Portal Games POG1375 Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Multicoloured

Product Information

The immersion of Detective: Season one is fantastic. Although I very much enjoyed the game solo, playing as a group was excellent. The game could even be played remotely over video chat with one person reading out the cards and another reading the information in the database, and another taking notes.

Another element I think is great is the subtle clues placed in each case that will form part of a bigger reveal later in the game. In each case, players will notice a recurring theme that at first may seem insignificant, but, over time and after playing the cases, will begin to make sense and allow players to piece together a case that links all the cases in the game. Finally, open the Casebook to Case 1 and read the introduction. At the end of the introduction story, the game will tell you if any additional setup is needed for this story. Often this includes adding reminder tokens to the board and stress tokens to the pool. Game Play When I first heard about Detective, the premise sounded like a breath of fresh air to the classic “who-dunnit” genre. Having to use actual detective skills and the fact the game even suggested that players write EVERYTHING down had my interest peaked! Far too many detective-style games try to lead the player to an outcome or try to guide the story too much and this is an instant turn off for that genre in my opinion. “Detective” on the other hand promised a completely “free” experience, one which would have an outcome very different for each player, depending how good of a detective they are. Next to pieces of information either on the lead cards or in the Antares database, you will see words underlined with a wifi-like symbol next to it. This symbol denotes that you can use the internet to look up this bit of information. This game takes place within the real world, and as such many historical events play into the cases. The information you will find while doing these searches will help give greater context to the case and may even help you solve the case directly. Investigator Special Abilities And then there is the Antares Database. Some people still scoff at using any kind of technology in their board game (which they really just need to get over and embrace the greatness of it), but the database in Detective is a big part of the charm of the game. I felt like a real detective following leads, matching evidence, reading personal files and interrogation transcripts (which even show the stress level of the person talking). One link will often lead to another, letting you follow a breadcrumb trail of clues.

But eventually it dawned on me that in Detective, you have to use your intuition and “gut.” Not every lead is worth following and in the end, you’ll have to connect some dots on your own. More than once I angrily wasted time on a lead that wasn’t worth following. But that’s OK because the game smartly ends with a multiple choice questionnaire. You can still use your best judgement, based on the information you do have, to answer the questions even though you don’t have all the concrete evidence you’d want. I thought that this was a fantastic design decision that works well with the limited information of the game. I assume only in TV shows do cases wrap up perfectly neat. Cards have QR codes that can be scanned to interrogate a perp, inspect a piece of evidence or sweep a crime scene for clues. Instead of reading from heavy tomes of text entries or managing hundreds of cards, you’ll be tapping through what looks like a visual novel. Scanning QR codes will allow you to travel from location to location and speak with the suspects there to gather information. You might then scan the QR code of an object to see what that suspect has to say about it. Not all characters are going to have something to say about every piece of evidence though, so you’ll have to be careful about who you approach with your investigations so as not to waste precious time. When scanning the QR codes of crime scenes, you’ll be taken into one of Chronicles of Crime’s more impressive features as you use your phone or tablet like a looking glass into a full 3D panorama of the locale. This enables players to search for relevant objects you can find matching cards to that will allow you to investigate further. The game warns against hurrying through the clues, something I think we were guilty of when playing it to begin with. IF you do this, you get overloaded with information and then find yourself chasing something that really has nothing to do with the case and will affect your final score. While frustrating, this encourages greater engagement with other players and means real focus is needed by all! Solid Alibi throws players in the middle of a bloody conflict between gangs and criminals in the Italian district. Players have to not only solve the crime and discover who killed Robert Parkson, but also witness growing tension in the district and find out who to trust in the spiral of violence and mutual accusations! Specific lead cards, Investigator cards, and Antares Database information will allow you to spend Authority tokens to perform actions. If you have the required amount of authority tokens, remove them from the game to spend them. Questioning

This board game tells rich stories - stories you will participate in. Let's hope that you will be able to deduce the end, before there is another crime... The game will challenge you with five different cases. Seemingly unconnected at first, they will unveil an immersive meta-plot based on facts and fiction alike. Also, on the Lead cards, you may find evidence such as fingerprints, DNA, or trace material such as soil samples. The Lead card will show which it is along with a signature code. Again, you will log in to the Antares database, go to the Signatures section, and choose the type of evidence you’ve collected. The big thing to know about Detective is that it’s a game of limited information. You just don’t have enough time to investigate every lead you come across. As an avid video gamer who will follow literally every side quest available to him before advancing the main storyline, this was very hard for me to accept. During the first case, I kept thinking that I had no idea how this game was winnable as I had so many unfollowed leads! Skill tokens can be used to “dig deeper” providing more insight on a lead. Finally, the five cases in Detective are played out over a linked campaign. While you can play with anyone for any of the games you really are going to want the same group as one case leads into the next. The story definitely gets more interesting as it progresses, however I will admit that there is a LOT going on in the story. My only gripe here is that if you take time off from the game, there is not much in the way of a refresher for what happened in the past cases. Players will need to take copious amounts of good notes. You might find plot cards during a case that are added to a future case helping to link all the stories together. Final Thoughts: Detective” relies heavily on the Antares web app, a “detective database” which players will interact with to bring up transcripts of interviews with suspects, search the data of said suspects and also compare fingerprints that are found at the crime scene (it is a string of digits and characters that make up the fingerprints and material data so you can compare them to evidence). All the information is obtained using the number system that is also used with the cards so navigating the game and the app is no problem at all.

The time pressure means that you’ll often move on from a case without every single scrap of evidence, some of which may or may not feed into future scenarios in the campaign (there’s no risk of being left empty-handed when you need a lead from several hours ago, thanks to a catch-all progression). Still, even a failed case provides the answers to players, meaning there’s little reason to revisit the scenarios – at least while the outcomes are even half-remembered, anyway. Don’t let that turn you off, though – there’s a good five evenings of top-notch entertainment and brain-busting here, and, like a ‘you’ve gotta see this’ TV boxset, you’ll no doubt want to pass Detective onto a group of friends and compare notes once they’re done.