As far as I’m concerned, few things in life are more satisfying than solving a mystery. Whether it’s guessing who has done a murder in a soap opera, unmasking a criminal in a video game, or even sleuthing on social media to uncover a mate’s bullshit, that rush you get from using your powers of deduction to uncover the truth is unlike anything else. For most of us though this isn’t life or death, and we’ll never get to play detective in a more immersive setting. Well that changes now, thanks to Detective Box: Woodlock University.
Detective Box is a company that creates murder mysteries for you to solve in your own home, alongside as many people as you’d like. Currently there is only one of these available in English though, Woodlock University. This particular mystery comes in three parts, each of which features its own box of evidence. Solving the puzzles inside will take somewhere between two and three hours, and this also involves an online portal full of extra evidence.
Detective Box: starting out
Now I do have to admit, the very start of my group’s experience with Woodlock University was a little ropey. The game doesn’t do a great job of explaining that you need to jump into everything at once. Although I guess if you’re reading this that won’t be an issue. It did mean we were delayed in really understanding what to do. It turns out once you open that box and are logged on to the online portal, there’s a brief intro video to watch (where you’re introduced as a detective on the case) and then you should tear open all the evidence bags and scour through all the documents.
The case you’ll be working on in Woodlock University is that of the murder of Henry Coleman, a student at the titular university. It’ll be your task to narrow down the potential suspects who make this academy of excellence their home, be they roomies, staff members or rivals on Henry’s course. There are plenty of ways to do this, but your first bits of evidence worth investigating are physical.
The variety of evidence that comes in each episode of the Detective Box experience is really impressive. A lot of these are printed documents like crime scene reports, or sometimes more personal items like handwritten notes. Others are more impressive – like the fully realised yearbook complete with glossy paper and photos of each student and their course, or the map of the campus that you can use to immerse yourself in this fictional world. There are even some pieces of evidence that are puzzles in their own right, like a shredded document that needs piecing together. I won’t spoil the other surprises waiting for you in the boxes, but there are plenty of them.
Solving the case
As well as looking through the contents of your box, you’ll also need to use your online detective portal to help uncover the truth. You can do this in a number of ways. You can search for evidence in specific university buildings by typing what you’re looking for in a text box. You can also type in the names of suspects or persons of interest to get your detective buddies to interview them – complete with audio files of the conversations. Finally (and admittedly later on in the overall experience) you gain access to the police archives, where you can look at evidence relating to other crimes if you know the year they happened. It takes a bit of getting used to the online portion of Detective Box, but once you do it’s the perfect crime solving companion.
There’s one final piece of the crime solving puzzle that’s part of Detective Box: Woodlock University, and it’s the most immersive of all. Real world digital sleuthing is required to unlock the secrets of Henry’s death, and it truly brings you into the universe where this murder actually happened. Don’t be afraid to pick up your phone and search for websites or other online pieces of evidence, because this experience goes much further than just what’s in the box. Finding a custom made website or other piece of real world evidence feels absolutely amazing, and is one of the coolest things about the Detective Box.
I’ve talked about all the different evidence types you’ll be investigating in your quest for justice, but not actually your specific objectives. Obviously finding the killer is the main goal, but each box gives you a selection of tasks to complete along the way. These usually involve narrowing down suspects or finding answers to specific questions (like the owners of student ID numbers) and only by answering each question HQ asks will you finish a box. This is easier said than done, but fortunately there’s a rather robust hint system which will point you in the right direction anytime you need it. There is no shame in using this, and the lovely LGBTQ board game group I played with needed to use hints a handful of times to get the ball rolling.
What’s in an ending?
The magic of making big discoveries in Detective Box: Woodlock University is truly something most board games and video games will never manage to hit, but the overall package does have some problems. Perhaps the biggest of these is the absolutely terrible acting, be it voice or otherwise. This is sometimes pretty amusing, but especially when there’s the big reveal of the killer it completely ruins the moment. The ending in general is a bit of a dud too, because it’s really easy to work out who the killer is in box three without finding all the evidence required (which leads to you missing out on a few fun discoveries) and as such is a bit abrupt.
Detective Box: Woodlock University gives you the thrill of solving a murder in your own home, and is fantastic with a group of friends, family or otherwise. Providing about ten hours of entertainment, dozens of shocking reveals and loads of really impressive pieces of evidence, it’s a fantastic way to spend a few evenings that I won’t forget any time soon.