Being a detective sounds glamorous until you realise it mostly involves staring at clues, making notes and pretending you definitely know what’s going on. Case Solved: The London Files leans fully into that idea, offering a series of logic puzzles wrapped in a murder mystery across a stylish version of London. Sadly, once the novelty wears off, you’re left doing more spreadsheet management than sleuthing.
Gaming Heaven
The presentation is pleasant enough. The hand-drawn locations have a cosy noir feel, the character artwork is full of personality, and the gentle jazz soundtrack does its best to convince you something thrilling is happening.
Each of the fifteen cases introduces a fresh cast of suspects and a different setting, helping to stop everything looking identical. Fans of traditional logic puzzles will also appreciate that every mystery has a proper solution based on deduction rather than guesswork.
Gaming Hell
Unfortunately, solving crimes rarely feels like actual detective work. Instead, you’re repeatedly chatting to everyone, collecting clues and transferring them onto a deduction board before slowly filling in boxes until the answer eventually reveals itself. It’s less Sherlock Holmes and more enthusiastic office admin.
The stories are little more than excuses to deliver another puzzle, so don’t expect gripping investigations or memorable characters. Once you’ve solved one case, you’ve effectively seen everything the game has to offer.
The pace is painfully pedestrian too. Conversations are functional rather than engaging, discoveries lack excitement, and there’s very little sense of building tension before exposing the culprit. Every investigation feels strangely flat.
Even at around three to four hours long, repetition creeps in surprisingly quickly. By the halfway point, I was solving puzzles out of stubbornness rather than genuine curiosity.
Final Judgement
Case Solved: The London Files isn’t broken, but it’s far too dry to recommend unless you’re utterly obsessed with logic grids. The attractive art and relaxing soundtrack deserve credit, yet they’re not enough to disguise a repetitive formula that strips all the excitement out of solving a murder. Sometimes the biggest mystery is how something about serial killers manages to feel this sleepy.
