You’re excited to go on the hunt for a legendary treasure, but when your old pal professor winds up dead, you’re left needing to solve a murder first. On top of that, the powerful secret organization “Mosquito” is is also after the treasure, and will stop at nothing to get it for themselves. Will you be able to solve the murder and outsmart the crooks? Let’s find out!

*Note: There may be minor spoilers in some content / images below*

What Is It?

🥅The Goal of the game is for players to solve the murder, and then find the treasure!

⚙️Cooperative – Players work together to solve the crime
⚙️Narrative Mystery / Deduction – Players will be visiting various locations, talking to suspects, and making connections to find all the information they need. They’ll need to pay close attention and take plenty of notes along the way in order to do well, as their decisions at certain points can also prove essential to getting the right information
⚙️Digital Hybrid – Players will need to use the internet (research, email, hints, etc) to progress in the game

Who Is It For?

👥1 or More Players – I prefer multi-player for this style of game so you can look at things from different angles. I think 2 to 4 works well, as long as you have a solid team who can communicate well
👥Ages 13 & Up – Gameplay isn’t too challenging, but maybe “young adult”+ just due to the content
👥Fans of narrative games with a mystery to solve

PROS

🟢Aesthetics – Not a ton of art, but what there is is good. Good graphic design. And I think it looks cool on the table, like a very classic “evidence board”
🟢Components – Decent quality all around
🟢Story was well-written and immersive; Theme in general is fun and works well for this style of game
🟢It’s not completely linear, but it also doesn’t give you too much info at once so it’s not overwhelming
🟢There were some really clever/unique puzzles; some very interactive, some trickier, but all had great “aha!” moments
🟢Different paths/choices/outcomes depending on how you want to interact with characters
🟢You don’t have to destroy anything while playing, so it could be passed on or played again

CONS

🔴Some cards or choices were a bit vague, so it wasn’t always instantly clear what we needed to do next
🔴There is a lot of reading, so make sure everyone is happy to take turns reading the cards out loud
🔴I wish the main board was dry erase, though that would of course up the cost of the game. I use plastic sheets so I don’t have to write on it, so it’s more easily replayable. You can also keep track of notes/stars/time on separate paper

Final Thoughts

So far, in this series I have played Vendetta, Rapture, and now Mosquito, and I think this one is my favorite so far! I thought the story was immersive, the puzzles were clever, and I loved the 2-part structure of solvingg the murder and then going on to look for the treasure. It felt a bit like 2 slightly different games, that were connected by the overall narrative, and I thought it worked really well.

I am someone who tends to enjoy these narrative mystery type of games, but I thought this was approachable enough that if you haven’t played this style of game much, or at all, yet, it can be a good entry point too. Definitely recommend this one!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 8/10

Designer – Lukas Setzke, Martin Student, Verena Wiechens
Publisher – KOSMOS
MSRP – $24.95
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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