ColdCase vs Cold Case Bureau
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ColdCase
Engage in a story-driven detective game where you solve unsolved crime files. Analyze clues, question witnesses, and make critical decisions to uncover the truth. Your choices shape the outcome of each case.
- Story-driven gameplay
- Unsolved crime cases
- Clue analysis
- Witness statements
- Decision-based outcomes
- Intuitive questioning
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ColdCase is a story-driven detective game that pulls players into unsolved crime files. Each case is filled with clues, witness statements, and hidden connections. By asking the right questions, analyzing details, and trusting your instincts, you work your way toward the truth. Throughout the game, you encounter different cases, each shaped by your decisions. Incorrect assumptions can lead you astray, while accurate connections help you close the file. ColdCase rewards careful thinking rather than rushed choices.
Cold Case Bureau
Engage in a slow-paced mystery game where you analyze case files, evidence, and suspect testimonies to uncover contradictions. Piece together clues on your investigation board to solve crimes and advance your detective career through increasingly challenging tiers.
- Analyze case files and evidence
- Identify contradictions in testimonies
- Use an investigation board
- Progress through difficulty tiers
- Offline play
- Reputation system
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One case a day. The same case for everyone. Nothing to buy, no ads, no account. Cold Case Bureau puts a case file on your desk: the victim, the suspects, the evidence, and somewhere inside it, one story that doesn't hold together. Read the file. Find the two statements that can't both be true. Pin them on the board and watch the string pull tight. Then build your theory, not a guess from a menu, but an argument, element by element. Get part of it right and that part locks in. Get part of it wrong and the case tells you exactly which part, and lets you keep working. THE DAILY CASE Every day the Bureau opens one case, and it's the same case for every player in the world. Solve it, keep your streak alive, and share your result. A spoiler-free grid that shows how you did without giving anything away. SEASONS Six linked cases told in order, at your own pace. Season One, The Ninth Desk: every file holds an older case the Bureau closed too quickly, and the same violet stamp on each one. Close a case, and the Season File tells you what you've found. INVESTIGATE Four Case Hours, and a case that offers more than four hours of leads. Press a suspect with a piece of evidence and what they say depends on what you chose to show them. Pull records nobody asked for. Send evidence to the lab. Earn a warrant with proof from your board. A wasted half hour is on you, but the case can always be closed from the file alone. Nothing is ever locked behind a guess. THE INVESTIGATION BOARD Real red string. Connect two pieces of evidence that contradict each other and the connection is established permanently. The board is where you prove people are lying. THE ARCHIVE More than a hundred past Daily cases, free to work in any order, from quick Rookie files to five-suspect Senior investigations with paper trails that close like a net. FAIR PLAY, GUARANTEED Every case is verified solvable from its own evidence before it ships. Every question has exactly one answer the file supports. If you reason correctly, you win - that's the whole promise. No ads. No purchases. No timers that want your money. Just cases.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Cold Case Bureau at 4.2 against ColdCase's 3.0. Cold Case Bureau also leads on ratings volume (9 vs 1). ColdCase's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Cold Case Bureau holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cold Case Bureau has 9 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
ColdCase ships an update fortnightly, Cold Case Bureau every 2 months. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.
| Parameter | ColdCase | Cold Case Bureau |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) | 4.2 (9 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 9 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 162 MB | 22 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Zehra Koc | Thomas Masters |
Customer experience
ColdCase
Cold Case Bureau
In-app purchases
ColdCase
No in-app purchases
Cold Case Bureau
No in-app purchases









