Photo above is property of A Killing Affair
Company: A Killing Affair
Game: Season 3 - Happy Death Day
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬
Genre: Murder Mystery, Detective
Date Played: June 26, 2022
Difficulty (based on 1 player): 7/10
Size of Team: 1-6 Players (Ages 14+)
Time: Unlimited (Suggested time 8 hrs)
Price: $170.00 (Set), $38.00/ Episode
Video above is property of A Killing Affair
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 - EPISODE 1
You’ve only just finished your last case (an arson!) with the Lovely Police Department only to receive an urgent letter from Detectives Trish Tate and Kim Kimbell regarding a series of kidnappings! With six people already missing, there are concerns that soon bodies may begin to appear and everyone is on edge. The detectives hope you can pour over each case file to see if you can help eliminate suspects regarding the disappearances and your first file follows a double kidnapping! Both victims work for the same company but is that all that connects them? Time to start digging!
Inventory List for Episode 1:"Welcome Back" Starting flyer
Letter from Detective Trish Tate
Lovely Outer City map
Sticky notes or notebook
Photo page of victims and suspects
Police Report containing incident report, criminal histories of some characters, suspect interviews, news clippings, missing flyers, copy of emails, and handwritten note
Evidence bags (3) containing a card, victim's purse, rearview photo card and clip
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 - EPISODE 2
One week following the first set of kidnappings, another citizen of Lovely, Florida goes missing and the detectives have quite a few clues but no solid leads. It appears all three victims are tied together but nailing down one specific anchor has proven a challenge… until the recent victim’s partner found a piece of evidence that provides a potential tie. Your task is to examine the clues and explore any leads to eliminate one more suspect. We need to hurry as more and more time goes by, the less likely the victims are alive!
Inventory List for Episode 2:"Welcome Back" Starting flyer
Letter from Detective Kim Kimbell
Photo strip of new witnesses, suspects, and victims
Hint envelope (these are being phased out)
Police Report containing incident report, witness statements, news clippings, suspect interviews, missing poster
Evidence bags (4) containing files from victim's company, a glasses case, paper airplane left at victim's home, victim's ID badge, suspect's name tag
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 - EPISODE 3
The next kidnapping, Detective Kim Kimbell lays on your proverbial desk a very well known name across the city. Your investigation has so far proven that this criminal is specifically targeting people they perceive as guilty of some crime and while there are a lot of dirty dealings going on, you’re not sure where one ends and another begins. With a new set of evidence and a government official’s life on the line, it’s time to start digging and eliminate one more suspect!
Inventory List for Episode 3:"Welcome Back" Starting flyer
Letter from Detective Kim Kimbell
Photo strip with new suspects, witnesses, and victims
Evidence bags (4) containing coin purse, index cards, another paper airplane, and a cat card
Police report containing incident report, scene diagram, witness statement, crime scene photos, suspect interviews, pamphlet, missing person poster, news clippings
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 - EPISODE 4
We are getting so close I can feel it! This recent kidnapping was noticed earlier than the rest, so the detectives hope this might give us the edge we need to crack this case. The recent victim appears to have close ties with all the other victims somehow, but we need more evidence. The kidnapper continues to leave coded messages and the victims’ families are hiding secrets that are bound to reveal something. Let’s see what we can uncover today!
Inventory List for Episode 4:"Welcome Back" Starting flyer
Letter from Detective Kim Kimbell
Police report containing incident report, crime scene diagram, passport appication of a suspect, suspect interviews, missing person poster, news clipping, crumbled up note
Evidence bags (5) containing paper airplane note, lotion, scrap of paper, receipt, and victim's journal
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 - EPISODE 5
In the final episode, Detective Trish Tate has rushed out the final case file to you. It has been 49 days since the first kidnapping and 21 since the most recent. It seems all the kidnappings are focused around something going on secretly within the community but there are still a few loose threads to unravel. We are so close so now, there is no time to dawdle… let’s end this!
