Agents, we've got a problem. One of MI6's top agents working against a South American cartel has gone missing and it's up to you to salvage the mission...should you choose to accept it. If the thought of secret agents and banks heists get your adrenaline surging, I highly urge you to check out Murder Mystery Party Case Files: Black Hawk. While the Murder Mystery Party series of games usually lets players take the role of a sleuth trying to crack a case, the Black Hawk Live Mission incorporates aspects of spy movies and novels along with a good old heist while still presenting a ton of mysteries to be puzzled through. Like most boxed mysteries, this one can be done as a solo experience or as a group.
COMPONENTS
The box contains a plethora of very cool looking clues to help players figure out what exactly is going on and what their next steps should be. There are maps, photographs, professional looking advertisements. Operative dossiers and on and on. You will also need some sort of web enabled device, like a phone or laptop, to execute your mission (we used both...a laptop for websites associated with the game and mobile phones to communicate with our agents, but more on that later!). All in all, you'll open the case file to find the instructions, twenty-eight pieces of evidence and seven operative photos and dossiers. Quite a lot of very sleek and professional looking components for a very reasonable price.
THE SETUP
The first couple of documents in the included folder lay out the parameters of the mission and as mentioned you'll need some sort of web-connected device to play. For this mission, you'' use the device to connect to various websites, both in-game creations and real world ones in order to do research. Prior to starting the mission itself, you'll need to download the Telegram app if you don't already have it (the instructions also say Whatsapp, but it looks like it was not enabled when we did the mission). This is where the “live” part of “Live Mission Game” comes into play...you'll receive text updates from the agents under your command and be able to instruct them to head to certain locations, perform specific actions, etc. This was without a doubt the most fun and most unique aspect of the mission. We've done many murder mystery boxes across a variety of publishers and none that I can recall had this “live” aspect, which really serves to immerse you in the game!
Agents, we've got a problem. One of MI6's top agents working against a South American cartel has gone missing and it's up to you to salvage the mission...should you choose to accept it. If the thought of secret agents and banks heists get your adrenaline surging, I highly urge you to check out Murder Mystery Party Case Files: Black Hawk. While the Murder Mystery Party series of games usually lets players take the role of a sleuth trying to crack a case, the Black Hawk Live Mission incorporates aspects of spy movies and novels along with a good old heist while still presenting a ton of mysteries to be puzzled through. Like most boxed mysteries, this one can be done as a solo experience or as a group.
COMPONENTS
The box contains a plethora of very cool looking clues to help players figure out what exactly is going on and what their next steps should be. There are maps, photographs, professional looking advertisements. Operative dossiers and on and on. You will also need some sort of web enabled device, like a phone or laptop, to execute your mission (we used both...a laptop for websites associated with the game and mobile phones to communicate with our agents, but more on that later!). All in all, you'll open the case file to find the instructions, twenty-eight pieces of evidence and seven operative photos and dossiers. Quite a lot of very sleek and professional looking components for a very reasonable price.
THE SETUP
The first couple of documents in the included folder lay out the parameters of the mission and as mentioned you'll need some sort of web-connected device to play. For this mission, you'' use the device to connect to various websites, both in-game creations and real world ones in order to do research. Prior to starting the mission itself, you'll need to download the Telegram app if you don't already have it (the instructions also say Whatsapp, but it looks like it was not enabled when we did the mission). This is where the “live” part of “Live Mission Game” comes into play...you'll receive text updates from the agents under your command and be able to instruct them to head to certain locations, perform specific actions, etc. This was without a doubt the most fun and most unique aspect of the mission. We've done many murder mystery boxes across a variety of publishers and none that I can recall had this “live” aspect, which really serves to immerse you in the game!
GAMEPLAY
As previously noted, after reading through the instructions, you are presented with a copious amount of photos, documents and printouts, in no particular order. As you study these components, players begin to piece together the mystery of what happened to Agent Usher, who was attempting to take down a cartel. You'll use deduction, visits to various websites and of course communication with each other and your virtual team members to organize the information and carry out the task that Agent Usher started. The websites designed for the game are another really fun aspect of Black Hawk. There's ones you'll need to investigate to garner clues and information on your targets, one's you'' hack into (inluding built-in timers to amp up the stress level) and references to real world websites that may even assist you in completing the caper satisfactorily. Black Hawk takes the murder mystery box genre of games and does a fantastic job of making it feel unique and stand out from the crowd. We picked it up not knowing what the “live mission” component was but we were extremely impressed with the execution of it.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
Murder Mystery Party: Black Hawk was not our first boxed mystery, or even the first University Games mystery we've done, but it was certainly one of the best. As mentioned above, the “evidence” is top notch and the live component was highly enjoyable. We split the four “contacts” between two players and besides the immersion value, it definitely created a bit of stress as we were doing one thing on a website or trying to work out a puzzle and our phones were alerting us as agents advised they were in position or looking for instructions of what to do next. I really felt like like I was in a spy or heist movie every time my phone alerted me that I had a new text! My only complaint, without giving away any spoilers to those who are going to play through Black Hawk is at one point a phone call needs to be made and there are several country specific phone numbers...use the UK number. The US number that we called was obviously set up for the game based on the recording we got, but did not give us the information we needed to progress, which was frustrating as we thought we were on the wrong track. But again, the “live” component came to the rescue, as you can text certain keywords to your agents for help and even the answer if you are stuck on anything.
Any of the murder mystery type games can be overwhelming the first time due to the amount of evidence you have to sift through which is not presented in any particular order (and even if it were, we often jump around, or split up documents, etc). That said, there's no time frame to complete the mission (except for the timed tasks on certain websites), so feel free to take all the time you need to out together a coherent narrative. You could even start, play for a bit, then put it aside to grab a bite to eat or even come back to it at a later time. However, with no “rules” new or inexperienced gamers can just enjoy the plot and puzzle solving without having to memorize any mechanics.
