Appworthy

Strange Investigations 1: F2P

Solve puzzles and brain teasers in this detective adventure !

Elephant Games AR LLC
Get it onGoogle Play
Google Play rating3.7★618 ratings
PriceFreeIn-app purchases
Age12+Store age rating
CategoryGames
DeveloperElephant Games AR LLC

What we found

Full report

Some warnings 18 users report having to wait or pay to keep going. Nothing confirmed. Checked: 124 reviews.

Money

Paywalls and prices

From our automated analysis, 31 Oct 2026. Every label links to its evidence in the full report below.

This analysis describes version 1.2.6 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-31 .

The store currently lists version 1.2.6, updated 2022-01-17.

Preview

Screenshot 1Screenshot 2Screenshot 3Screenshot 4Screenshot 5Screenshot 6Screenshot 7Screenshot 8

Store screenshots supplied by the developer.

About this app

Solve puzzles and brain teasers in this detective adventure ! Enjoy the search and find for hidden objects! Your target is to seek the stranger things to stop the murder.

Can you solve the criminal case of “Strange Investigations: Becoming”? Test your skills in thrilling hidden object puzzles, explore crime scenes, stop the criminal and save an innocent victim! Immerse into the complicated sleuthing of Strange Investigations agency’s private detective!

Investigator had been searching for the maniac who kidnapped her sister for many years. She managed to arrest him, but it was too late to save her sister. Dana quit her police detective job. After a while her small town of Rainville was suddenly shocked by yet another kidnapping. You’ll have to play as a brave detective who is trying to defeat the ghosts of the past and the maniac in the present.…

From the developer’s store description.

For developers and the curious

The full report

The evidence, sources, measurements and versions behind every label above.

Findings and evidence

1 published · 1 shown, not confirmed

Positives 1

Specific evidence of a useful property, within the stated scope.

Developer says data deletion can be requested

Measured

The developer's store data-safety disclosure states that data deletion can be requested; we have not seen a deletion control in the app's own text

Sources
The store listing
Agreement
A measured fact from one deterministic, checkable source.
Where measured
From the Google Play listing
Definition

The developer's data-safety disclosure on the store states that users can request deletion of their data, or the app's own text offers a way to delete the account. This restates what the developer declares; it is not a test of whether deletion works. Apple publishes no equivalent disclosure, so on an Apple-only listing only the app's own text can support it.

Open evidence

One source only — shown, not confirmed 1

Open observations that have not cleared the evidence bar.

Progress pauses until you wait or pay

One source only

Energy / timer gating: raised by 18 distinct reviewers (about 1 in 7 reviews we read)

Sources
User reviews
Agreement
Only one kind of source so far. Shown, not counted.
Where measured
From Google Play reviews

This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.

Definition

Use is rationed by an energy/hearts/lives meter that runs out and forces a wait or a purchase.

Open evidence
How we know
Share and sample
14.5% of the 124 reviews read.

Nothing was published as a thing to watch for in this assessment. That is not a finding that nothing is wrong with the app.

What reviewers report

124 reviews read · 1 review-based observation

124 reviews read for this analysis. Each observation keeps the sample and store it was based on.

Progress pauses until you wait or pay

Shown, not confirmed

I don't really like this new UX. I preferred buying yhe game because I like to just play through. If I wanted to do that now it seems it would be very expensive. I don't want to play just a bit and wait for the energy to recharge. That…

2★ · Google Play · 2022-03-06

I like the game but very frustrating is the energy you lose and you can not see when running out of energy.. keeps coming up that you run out and I can only play a little of the game each day unless I pay near £5 to play on and that don't…

3★ · Google Play · 2021-08-10

You shouldn't advertise this game as f2p. The game requires energy that players need to buy to proceed. Even if some energy replenishes over time, I don't download a f2p game to wait hours to play when there are other good options out…

1★ · Google Play · 2022-03-09

A sampled review illustrates one person’s experience. It does not establish a finding on its own.

Measurements

5 measured · 3 not assessed

“Not assessed” means we could not measure it. It is never a zero and never a pass.

