Chronicles of Crime

I own every version and expansion of Chronicles of Crime, and it’s easily one of my all-time favorite games. I backed the series on Kickstarter, traveled with it across continents, and introduced it to more people than I can count. I’ve played it solo, with friends in Europe, and with complete strangers all over North America — and it’s been a blast every single time. It’s the one game I always pack so I have something better to do than doom-scrolling during long trips. What I love The scenarios are well-paced with consistently strong writing. The QR-based investigation system makes each case feel immersive. The app is stable and polished across every version and expansion. Replayability stays high thanks to branching paths and clue variations. It works with any group size: solo, two-player, or a full table. Every box adds a distinct theme and gameplay twist. Fast setup and teardown for a narrative-heavy game. Very easy to teach, even to absolute beginners. What I like less The difficulty balance jumps around from case to case. Some scenarios reward scanning everything just to rule things out. It depends on a charged phone, so it’s not fully analog. Summary A standout storytelling and investigation system that stays fresh across countless scenarios. After backing it on Kickstarter, traveling with it worldwide, and teaching it everywhere from Belgium to the U.S., it remains one of the most reliable, fun, and replayable games in my entire collection. I’m genuinely excited to see what the next Chronicles installment will bring.

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.

I bought this to play during quarantine while on sale for $20. What a deal! Definitely worth more than that. I had so much fun playing the scenarios alone. Going solo gives you the time to really ponder connections and hear the story come together. PROS: • I enjoy the cognitive aspects when it comes to deciding whom to ask about what evidence and digging for evident locate other suspects. • I love the app on my phone as a tool. The QR code scanning is such an innovative piece to the game, plus all the additional scenarios you can buy. • Really like the Specialists component. Chronicles of crime gives you access to 4 resources to “call” by scanning them. This will allow you to ask for autopsy info, electronic forensics, physical evidence forensics and a criminal profiler. • The box can hold this game and it’s currently available expansions (Welcome to Redview and Chronicles of Crime Noir). It is all neatly organized in the box, probably one of the best implementations I have seen to store a core game and it’s expansions in one place while keeping them separate. CONS: More than one player - I played a round with my wife. She didn’t enjoy it enough to play again and it was somewhat laborious to read so much out loud to each other and take turns. If you e ever played Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, you may feel similar. I feel both are best enjoyed solo. You feel like you are the detective investigating cases. There’s a lot of stop and go if you involve more people. • Solutions - Once your case is complete, you are awarded points based on if you answered questions right or wrong. One thing that makes me take this game from a 5 to a 4 star is the solution logic. It’s not all there. If you missed a suspect or piece of evidence, sometimes you are completely unsure where that was or how the solution came to a certain conclusion. In a game like Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, the solution shows you where Sherlock went and what evidence was gathered there and whom he talked to about it. This game just gives you a satisfying summary without all the detail, so you can’t fill in the blank of where you went wrong in some instances. In Sherlock, I really enjoy just throwing out the timer aspect and just exploring the city and the story. It is so much more immersive to explore without a timer and penalties. The application for this game and its expansion will not typically tell you by what time you have to solve a case, usually just the day it needs to be done by. I had some exploring I wanted to do on a case and the timer just told me I failed and asked me all the questions. There was no going back. While it’s nice that it tracks it itself, it’s not fun to be immersed in a story and then be told “Time’s Up!” • Replayability - This factor is pretty low. I can’t see myself going back to re-work any cases. I’ll probably give this to a friend once done for them to enjoy. Short of purchasing new cases in the application marketplace or buying the available expansions, there’s not any replayability in my eyes. All in all, it is an excellent game, even at its current price point of $35 (04/19/20). I would recommend this for anyone looking for a game that really makes you think and explore connections.

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.

This game is brilliant. The app integration is perfect. I love the coop and having everyone work together to solve each crime. Challenging but fun even if you don’t solve every part of it. We’ve been humbled quite a bit in our detective skills! We have had a blast every time we’ve played- well worth it. We are already looking at buying the expansions.

The game arrived well ahead of its scheduled delivery time. We loved it - the only thing we are earnestly wishing for is for the developers to keep on having support for the game and the app in the future. It would really suck for the app to stop working 5-10 years down the line. This is the sort of risk you run when you buy games that combine tech and old school cardboard. GAMEPLAY: Not for everyone - you have to be in the right mindset to play this game otherwise you will get bored/irritated. I recommend this game for people who love crime shows, mysteries or puzzles. Always make sure the app is updated. This game says it is only for four players but if you want to scale up the game for more players you can easily do it. It also is a very spectator-friendly game. To play with a lot of players (we were 10 players!) we pass around the phone during the time to look at the crime scene (there is unlimited times you can view a crime scene) and then after everybody has had a look - players say what they think the clues are in the crime scene. For actions, it's just a group vote on what action the group does. (go to a location, talk to a guy, etc.) We also pass the phone around and take turns reading. There are fun events that can happen while reading the text on the phone that really scared our group (for example: A phone suddenly ringing). It's just written words and there is no sound effect but our reader freaked out and said "Oh my God the phone's ringing!" - which sent everyone into a panic. This is what happens when you get a really good set of friends together willing to immerse themselves into the story. We didn't expect this to be such a good party game! Perfect for parties, everyone can play - but definitely not for young kids.

