G@mebox author Ralf Togler writes about the game:

To be honest: that's my first review of a detective game. It's hard to begin. How can I tell you more about the game without blowing secrets out? I mean, you are the players who should solve the murder. For that's what has happened. A fire has destroyed a house in the small town Adlerstein. And the homeowner has been recovered dead. The police also has a suspect, or better this suspect is on the run from the police.

And he thinks he's innocent. Why else should he send us his criminal report and ask us for help? That's where we are starting. No more rules, no more explanations, just the criminal report. Inside: Some papers with notes from the police, photos we can't make any sense of, a newspaper with daily news and some findings from the crime scene. Or wasn't it a murder? Was it just an accident?

The answer is: you can never be sure. Oh wait, that's not correct. You cannot be sure most of the time you are playing the game. I mean: it's all there. All hints, clues, riddles, the persons. Nothing is hidden. In contrast to e.g. the Exit games, you have no chronology order you must follow. You can begin wherever you want. And other players – if you are playing cooperative – can start with different hints. Not everything makes sense at the very beginning. But gradually things are beginning to match. And hopefully, in the end, you will be able to ascertain what has really happened.

Detective Stories: The Fire in Adlerstein has deeply impressed me. The game is designed as a realistic criminal case, that's what the publisher promises us. I cannot judge if it's really realistic, but I can assure you that it feels like. You really have no idea at the beginning what you must do. Then you begin reading the newspaper looking for something noticeable. Another player looks at the photos and talks about the persons he sees. And still another one tries to make sense from the notes someone has written down. And you dig deep into the criminal case, forgetting all other things around you.

It's not easy to solve the case. Definitely no kids game! But try to make use of your smartphone, this might help (and maybe you even need to use it, who knows...). I am sure that most of you will solve the case in the end. For me, the only bad thing you can say about the game is that you can only play it once. But if you are careful about the game components, you can still give the game to some friends of you, because nothing must really be destroyed. A perfect detective game by a small German publisher!

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Copyright © 2019 Ralf Togler & Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Essen, Germany