Body of Evidence: Best Served Cold The Murder Mystery Autopsy Game | Ultimate Gift for Murder Mystery Lovers | Handmade & Incredibly Fun

This is a nicely made game where the players are tasked with solving a murder to include getting clues from performing an autopsy of the victim. There are detailed files and reports that are well-done and add some realism to the game.Four of us played and it took a little over three hours--so be prepared to commit some time to this. As should be obvious, you can only play it once without knowing the solution. It's a fun game, especially if you enjoy murder mysteries. I was impressed with the detail.

We like to watch shows like NCIS and Bones, this is a great game for us. Too bad it's single use, and is a bit expensive for a one time use game, which is the only reason I deducted one star.

We enjoy these sorts of games in the "escape-room-in-a-box"/clue-gathering-mystery-solving genre.This one sets itself apart, as is pretty clearly-advertised, with its cardboard cadaver that you autopsy by tearing or cutting open perforated areas at designated times to discover clues. It's a really unique gimmick, and I think it works really well.As with most cooperative solving games of this nature, it's flexible in how many people can play, to a point (it would be tough for more than 5 or 6 people at the most to be involved, and really capping it at their recommended 4 is probably wise).As is always the case with this sort of game, you're only going to play it once. So keep that in mind, obviously, and really it makes more sense to think about it as the centerpiece of an activity like a thematic party, a game-night gathering of interested people, a gift, and in general an experience. Most people have experiences they're happy to pay $40 for, so it's really up to you whether you think this might be one of them (and recall that for say 4 people, that's $10 each, less than a movie ticket).I think the puzzles are well-designed, the theme is well-realized, and it doesn't overstay it's welcome. Will probably take most groups somewhere in the 2-to-4 hour range to complete, if you're fairly focused on it.It's a deceptively small box, with quite a lot of content, in my opinion.

My partner and I enjoy murder mystery kits, and this one was the first where "performing a real-time autopsy" was part of it! I mean, the body is just layers of cardboard that you tear into when the instructions say to, but that still adds such a unique and memorable feel to it all. Heads up, the perforations aren't perfect so we had to use a box-cutter, but that didn't take away from the feel in any way. The mystery itself was about the right level of challenge; we figured it out and felt fairly smart for doing so.

This is not the first mystery or puzzle I have played from The Mysterious Package Company. They tend to do very high end experiences for you to solve or play. This one is the mid range of what I normally see from them. This is really just a bunch of paperwork you have to read and make timelines for. There isn't any puzzles to solve, other then figuring out who the murderer is and why.I have reviewed a few of these types of detective mysteries before and this does go beyond what you normally see. Usually it's suspects and evidence, and you go from there. This time there is autopsy, multiple steps you have to do first, and cards that will help you solve it. It does get a little confusing. However since they stop you each step of the way its not as bad as it could have been.If you like solving mysteries by just getting a bunch of facts, and finding how they relate to each other this could be fun. I don't really think it would work as a group activity, because it's 95% reading. However, if you were alone and you had a few hours to kill this is worth picking up!

My wife and I just finished playing this game, and we thoroughly enjoyed it for the most part. The mystery it built was very involved, and we probably went through blaming the entire cast of suspects at one point or another before we (successfully) solved the case. There are a lot of different pieces of evidence that it includes, and they're mostly all made in a way that mimics real-world items to amp up the verisimilitude. The main draw of the game is the cadaver itself, which actually allows you to perform an autopsy but cutting through different layers. (As a side note, the perforation on the cardstock was not very good, so we had to use an Exacto knife. I don't think this was intentional, but at least it had the side effect of making us feel like we were using a scalpel.)We completed this in about three-ish hours over the course of two evenings, though it probably could have been more if we were more thorough about looking over every detail in the evidence (because there were some clues we missed). The game says it's for 1-4 people, and I would say you want to have as many people as possible, not for difficulty reasons, but because this game can only be played once. I had done everything possible to minimize markings on the items, so that we could gift it to a friend afterward; but once we had to dissect the body, we realized this was one-and-done. So the more people you can fit into that experience, the more value you'll get from it.(As a side note, I am concerned that having a product with this little replayability has an intrinsic waste/environmental issue.)Aside from that, the only other complaint we had was that progress in the case occasionally seemed rather arbitrary, as did some of the autopsy elements. Actual medical knowledge doesn't help. For example, the very first autopsy element is looking at a cut, and the shape of that would determine the weight of the assailant. It's moments like this that seem too much like a video game puzzle and less like an actual deductive mystery.Still, despite these issues, at the end of the day, my wife and I came out of this very satisfied with our experience. If you're looking for a group activity for an evening or two, and don't mind spending $40 for a single-use game, this is a really solid option.