Chronicles of Crime
Chronicles of Crime is a cooperative game of criminal investigation mixing board game, an app and a touch of Virtual Reality. You and your team will be put on crime cases, moving all around town, interviewing suspects or witnesses, and searching for clues in 3D scenes!
The base game comes with 6 scenarios (1 tutorial + 5 investigations) for a total of 6 to 8 hours of gameplay. More scenarios will be released later!
60m - 90m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 14+
-Morphling-
My wife and I love the concept of this game but for us, the execution falls short. There are too many dead ends where you're just grasping at straws with no leads. You spend so much time questioning random people until you find the one that might give you a clue and then it seems like you're right back at square one. When you eventually manage to progress the case, it often feels like you've stumbled through randomly rather than through using deduction. Each investigation is mainly on rails and if you try to deviate from one of the few tracks, it won't let you continue unless you question the right people in the right order. And in the final stage of the game, you just guess the who, what, and why with a lot of conjecture and hearsay rather than with definitive evidence. It doesn't make you feel like a detective at all as all of our "evidence" would make for a very flimsy court case. We somehow won both times we played... and it wasn't satisfying. I would play more, but it was so frustrating the first two times that I feel like I don't want to waste any more time with it. We tried 2 player and 3 player and I honestly think solo might be best. Often times the person with the phone is the only one who's actually doing anything while the other players are just observing, particularly when there are no leads (which is most of the game). We also didn't like the crime scene investigation using the app. The graphics weren't crisp enough to make out what certain objects were supposed to be so we missed a lot of clues. I would say that maybe we aren't great at detective/deduction games, but we did alright with Sherlock Holmes and that game is known for being difficult. Anyway, this game has rave reviews (and the app integration is a clever idea), so maybe the problem is just that it isn't for us.
ajewo
Narrative, cooperative crime investigation game with App integration. Players can make cross-references with the app: scan QR-tag of a person and a item, the App tells the story. What makes it special? * Using an App (QR-tags) to question people and finding clues * Provides an expandable sandbox framework (similar to Time Stories) + Based on several cases with different themes + Modular re-used location, clue, and person cards that are used in several cases (different roles depending on the case). Players unlock new locations and persons by interacting with them via the App. + Dynamic, innovative cross-referencing story system using an App: some references may change over time, e.g., a person may get murdered during an investigation, or players found out that a person is lying to them. + Fun scanning / investigating the 3D crime scenes to search for clues via the App + 4 different characters + Walk-through tutorial via the App + A lot of expansions that play around with the game system. # More cases can be bought via the App # Like Time Stories, it provides a expandable, semi-generic sandbox game for story-telling # Theoretically, the game could be solely played on the phone. However, the tactile elements make the game more interactive and let players work together like investigators in Crime TV series # Best with 2 players - Game box is bigger than necessary - Some people do not like the end game condition: you can try to solve the case as quick as possible to rank higher - Goofy stories and one-dimensional characters Similar games: * Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game (cooperative crime investigation, more complex, Internet integration, about researching clues on the Internet) * The Dark Quarter: narrative exploration game with app integration and dice checks situated in a fictional scenario with mystical elements in 1980. * Time Stories (similar generic platform used for further expansions, try and error gameplay, story-driven) * Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (uses a book for references instead of an App) * Unlock Series (similar card driven gameplay without an App)
AlexDev
Fantastic co-op game. The app does all the hard work of setup and management, making this a very easy game to teach and dive into. The cases are entertaining and fun to solve (think more TIME Stories than True Detective). We've been loving playing through. Perfect for a lighter/easier evening of Games.