Case Solved: The London Files | PC Review

August 5, 2026 David Newman

After reviewing The Mermaid Mask, I had to jump back into another detective adventure. I was excited to get an opportunity to review Case Solved: The London Files from Minimol Games. Even if it did not scratch the itch for me to dive back into a deep crime scene investigation, it succeeded in its intention of being a cozy, deductive puzzle game that may appeal to players seeking a relaxed, casual experience.

The London Files

You play as a detective in a more modern, but noir-inspired London. The main story has you solving three unconnected cases. Who strangled the American musician in Fatal Chord? How did the lead collapse dead on stage in The Last Act? And how did time stop at Big Ben in Stolen Time?

Case Solved: The London Files does not intend to be a sprawling narrative. Instead, to create a narrative, they include short moments of written dialogue in between each stage. They attempted to be funny and clever, and they succeeded some of the time. Something I found off-putting was the inclusion of “gibberish” when a character had written dialogue. Although you can turn the “gibberish” off in the settings, I found it distracting, and occasionally the voice did not match the character. Again, the developers made it clear on the game’s Steam page that they were not creating a deep narrative, but really creating a detective twist to a deductive puzzle game.

Case Solved

Each case has five stages to deduce who committed the crime. You will talk to each person in the stage to either gather clues or a hint of a potential clue. To be clear, you are not questioning the person; you just click them, and it gives you the clue. You can also find one cat in each stage, which gives you one hint during your deductions. Questioning the characters and finding the clues are largely unnecessary, as the detective work is minuscule and mainly sets up the detective puzzles.

After all clues are found, you must make your deductions via a zebra-style deduction. You must match a certain aspect with a specific person, like what their motive might be. You will have to use logic to sort through phrases to determine these aspects. An example might be: “The stagehand was neither at the stage nor at the balcony,” or, “Suspect #3’s motive was jealousy.” When you have met the requirements of a phrase, it will receive a green check. If not, it will have a red X. Once you have placed all your assumptions, you can move to the next stage.

I found the zebra-style deductive puzzles to be fun and each case increasing in difficulty. Especially during the last case, I really had to think through everything. Something I appreciated was that after you have used a specific aspect, for example, like jealousy for motive, it will cross off that specific one for the other suspects. However, I would have hoped to have the ability to cross something off myself. It is a minor nitpick, but would have been a nice feature.

Secret Files

After you have completed the initial section, there is a separate mode called “Secret Files”. These are 42 standalone puzzles that do not require finding the environmental clues or questioning people. However, these can only be accessed by finding codes to unlock them, most within the game, but some even on the Steam page hidden throughout. While I enjoyed doing these puzzles during the main story, I personally am not going to take a bunch of time to find these hidden codes to play “Secret Files.” I have found five of these codes, but will either wait until someone posts those codes, or skip the rest of these puzzles.

Final Verdict

Case Solved: The London Files might not be the next big detective game, but it does succeed in its intentions of a cozy, zebra-style deductive puzzle game. The puzzles are fair, fun, and increase in difficulty throughout the main story. However, the story is mostly unnecessary and quite short, only taking me about two hours to complete. The “Secret Files” would be a nice game mode, but I have little desire to find hidden codes in both the game and the Steam page. If you are looking for a captivating, crime-solving mystery, Case Solved: The London Files is not trying to be that game. But if you are looking for a reason to play some deductive puzzles, it might be worth checking out, at the right price.

To hear me talk more about Case Solved: The London Files, be sure to listen to the August 5th, 2026 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:27:16 time stamp.

The review is based on a PC copy of Case Solved: The London Files provided by Secret Sauce for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, iOS, and Android.