Murder in the Mafia

Thinkfun - Escape the Room

Age: 14+

Players: 1-3

Play Time: 90-120 mins

Difficulty: Intermediate

After having a solid time with Secret of Dr. Gravely's Retreat, we returned to play another Thinkfun escape game — Murder in the Mafia — the one I'd been looking forward to the most because of its clever 3D design. As you can see in the picture, the game essentially simulates a miniature real-life escape room, one you can observe, study, and explore for clues as you try to unravel the mystery and break out.

Unfortunately, while I enjoyed the 3D gimmick and the game itself isn't bad, it failed to live up to high expectations. As it turned out, simply creating a miniature 3D environment doesn't make a tabletop experience any closer to a real-life escape room. Despite a praiseworthy effort, the limitations of the game design are just too difficult to overcome.

The story of Murder in the Mafia is quite cliched — you're a police detective who finds a dead body in your office, and you must figure out who the real killer is before you're pinned for the crime. As with other Thinkfun games, you must follow the instruction booklet closely throughout the game, which provides you with the narrative and instructs which puzzle to solve next. Each puzzle is almost like a multiple choice question as you are presented with several symbols to choose from, and the answer wheel will tell you whether or not you made the right choice.

The 3D model of the crime scene is admittedly well-made, with various cardboard props and cards stuck to the walls and the floors. But there's no as much useful detail on them as I would have liked; rather, the props are mostly used as envelopes containing more pieces of clues — some for immediate use, some for later.

The puzzles are, for the most part, just okay, and sometimes a little confusing. I think the main problem is the over-reliance on the instruction booklet to propel the story and the puzzles, which can really break the game flow and momentum. The answer wheel mechanic also feels too simplistic, because you can simply spam different answers until you get the right one. The thrill of unlocking a padlock when you get the right combination just isn't there.

We've had a lot of fun with mass-produced tabletop escape games before, but maybe we were expecting too much from the 3D set. It's not bad, just not as good as Secret of Dr. Gravely's Retreat, both in terms of narrative and puzzles. We've still got one more, Mystery at the Stargazer's Manor, coming up soon!

6/10