Inventory List for Episode 5:"Welcome Back" Starting flyer
Letter from Detective Trish Tate
Suspect, witness, victim photo strip
"Thank You" gift
Police report containing summary investigation notes, missing person's report, suspect interviews, missing person's poster, news clippings
Evidence bags (3) containing flashlight, plastic pieces, and CD case
Drawstring bag containing wooden blocks with a note attached
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞
I really appreciate the detail that A Killing Affair puts into their boxes - each box you receive has an eye-catching newspaper graphic, caution tape wrapped around the lid, and a missing person’s sticker that highlights the theme of this particular season. In the top right corner of each box is a white sticker labelling the episodes which I felt was much easier to see, compared to last season’s small stamp. Inside each box, is a personalized letter from the Lovely Police force as well as various items you will need to solve the case, including case files, evidence bags, and more that work together to help eliminate suspects and to piece together what is happening in Lovely, Florida this time around. As you move through the boxes, you will continue to narrow down suspects and in between some of the boxes (episodes 1, 2, and 3 in season 3) are smaller envelopes that can introduce new characters, tease out plot elements, and contextualize things that you may have missed if you haven’t played all the seasons to date.
This game does require access to the internet as the physical components will lead you to websites, ask you to send emails, encourage you to call numbers (if you are outside the USA a transcript is on the website), and challenge you with locked web pages that may contain important information. There is also a checklist on the website that you can access using the code in the welcome letter.
Photos above are property of A Killing Affair
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
A Killing Affair wants you to embrace the feeling of being a true detective as you unravel the story of Lovely, Florida. You are not simply just solving a series of missing persons, but you realize that there is a lot of history and world building that goes into creating these games where every character has a full backstory. Even the back of the newspapers can sometimes carry little easter eggs that help flesh out the story.
Now, the main avenue of the adventure follows reading the introduction letter from the lead detective to know what your goal is in the episode - as you progress, they will also help highlight key points from previous boxes to help refresh you. After getting your instructions (ie. how many people are you meant to eliminate today) you have an open world scenario to choose how you want to begin your investigation from reading interviews, finding websites, accessing calendars, and more to learn what may have been happening to these people. In a way you are A) trying to find and corroborate alibis and B) trying to figure out the motive of the current crime, as in what happened that has instigated these kidnappings.
Once you have exhausted all avenues in the box and websites you can submit your eliminated suspect(s) on the game’s website to check if you are on the right track.
Like I recommended in the previous review of "Season 2: Playing With Fire", I highly recommend keeping notes while playing this game. The notes should be used for jotting down suspects and details that can help address potential alibis/ incriminating information, or keep a chronological order of the history happening in the background that helps explain the motive for the crimes. These games require a lot of reading and you will need to draw information from previous boxes to help in the end, so make sure you have all your boxes together!
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
The puzzling in "Season 3: Happy Death Day" was similar to the previous season but leaned more towards a medium difficulty level. These puzzles consist of ciphers, locked computers, hidden messages, with a dash of deduction. I felt the deduction was a little easier this season, but it was balanced with a more challenging set of puzzles. The signposting is a little more spread out in this season and I recommend using a big table to keep things spread out and keep all websites up until you complete your episode because small clues can be important and there were quite a few times I was opening up my Google history to try and bring up a website I exited out earlier because I remember seeing something. I feel this style of puzzling attracts the seasoned players who know their way around A Killing Affair games. The puzzles themselves are challenges you may have seen around but they are not the first puzzles you would dabble with because they do require more steps and processes to solve them - if you feel confident in your cipher and logic puzzling, you may have an easier time navigating this adventure. I appreciated the challenge and I felt it meant more after playing the first two seasons, so I also recommend playing "Season 1: Independence Day Killer" and "Season 2: Playing With Fire" before trying out this experience.
As mentioned previously, there is a hint system on the website for each puzzle when you get stuck. I think the only time I accessed it was when I was unsure what to do with a piece of information I solved earlier.
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
"Happy Death Day" is a challenging, yet rewarding detective adventure that builds a fascinating story filled with twists and turns that I thoroughly enjoyed navigating. There were quite a few times I got the age old detective gut feeling about a character that would later prove right, but it was solving the clues and unlocking the information that made for a more enriching experience when I could prove my gut feeling true. This is a great game for those who love exploration and really digging into the world of their games, both online and in a box. After concluding this adventure, I am left with the question, “Is Lovely, Florida ever going to catch a break?” and the puzzler in me sincerely hopes not as I am eager to return for the next case!
Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:
Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank A Killing Affair for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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