Cold Case Bureau vs Asticus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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. 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 ninety 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.
Asticus
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A fresh murder mystery every time you play. Asticus drops you into a real city where a murder has just occurred. Interview suspects, visit crime scenes, examine evidence, and piece together what happened. Every case is generated by AI, so no two games are ever the same. Interrogate suspects in real-time conversations Ask anything you want. Suspects respond naturally, each with their own personality, secrets, and agenda. Some will help. Some will lie. It's up to you to tell the difference. Investigate real locations around the world. Each mystery is set in a real city — from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires, Chicago to Istanbul. Visit landmarks, examine physical evidence, and connect the dots between people and places. Build your case from the ground up. Track suspect timelines. Spot contradictions. Cross-reference alibis with physical evidence. When you're ready, make your arrest — but you'd better be sure. Key features - AI-generated mysteries set in real cities worldwide - Open-ended suspect interviews — ask whatever you want - Physical evidence and crime scene investigation - Multiple suspects with interconnected stories - No two cases are ever the same
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Asticus at every 3 weeks against Cold Case Bureau's every 2 months. Asticus also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.6). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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 ships an update every 2 months, Asticus every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cold Case Bureau | Asticus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (8 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 25 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Thomas Masters | Mensah Software Ltd |
In-app purchases
Cold Case Bureau
No in-app purchases
Asticus
No in-app purchases









