Detective Protocol vs Cold Case Bureau
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Detective Protocol
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THEY CAN LIE TO YOU. CAN YOU CATCH THE CRIMINAL? Interrogate unscripted AI suspects that react to every question, hide details, and crack under pressure. Solve procedurally generated murder, theft, and arson cases using clues, alibis, and contradictions. No dialogue trees. No scripted conversations. Just your deduction skills, the evidence, and a suspect who wants to walk free. INTERROGATE THE SUSPECT Skip the multiple-choice buttons. Type your own questions and chat naturally with AI suspects. They have secrets to protect, and they may lie, deflect, or turn hostile under pressure. ENDLESS CASE FILES Every investigation is generated to feel fresh, with new suspects, motives, and contradictions in every session. CHOOSE YOUR SETTING Take on high-stakes cases across distinctive worlds, from gritty noir investigations to futuristic crime scenes and classic deduction mysteries. PRIVATE, IMMERSIVE GAMEPLAY Experience dynamic on-device case generation and interrogation designed to keep every investigation tense, replayable, and personal. Think you can catch the guilty suspect? Open your first case file and start the interrogation.
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 review sentiment: Cold Case Bureau at 50% against Detective Protocol's 0%. Cold Case Bureau also leads on rating (4.2 vs 1.0) and in-app purchases (none vs 5). Detective Protocol's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 2 months). On price and device support 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. Detective Protocol sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Cold Case Bureau asks for nothing beyond the download.
Cold Case Bureau holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 1.0. 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. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Detective Protocol's written reviews are positive against 50% of Cold Case Bureau's.
Detective Protocol ships an update every 8 days, Cold Case Bureau every 2 months. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Detective Protocol | Cold Case Bureau |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) | 4.2 (9 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 9 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 27.0 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 82 MB | 22 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Miguel Vieira | Thomas Masters |
Customer experience
Detective Protocol
Cold Case Bureau
In-app purchases
Detective Protocol
- Global Jurisdiction$2.99
- Elite Training Module$2.99
- Visual-Freq Upgrade$2.99
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- Restricted Case Files$2.99
- Director's Clearance$9.99
Cold Case Bureau
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Detective Protocol free?
Is Cold Case Bureau free?
Which has better reviews, Detective Protocol or Cold Case Bureau?
Do Detective Protocol or Cold Case Bureau have ads?
Which is updated more often, Detective Protocol or Cold Case Bureau?
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