Goodbye Carmen

As this is an English translation of a commercial game, many reviews exist for the Chinese version; you might want to check them out too.

Played at: StoryBoxed (on Discord, no DM)
4 players (4 male)

Goodbye Carmen is the English translation of《再见卡门》, a 2019 case that apparently was available online via the 推理大师 app. Criminal X/StoryBoxed is offering it for online play via Discord.

As a case from the early days of the industry, Goodbye Carmen has the basic two-round structure that was common then. But its actual content isn’t that basic; the case-solving is non-trivial, with some fun realisations to reach.

The case is tightly written, with clear threads of logic and evidence — indeed, as long as players pay attention to details, the murderer has no real chance to escape. This is unfortunate for the murderer, but does make it an encouraging case for beginners.

The logic is tight enough and the eventual truth cool enough that experienced players might still enjoy this — as long as they treat it as a breather from heavier cases. My group figured everything out in just over two hours, despite an estimated playtime of three to four hours.

The translation that we playtested was generally solid; there were some minor inconsistencies and places where the language could have been polished, but it didn’t affect overall playability.

Try if you like: The idea of a brief but non-trivial case; revelations with emotional weight.

Not recommended for: Experienced players looking for something with a longer playtime.