From store data and reviews

Developer replies to reviews
Replies to at least 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
The store description doesn’t list prices (most don’t)
Cancelling, in the store description
The store description doesn’t say how to cancel (most don’t)
Themes reported by reviewers
1 theme reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
Under 65% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.

In the app package we scanned

No package has been scanned for this app, so nothing is published about what it ships. That is an absence of evidence, not a finding.

Sensitive permissions
Not assessed
No package has been scanned for this app
Analytics or tracking SDKs in the scanned package
Not assessed
No package has been scanned for this app
Advertising SDKs in the scanned package
Not assessed
No package has been scanned for this app
How we know

Supporting measurements: not a complete list of possible harms or positives. Measurement vocabulary 1.4 · how these are measured

Versions and dates analysed

Assessed 31 Oct 2026

This analysis describes version 1.2.6 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-31 .

The store currently lists version 1.2.6, updated 2022-01-17.

Store update history

Each store’s release notes, as the developer wrote them. They are the developer’s words, not ours.

Google Play

Version 1.2.6 · 2022-01-17

No release notes were provided for this version.

Assessment record

Status
Automated analysis
App identifier
strange-investigations-1
Assessment date
31 Oct 2026
Sources used
1 independent signal: user reviews
Reviews read
124
Package examined
No package scan
Human inspection
Not completed

Assessed 2026-10-31 from 124 user reviews. We have not scanned the app's package, so nothing on this page was read from inside the app itself.

How we know
Measurement vocabulary
1.4

How this page was produced

Analyzed 2026-10-31 Version analyzed: 1.2.61 independent signal124 reviews scannedConfidence: HighNot human-reviewedVocabulary v1.14Methodology v1.3
Signals run: user reviews. Not yet checked: SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure.

Store facts

Google Play

What the stores publish. Store ratings are the stores’ numbers, not Appworthy’s, and are never averaged across stores.

Google Play

Store rating
3.70 ★ · 618 ratings
Version
1.2.6
Updated
17 Jan 2022
Price
Free · In-app purchases
Age rating
12+
Size
Not supplied
Open in Google Play
Developer
Elephant Games AR LLC
Category
Games
Listing price
Free · In-app purchases

Purchases the store lists

 What this app sells
Google Play doesn’t publish per-purchase prices.

Method and limits

What this report can and cannot show

How the automated analysis works

This assessment is produced automatically. One independent signal is read — user reviews — and each candidate finding is filed under the source that supports it.

No charge stands on one kind of evidence — with one published exception. A finding is either a measured fact that anyone can reproduce (an ad SDK is in the package; every recurring plan the store lists is named as weekly, the term read from the purchase names, with a list cut off at the store’s 10-item maximum not assessed; the privacy label omits a tracker we can see), or it is an interpretation — and an interpretation needs independent sources to agree before it reaches the catch list. The exception is a harm only users can see: a charge may publish from reviews alone, as “Reported by N users”, once enough reviewers raise it to clear that charge’s own published bar. That agreement rule is what replaced the human reviewer, not a model’s confidence.

There is no overall score, on purpose. A 0–99 number was published here until 2026-09-15. It was withdrawn because it discriminated too weakly to be the instrument — 44.7% of every pair of apps tied — and because a single number is a verdict where a count is an observation. What publishes instead is a row of measurements, each of which says what was counted and, where we could not look, says that instead.

Findings under One source only are real reports we do not stand behind as findings. They are shown because withholding them entirely would hide a genuine complaint, and labelled because publishing them as charges would be an accusation off a single source.

Limits of this report

  • A package scan is static. It identifies code and text in one Android build. It does not measure a live ad session, test a deletion request, or count the steps needed to cancel.
  • Reviews keep their sample. A review-only charge shows distinct reviewers, the share and the sample size, and is published only once it clears that label’s published threshold. Calibration labels are machine-drafted and not yet confirmed by a person.
  • Not assessed is a state. It is never a zero and never a pass.
  • A missing label is not a clean bill of health. It means the evidence did not support one, not that the app is problem-free.
Not yet human-reviewed. A hands-on test can confirm or contradict a finding and adds its own measurements; it does not change a measurement row. Hands-on inspections are not yet open.
Review thresholds Read the methodology For developers

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