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Summary
Want to solve a cold case from the 1930s? Hunt A Killer’sCurtain CallBox Set comes with six episodes—along with a mystery to solve in each episode—and takes about 10 to 15 hours to complete.
If you’ve ever read mystery novel or watched a crime TV show, and figured out who the culprit was before it was actually revealed, you’ll probably loveHunt A Killer’s Curtain Call box set. This box set is full of intrigue, a great mix of easy and challenging puzzles and codes, and neat trinkets that bring the story to life.
You take on the role of an investigator looking into a cold case from the 1930s involving a famous actress named Viola Vane. She mysteriously disappeared in the 1930s while working on a show at the Cadence Theatre. The current owner of the Cadence Theatre, Julia Adler, discovered a body in a trunk in the attic while sorting through things. It was later determined that the body was indeed Viola Vane’s, as Julia had expected, and now she needs your help to solve this cold case that the police just don’t seem to be interested in solving.
The box set is split up into six different episodes, and each episode requires you to answer an important case-related question based on the documents in front of you and on a virtual desktop you access through a simple website URL. I love that there are six separate boxes because it divides up perfectly for a weekly game night, whether you complete one or two boxes at a time. And believe me; Curtain Call is an awesome choice for game night, as long as everyone’s ages 14 and up!
A Brief Overview of Hunt A Killer
If you’re unfamiliar with the Hunt A Killer brand, the company made its name by creating amonthly subscription servicethat creates fictional murders and gives you the evidence to solve the case. There’s not a new case to solve every month, but rather a single case that spans a six-month period. Because of this, you can pay for a subscription monthly or pre-pay for six or twelve months worth if you want to try out a full Hunt A Killer season for a lower overall price.
In addition to the monthly subscriptions, Hunt A Killer now offersstandalone board gamesandepisodic box sets. The standalone board games typically cost around $30, though there are premium options for more money, and everything you need to solve the mystery is contained within a single box. You can find the stand-alone board games in person at many big-box stores, including the one we got the chance to review—Nancy Drew - Mystery at Magnolia Gardens.
Related:When you order an episodic box set, each of the six boxes will be numbered from one through six to represent which episode of the story you should start with. Starting with box one, you’ll analyze the papers and evidence inside and find an answer to whatever question is in that box, like what the murder weapon is or which suspect you’re able to eliminate.Setup: You’ll Need Lots of Space, a Notebook, and the InternetAll of the episodes in the Curtain Call set consist mainly of various papers that you have to read, and then use to solve the specific question of that episode and decipher codes. Some episode boxes also come with little trinkets that add to the experience and give tangible evidence to look at while you’re solving the case. While these trinkets are neat—and would be really cool to display in a shadow box on the wall if you solved Hunt A Killer mysteries frequently—they don’t help much in actually finding the answer to each episode’s question.Sarah Chaney / Review GeekInstead, the answer is found by reading all the included papers, deciphering any codes that you can on scrap paper or in a notebook, and looking through the episode’s folder on the Curtain Call virtual desktop. There’s a notebook that comes in the first episode box, but I didn’t want to use it for two reasons. First, I wanted to preserve everything that was in the set just in case I wanted to give it to someone else to experience. Second, it’s just a small pocket notebook and I wanted to use larger paper so I could see all my notes and decoded ciphers more easily.When I opened each episode box, I would take out all of the papers and lay them out on the floor in front of me. Then, I would always read the letter from Julia Adler, the owner of the Cadence Theatre where the body was found, before reading anything else because it had the password for that episode’s virtual desktop folder. To access the folder, you navigate to a website, and then sign in using your first initial and last name as the username and whatever password is provided to you in that episode box.Sarah Chaney / Review GeekEach episode has a unique password that makes a new folder pop up within the virtual desktop, and all the folders are labeled so you know which folder to look at for that episode. Folders within the virtual desktop contain transcriptions of handwritten notes in an episode—just in case you can’t read cursive—as well as important clues that are often integral to finding the correct answer to an episode’s question.Gameplay: Short Episodes and Tons of FunBecause this game involves finding the correct answer in each episode box in order to ultimately solve the mystery of who the murderer is, I can’t talk about many specifics for fear of giving spoilers. However, I can speak to how the overall experience was, including how long each episode took to complete, the difficulty of puzzles or codes within an episode, and even what papers or trinkets were included in each box.[related]https://www.reviewgeek.com/69332/show-off-your-sleuthing-skills-with-these-fun-mystery-subscription-boxes/">Show off Your Sleuthing Skills with These Fun Mystery Subscription Boxes
When you order an episodic box set, each of the six boxes will be numbered from one through six to represent which episode of the story you should start with. Starting with box one, you’ll analyze the papers and evidence inside and find an answer to whatever question is in that box, like what the murder weapon is or which suspect you can eliminate.
Setup: You’ll Need Lots of Space, a Notebook, and the Internet
All of the episodes in the Curtain Call set consist mainly of various papers that you have to read, and then use to solve the specific question of that episode and decipher codes. Some episode boxes also come with little trinkets that add to the experience and give tangible evidence to look at while you’re solving the case. While these trinkets are neat—and would be really cool to display in a shadow box on the wall if you solved Hunt A Killer mysteries frequently—they don’t help much in actually finding the answer to each episode’s question.
Instead, the answer is found by reading all the included papers, deciphering any codes that you can on scrap paper or in a notebook, and looking through the episode’s folder on the Curtain Call virtual desktop. There’s a notebook that comes in the first episode box, but I didn’t want to use it for two reasons. First, I wanted to preserve everything that was in the set just in case I wanted to give it to someone else to experience. Second, it’s just a small pocket notebook and I wanted to use larger paper so I could see all my notes and decoded ciphers more easily.
