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Detective: City of Angels, set in the dark and violent world of 1940s Los Angeles, is a game of mystery, deception, and investigation for 1–5 players. Most players will step into the shoes of LAPD homicide detectives, hungry for glory and willing to do whatever it takes to successfully close a case, even if that means intimidating suspects, concealing evidence, and hiring snitches to rat on their fellow detectives. One player, however, will take on the role of The Chisel, whose only goal is to stall and misdirect the detectives at every turn using bluffing, manipulation, and (often) outright lies.
Detective: CoA uses the innovative ARC (Adaptive Response Card) System to create the feel of interrogating a suspect. Suspects do not simply give paragraph-book responses; instead The Chisel carefully chooses how they will answer. When Billy O’Shea insists that the victim was a regular at Topsy’s Nightclub, is he telling the truth or is The Chisel subtly leading the detectives toward a dead end that will cost them precious time? Detectives can challenge responses that they think are lies but at great risk: If they’re wrong, The Chisel will acquire leverage over them, making the case that much harder to solve.
Detective: CoA includes separate, detailed casebooks for both the detectives and The Chisel. Each crime is a carefully constructed puzzle that can unfold in a variety of ways depending on how the detectives choose to pursue their investigations. As the detectives turn the city upside down, uncovering fresh evidence and "hot" leads, hidden suspects may be revealed and new lines of questioning will open up, creating a rich, story-driven experience.
Inspired by classic film noir like The Big Sleep, the works of James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential), and the video game L.A. Noire from Rockstar Games, Detective: City of Angels is a murder-mystery game unlike any other. Will one detective rise above the rest and close the case on L.A.’s latest high profile murder? Or will The Chisel sow enough doubt and confusion to prevent the detectives from solving the crime?
—description from the publisher
A "sleuth" mode allows 1 or more players to play fully cooperatively, solving the cases together.
Ages | 14+ |
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Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players, 5 Players |
Play Time | 30m – 150m |
Designer | Evan Derrick |
Mechanics | Action Points, Cooperative Game, Team-Based Game, Area Movement |
Theme | Murder/Mystery |
Publisher | La Boîte de Jeu, Van Ryder Games, Game Harbor, Pegasus Spiele |
Benjinho
L.A. Noire being one of my favorite video games ever, I had very high hopes for this one, even more so when more details about the game and artwork were revealed during the course of the kickstarter campaign. Even though the completion date of this project was pushed back several times, I think the team absolutely made the right decision to never make any sacrifices on quality, even though this might mean initially upsetting some backers who wanted their game so badly. The time, effort and love put into this game really shine through: the artwork is amazing, the cases have been constructed wonderfully well (both from the perspective of the detectives AND from the Chisel, it's beautiful to see which red herrings and misleading information are at the Chisel's disposal to fool the unknowing detectives) and I can't even begin to imagine how much work it must have been to playtest all the different scenarios and put together the sleuth book with all possible combinations of questions and searches! I'm totally hooked on this one and this will most definitely be the most precious game in my collection for a long time to come. The only negative about this game is the depression I might fall into once I'm all out of cases (fingers crossed for new expansions with more cases!). But even this has been handled through the introduction of the Chisel as a genius device for introducing replayability into a game that would never have replay value otherwise. Definite 10 from me.
brhoades
A friend of mine owns this game and loves it. Unfortunately, it's not a hit with me. It comes down to how luck-dependent the scenarios feel. At times, the entire mystery comes together and feels "easy" due to selecting the right locations and asking the right questions. Other times the mystery feels completely impenetrable. The game has a tightly restricted action economy, which is a bit painful when another player's "lucky find" requires you to expend scratch and actions to uncover a critical clue. While some deductive skill is necessary to play this game well, ultimately it feels entirely too luck dependent. While many players may be able to enjoy this game for the theme and the interesting murder cases, for myself this isn't sufficiently interesting.
anjulka
I like Detective: City of Angels better than either SHCD (which is fun but has completely random jumps often) or Chronicles of Crime (which is also fun but stresses me out a lot). Detective is my Goldilocks detective game.