Solve a Mystery Cooperatively in Chronicles of Crime

Deduce, detect, and determine your way through a series of tricky mysteries and tough cases.

Chronicles of Crime has players working together to solve various crimes throughout the streets of London: collecting evidence, questioning suspects, and investigating crime scenes.

Gameplay

The game is played with one board, an app, three decks of cards (numbered character cards, numbered special item cards, and a deck of types of evidence cards), a stack of location cards, and four expert cards. All cards in the game from the characters to the locations have QR codes on them.

Players select which mystery they wish to play on the app. You will get a short description of the setup of the plot as well as any initial characters or locations that are in play. Whenever the app mentions a location or a character, it does so by number (or letter in the case of locations) so that the necessary card is easy to find. Locations are placed around the board, and you place character cards where you believe they are located.

There aren’t turns in Chronicles of Crime; rather, players discuss together the next best step they should take. If you scan a location’s QR, you travel to it. If you scan a character, you question them. While questioning characters, you can scan an evidence card’s QR or another character to ask them about that person or thing. There will be crime scenes at certain locations. One player takes the app, and chooses to examine the crime scene. A panoramic display appears on the device’s screen. You must move the device, 360 degrees, all around you, in order to take in the whole crime scene. The player examining the crime scene announces what they are seeing, noting anything they think might be clues. The other players look through the deck of types of evidence to find things that match what you see. For instance, do you see a laptop? The players will look for the electronic devices card. The crime scene examination is timed, if you wish to examine it again, the device must be passed to another player.

After you examine the crime scene, but are still at the location, you choose which of the evidence type cards to scan. The app will tell you if these pieces of evidence are relevant to the case, and if they are, you place them on the board. Players can also consult the experts for information on the case or about specific pieces of evidence they collect.

Every action players make takes up in-game time. New events in the mysteries can be triggered by time passing, and players’ final score will be affected by how long it took them. Once you think you have the solution, you may tell the app you are ready to solve the case. It will then ask you a series of questions and you will scan the relevant cards you believe answer these questions. The more questions you answer correctly, the better your score will be.

Review

Chronicles of Crime tells some intriguing mysteries and asks players to use deductive reasoning, figuring out together what their next step should be. The mysteries aren’t overly simple and the game doesn’t make things too obvious or easy for you. You need to work together and get creative.

Some of the mysteries are standalone and some of them connect with each other and create a multi-chaptered story. All of them take over an hour to play, so it’s not a fast game, though playtimes will vary from case to case and player to player. The twelve and up rating is also earned, and parent discretion is advised in deciding what ages your kids should be before playing.

The app is well designed. We didn’t run into any bugs, there is a great soundtrack playing that adds a nice note of suspense and theme, and investigating a crime scene is just plain cool. The panoramic aspect of the scenes, moving around so that you can take in the whole room, is impressively implemented. The timer also increases the tension at this point, while the other players stay engaged, listening to your description of what you’re seeing and searching through the evidence type cards.

However, while the app is well designed, almost all of the game hinges on it. Players will still do a lot of discussion, recapping the case, debating what to do next and what to question characters about, but every in game action revolves around the app and some players are just not going to enjoy such a tech-dependent board game, particularly since getting away from technology and screens is one of the many great things about board games to begin with.

If you’re a mystery lover, Chronicles of Crime is probably going to be right up your alley. Yes, it’s a little long for a casual game, but mechanics wise it’s very simple, little setup is involved, and it’s much simpler than other, mystery solving games out there. It’s the type of game that feels like a special event as you play it, and a nice centerpiece to an evening.

Pros: App is well designed, the crime scenes are impressive, little setup involved, cooperation and deduction blend nicely, mysteries are not too simple

Cons: Every action involves the app, playtime is over an hour

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.