When I opened each episode box, I would take out all of the papers and lay them out on the floor in front of me. Then, I would always read the letter from Julia Adler, the owner of the Cadence Theatre where the body was found, before reading anything else because it had the password for that episode’s virtual desktop folder. To access the folder, you navigate to a website, and then sign in using your first initial and last name as the username and whatever password is provided to you in that episode box.
Each episode has a unique password that makes a new folder pop up within the virtual desktop, and all the folders are labeled so you know which folder to look at for that episode. Folders within the virtual desktop contain transcriptions of handwritten notes in an episode—just in case you can’t read cursive—as well as important clues that are often integral to finding the correct answer to an episode’s question.
Gameplay: Short Episodes and Tons of Fun
Because this game involves finding the correct answer in each episode box to ultimately solve the mystery of who the murderer is, I can’t talk about many specifics for fear of giving spoilers. However, I can speak to how the overall experience was, including how long each episode took to complete, the difficulty of puzzles or codes within an episode, and even what papers or trinkets were included in each box.
[related]https://www.reviewgeek.com/69332/show-off-your-sleuthing-skills-with-these-fun-mystery-subscription-boxes/">Show off Your Sleuthing Skills with These Fun Mystery Subscription Boxes
The first episode was incredibly easy, and the goal was to find the murder weapon. It took me a few hours to read through everything, but if you wanted to just read through the documents that were immediately relevant to answering the question, it would only take 15 to 30 minutes to complete the episode. Granted, the Curtain Call set does have backtracking, so you may have to go back and read through some of the documents you skipped if future episodes require them. There weren’t any ciphers to decode or puzzles to solve in the first box, only a few cursive documents to read and a cufflink found as evidence.
When I completed the first episode, I remember thinking that it was almost too easy—and thinking that the police must have been bad at their jobs or not paying attention if they couldn’t figure out the murder weapon—but I think that’s how these sets are designed. From what I could gather online, the first episode of practically every Hunt A Killer set is about getting acquainted with the characters, setting the stage for future episodes, and just learning how things work.
In the second episode, my goal was to clear one of the seven current suspects. It took roughly two hours to decide, and I was wrong. When I sent my first answer to Julia Adler, owner of the Cadence Theatre, she came back saying she didn’t agree and that I should try again.
It was then that I discovered that nothing in the box cleared a suspect, and I had to look through the virtual desktop to find the piece of evidence I needed to clear the correct suspect. When I read through the materials in episode one, it wasn’t clear to me that you needed to use the virtual desktop to find important evidence. I thought it was just a helpful resource and where you sent in your answers, but nope—the virtual desktop you access through a website is vital to finding the correct answers throughout the whole case.
Related:The Best Mystery and Immersive Story Subscription Boxes
In this second box, there was a Cadence Theatre pin and a handkerchief with a V in one corner and an E in the opposite corner. The handkerchief gave a slight hint to solving the coded letter in this box, but it wasn’t necessary to decode the letter. I was slightly disappointed that the coded letter was simple to solve, but the box did take me two hours, so if it was a harder cryptogram, I imagine it would’ve taken me much longer.
Also, I have no trouble reading cursive, but I was thankful for a transcribed version of the coded cursive letter because I didn’t have to guess what these random letters were that didn’t make up an actual word. To solve the cipher, I printed the transcribed version of the coded letter, and then used that piece of paper to write my notes and figure out what the letter was actually saying.
Episodes three and four were similar to box two because the objective was the same: to rule out a murder suspect. The cipher in box three was similar enough to box two’s cipher, so it was pretty easy to solve. Then, box four contained a blueprint cut up into multiple pieces that you had to put together like a puzzle. It wasn’t relevant to this specific box, but I knew that Curtain Call had backtracking, so I put all the pieces together and took a picture for later. Both the third and the fourth episode took about an hour to complete, and brought the suspect list from seven down to four.
Related:The 10 Best Mystery-Themed Board Games
While episode five had the same objective as episodes two, three, and four—ruling out a murder suspect—it took me almost three times as long to complete the box. That said, I had enough information with this box to finally go back and solve some of the puzzles I had been ignoring up to this point. These puzzles weren’t necessary to solve before emailing Julia Adler with a correct answer, so I just kind of saved them up until episode five. Solving the puzzles gave some pretty interesting context though, and I think it made it easier to reach a final conclusion in box six.
The Hunt A Killer mysteries are all about finding motive, means, and the murder weapon, and I think I was too caught up on motive in this box and the previous three boxes when I needed to be focused on means. I needed to ask myself, “Who can I definitively rule out based on the documents and evidence that I have?,” rather than think about who served to gain something from Viola Vane’s death.
In episode six, I had to consider both means and motive, though I was able to ultimately find the murderer by proving the two other suspects didn’t have the means to commit the murder. The last box in the set took me about two to three hours to complete, but again, I was spending a lot of time working on cracking the remaining codes just for fun before I emailed my final answer to Julia through the virtual desktop.
While there are intricately coded messages to decipher and puzzles to solve along the way, finding the answers to the Curtain Call mystery relies heavily on reading the included papers and looking through documents on the virtual desktop. So, if you don’t like reading, or don’t have someone on your sleuthing team that likes reading, solving this mystery might not be a super fun experience.
I like reading mystery novels, and Curtain Call gave me a chance to read the story and the evidence firsthand, and then form my own conclusions rather than reading a mystery unravel at the hands of a novel’s author. All in all, solving Hunt A Killer’s Curtain Call box set took about 10 hours, and I enjoyed every second of it.
