lot of good reviews from Chinese players, and I’m still not sure why. (To be fair, there are also bad reviews, many of which express the same incredulity that I do here.)

I suppose if you enjoy outlandish murder methods, this case delivers. Fans of horror-esque elements may also enjoy parts of this.

But (and I don’t think it’s unfair to give this semi-spoiler) the biggest thing I disliked about this case was its use of red herrings. It’s perfectly normal to have clues that point to other suspects; it’s strange to have clues that mean nothing at all. Perhaps it’s an unfounded assumption on my part, but I do feel there’s an unspoken player-contract that clues will be relevant in some way, even if not the correct one.

Another big flaw is that one of the six characters is extremely sidelined (边缘角色), with very little role to play.

If you like creative locked rooms, you could consider playing this. But there are many rewarding, rigorous cases out there which are much less of a gamble.

Try if you like: Locked-room mysteries; supernatural elements; sticky tape.

Not recommended for: Players who dislike arguably far-fetched solutions to locked-room mysteries.