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 characters If 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 another Person 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 with more 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.

Firstly, this isn't a bad game nor is it expensive but beyond that I'm not loving this game. My concerns mostly are around the use of the app. While creative and novel, it just becomes a hassle taking away from the fun of the game. Using on a phone is a problem. 1.. the screen is too small for how they want you to use it. 2.. cannot really zoom in on the screen to see clues. It appears to have 1 zoom level which doesn't zoom in enough to even allow you to clearly see some evidence. Also, it will not stay at that zoom level but quickly reverts and zooms out. If you cannot see the clues/evidence then it becomes frustrating and essentially removes the playability or the game. Installed the app on a tablet which helped BUT the tablet and/or app had a terrible time scanning the QR codes on the location/evidence/people cards. Too much time is spent trying to use the app which robs the players of enjoyment. The larger screen helped seeing the evidence BUT the zoom issue above is still a major issue. Lastly, the scanning process simply destroys the game continuity. Too much time is required to scan (assuming it works correctly). There may be reasons for their design that I have not considered but at first use it seems that after you have scanned a discovered evidence/location/person then you should NOT be rquired to rescan again. Instead, you should be presented with the discovered items on the app and simply select them vs the time consuming and awkward scanning. Wish I could love it but I cannot.

Absolutely love how interactive this game. There are multiple cases to solve with expansion packs both online and offline. You can download the App and look through the cases to see if they are the kind you are interested about. My sister and I really spent a range of 1.5hours to 5 hours for different cases of different difficulty levels. It's not limited to the standard 5 suspects from games of other brands so it makes you really think out of the box. The game flow changes depending on what you have scanned. E.g. only if you scanned an evidence and had a Hacker check it and only then will the suspects answer change accordindly. This also means if you missed out on some clues, its possible you will never be introduced to certain suspects or locations. Thus not completely the full game or giving you the whole picture. Although they give the 'solution' which is like an ending/ conclusion of the game. They don't disclose or inform the clues/ actions you missed and thus giving you a lower score. Thats the only irked part. However a simple google search might give you hints from other players on areas you missed and how to solve the game quick. I've played this detective series from other brands (Hunt a killer, Murder Mystery)

I've had my eyes set on this game for quite some time and at last I got my hands on it. The inclusion of the mobile was not something I am very keen on in board games but it turned out to be much better than I expected. The cases and the characters are very well built so far and I love the graphic design of the materials. Plus as someone that is called OCD a few times, the box design is bliss. It has special compartments for every piece and also extra compartments for the pieces that come with the expansions and makes sure that nothing gets jumbled up when you put the game up on the shelf. I don't think I will be playing any of the cases twice because I don't like stories that I know the twists beforehand. But the two expansions and new cases that are being available through the app makes this game playable for a long time. I am playing this with my wife. I think that is the best number of players for this game because with more than two it may get boring for some of the players. I didn't use my low cost VR case that you can put the mobile in for the VR scenes which seemed too much of an effort at the time. Maybe it may be better like that but checking the VR scenes directly on your phone with two sets of eyes seemed rather more advantageous. All in all 10/10.

There are multiple cases I can enjoy with my friends. The game setting resembles real world investigation where you need to gather information from locations, people, and clues by yourself without hint. It’s also possible to buy more cases online.

Ce jeu est géniale en est vite dans l'immersion !

El juego tiene una dependencia del idioma notable ya que las pistas vienen en inglés. La aplicación, la cual a este momento es gratuita, es posible descargarla y estará en el idioma del teléfono, y corre sin problema en español. De ser necesario pudieran traducirse las pistas con plumón o cinta para jugarlo en español. Esta versión no incluye los lentes de VR. Ahora bien, el juego requiere de un teléfono celular o tablet para jugarlo a través de la app. El dispositivo escaneará los códigos QR de las tarjetas para interrogar a testigos, hablar con especialistas, moverte en la ciudad y analizar pistas, todo con el ánimo de resolver el caso lo más pronto posible, ya que al final se te indicará con una calificación el desempeño en el caso. La rejugabilidad es mínima ya que es una sola respuesta por escenario, la app tiene algunos escenarios gratis pero es posible comprar otros adicionales de forma digital. Adicional a ello la expansiones añaden nuevos elementos y escenarios a resolver. En mi opinión, el juego es bueno, pero si estás deseando mucha rejugabilidad, no es el juego indicado.