I’ve been a gamer my whole life, but one thing I’ve always found lacking in video games was detective work. There have been all sorts of games that tackle it in different ways, but I never really felt like a detective myself.
When I came across Sleuth Kings on Cratejoy, I was immediately excited. I’d seen a couple similar services, such as Mysterious Package Company, but a lot of these companies charge hundreds of dollars for a single experience! I love the concept, but it’s kind of frightening to spend that much money on something I might not even like. Sleuth Kings, on the other hand, charges only $20-$30 for a package depending on coupon codes and discounts for longer subscriptions. I reached out to the creator of Sleuth Kings, Brandon Jett, and he was nice enough to send me a full package to review.
NOTE: Sleuth Kings allows people to purchase previous cases, and while I’ll try to remain as spoiler-free as possible in this review, going into some detail is unavoidable. READ THE BELOW TEXT AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU PLAN ON PURCHASING THIS SPECIFIC CASE IN THE FUTURE!
Poppy Farthing’s great aunt, a famous 1920’s fashion designer, was rumored to have hid her life’s work nearly 100 years ago. Since then, no one has been able to find it – although Poppy has been making progress. When Poppy’s rival in the fashion industry learned about the lost designs, she hired a detective to track them down first. Now, with the clock ticking, Poppy has asked Sullivan for help. The problem is, the other detective is good – and they’ve got a head start. Can you help Sullivan outsmart the rival detective and solve a 100-year-old mystery?
Case 015 was December’s case, and it’s all about tracking down long-lost dress designs. It was a bit refreshing not feeling like one wrong turn would lead to a bomb taking out half of a huge city or releasing some extinction-level plague across the world. I mean, hey, they’re just some dress designs, right? This made it even more surprising that the case still had a lot of tension. My gal and I solved this case together, and whenever we felt we had the right solution to a puzzle, we were still nervous that maybe we got it wrong. Emailing Sullivan felt like cutting the red wire and hoping it was the right one, and when he’d reply with something like “Are you sure that’s where Stella’s studio used to be? If I spend too much time in the wrong place, John might find it – and the key Stella mentioned – first.” I was even more worried!
The way the case worked was that once you receive the package in the mail (see above), you email “Sullivan” (which seems to be a well-written bot since it always replied within a few minutes no matter what time it was) and he writes back with the full situation, along with some instructions on how to formulate your emails to him and where to begin. For example, in this case my gal and I were informed that first we’d have to figure out which building out of six was Stella’s old studio using a brochure marked Clue 2. There were a total of 4 clues, each marked with a paperclipped “Clue 1”, “Clue 2”, etc., as well as numerous other documents.
And that was it! There was no hand holding and no huge tutorial that solved 35 clues for me before letting me tackle this one. We were merely left with a few documents, several clues, and the knowledge that it was one of the stores on the brochure. With some research into the documents we discovered that Clue 1 (see below) was the key to solving it, which required figuring out a text cipher, then using that cipher to decode a secret message. Clue 1 wasn’t just some random piece of paper with words all over it, it was actually an ad for a speakeasy that the Brandon had created and weathered, then used as a multiple-step word puzzle.
The puzzle was done well enough that I actually had the wrong answer first because I had cracked the code incorrectly, and I ended up having to get the proper translation from Sullivan himself. In addition to corresponding with Sullivan with answers to progress the case, you can also ask for help. The first request for help gives you a clue, and a second request gives you the full answer. Even with this answer it took a bit of work from other documents plus the solved clue to figure out Clue 2 correctly, and emailing Sullivan that answer resulted in some additional story and an entirely new clue that was included in the email. Solving that clue led to another new clue which interacted with the remaining two clues we had, and once we solved the two of those in turn we had the solution for the whole case!
Overall we took a few hours on two separate days to solve the case, although if we didn’t ask for help on the first puzzle it could’ve added another hour at least. It was interesting tackling the clues because there’s so little guidance: just a starting point, a story, and a few puzzles. The word puzzle from Clue 1 included words around the outside along with the solution on the front, and then the person who wrote the solution on the front wrote their own clue on the back. The clue on the back is what’s needed to continue, but it was no easy task figuring out how the solution was reached. I spent a long time writing out notes on my computer trying to figure out the proper way to come to the solution, and I’d tried at least a half dozen separate methods to get it done. If you’ve ever seen a movie or TV show and wondered how they figured out some cipher in a matter of seconds, you’ll appreciate the challenge here since there are countless methods to try to tackle it, but only one or two are correct. However, due to the difficulty and variance of the puzzles, it was a real rush when we figured them out on our own. The last puzzle was especially terrific, and it was such a rush when we pieced it together!
As we went through the case together, we quickly learned that we couldn’t both look at the papers at the same time. Since most puzzles required looking at only one or two things, this meant we had to take turns rather than work on it at the same time. Luckily, cell phones have some pretty awesome cameras, and my gal came up with the idea to take photos of each item and then we could both look at them at the same time! This worked out really well, so well in fact that we stopped using the papers and stuck to the photos. It was also especially helpful with Clue 1 since a couple small pieces of it broke off the left side when I first pulled it out of the file folder, and from then it was incredibly fragile. The other documents and clues were all very solid, and we had no problems with them at all, but Clue 1 was quite brittle due to the weathering done to it.
While the photos were terrific for allowing us to work together to solve clues, getting various types of physical documents made this case feel incredibly real. It was awesome opening the envelope to get an actual file folder full of so many things. There was even a little envelope with a few buttons inside, and after successfully solving the case, Sullivan sends you another little package with a reward. In theory, people who do multiple cases could fill a shelf with various items to remind them of their successes.
Finally, for every four cases someone solves they’ll get a special “bonus case that revolves around the hunt for Isaac, Sullivan’s missing father.” It’s cool that, just like lots of long-running detective TV shows have storylines that are about the main characters themselves, Sleuth Kings has something similar… and you get to play part of it yourself!
You can get a free postcard sample case from Sullivan here, and if you’re interested in subscribing you can do so directly from the Sleuth King’s website. You can even get $5 off with code REALOTAKU (this is NOT a referral code or link; Real Otaku Gamer received no money for this review and cannot receive any kind of compensation from Sleuth Kings no matter how many people sign up). We had a really good time with the case, and I was blown away by how many different types of puzzles and clues there were to solve it. The clues and documents all felt natural, like things you’d actually gather while solving a case, and it was clear Brandon put a lot of effort into making everything fit but also work together for one cohesive mystery. It was also really cool getting tips and input from Sullivan; it really felt like long-distance correspondence to help out with a case! It’s something I’d love to try out again; I’ve gotten a real taste for detective work and want more! I was really nervous at first, and even put off trying to work the case when I saw just how much was in the package, but with help available anytime and the interplay between everything working together so smoothly it was a terrific experience.
A review package was provided for this review.