Chronicles of Crime Board Game | Murder Mystery Game | Criminal Investigation Game | Cooperative Game for Kids and Adults | Ages 12+ | 1-4 Players | Avg. Playtime 60-90 Mins | Made by Lucky Duck Games

I was looking for a collaborative game for us to play in the evening and saw that Chronicles of Crime was highly rated. We went through the tutorial to figure out how to play and found the game easy to learn. The gameplay isn't overly complex and uses a combination of a downloadable app, QR codes, videos for searching crime scenes, and cards to simulate the crime solving experience. It feels like there are multiple ways an investigation can go and that you make meaningful decisions along the way. We've found the modules challenging and fun. There's also the ability to purchase expansion packs when we've finished the base modules.

We bought this as a family gift for Christmas, and it did not disappoint. The setup was easy, and the learning curve was surprisingly short for the complexity of the game. We loved that there are several different scenarios/crimes and some build on the previous ones. Note: This is not a "fast" game so be prepared to spend some time on it or set it up somewhere you can leave it. Good cooperative play game as everyone is working together to solve the crime. Being able to look for clues virtually was such a unique aspect of the game. *Note: you do need a tablet to play this game. This was a big hit, and we will look for an expansion pack for this year.

First the pros: This is a great game for the crime enthusiast. You can play it by yourself, or with others. It is not a one and done type of game. When you have solved one crime, you have only solved one crime of many. It is dynamic. You can ask a character a question, then explore other places/items/people, and when you go back to that character they update the information they give you. It also has a really unique interactive aspect through the app. I love that you can actually explore the places you are going. You get to see what all is available at the crime scene, and where it is in relation to everything else. You have to decide what might be important, and who to talk to next. It seems to follow the natural order of investigating a crime. One thing I liked, was the addition of the time. When you move around the city, it adjusts the time of day to account for your movements. If you go somewhere are 3AM, the person you want may not be there.Some areas for improvement: It arrived in a large game box, but most of that is empty space. Almost all of its contents are flat/card like, so a smaller box would work and fit in my game drawer better. (Not a big deal, though, more of an observation.) An area I struggled with was getting started. The tabletop layout takes up quite a bit of space, but it isn’t very clear what goes where or why. After I played a bit by myself, I found that the layout provided didn’t really work for me, and how I worked the case took up less space. I looked through the Getting Started section of the included information, but it wasn’t very helpful. It might be user error. Also, it took quite a bit of trial and error to figure out how to play. The app has an intro game, but it didn’t really help as much as I had hoped. I didn’t realize you could reinterview people, and that their answers adjusted based on the evidence you asked them about. I only figured it out after playing the first game, and trying to solve the crime. I got most of the answers correct, but when I read through the whole solution there was a lot of information I had missed, which made me realize I could have gone back to some of those suspects. It would be nice if the intro, or even the full games, would direct you to go ask someone additional questions or look for additional clues. Once you input the solution, you get feedback about right or wrong answers, but no feedback about how you should have gotten those answers. Another suggestion has to do with the scanning of QR codes. It would be helpful if the app had a way to store the places/people/items you had already used for each crime, so you didn’t have to keep scanning over and over. Like, add them to a list on the side of the app, and you can just click on it. Same with the experts. Since they are a constant, just keep them handy on the app. One last suggestion- I found that (like a real investigation), I was having trouble keeping everything straight. I found that it helped a lot to write information down. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that would be necessary until I was a ways into the first game. It would be helpful to have that as a suggestion in the getting started, or even to include some kind of investigation documents that you could fill out as you go. (You could have the files on the app for printing more.)Overall, excellent game. Although it took me some trial and error, once I got started I enjoyed it a lot. I love that I can play alone, if my friends are unavailable. I also love that the game is constantly improving through app updates, so if there is an issue it can be remedied.

This game is awesome! I only played the tutorial so far but I was blown away by it.This is not a typical board game. There is no pieces to move around.You have an evidence board plus, evidence and locations, and charactersIf you are thinking this is like the board game Clue, think again.Because besides those you also have four experts such as a scientist, doctor, hacker, and criminologist.These are the people you ask about people, locations and evidence.You ask by scanning a bar code with your phone or tablet from the free app you can download.Once you get to the crime scene you have to view it for clues. You can view it normally in a panoramic view,Get their glasses (sold separately) or use your own cheap VR goggles which worked great.It up to you and your partner(s) to look over the scene for evidence which you will scan.There are over 50 evidence categories to choose from such as plants, games, food.It is amazing the way the experts, suspects and witnesses interact with you just by scanning anotherPerson or a piece of evidence.All the cards have bar codes which are scanned by the app.None of the 55 character cards have names only numbers. Same as the evidence which is just a category.What this means is the crime unfolds in front of you with named victims, suspects and evidence.The suspects,evidence and locations will change with each scenario which there are a ton withmore coming out, plus extras you can buy for five bucks which I think is fair since I am sure there is a lot programming work to set one of these up.Download the app just to see what they have. You can’t play it without the base game but you can read descriptions of them.Some have more than one chapter too.