I always love a good mystery that keeps you intrigued, but also let's you have fun while solving the case. I recently had the chance to check out a game called "Chronicles of Crime the Millennium series" which is sold by Lucky Duck Games. There are three games in total that go with the series they are 1400, 1900 & 2400. Today I will be sharing 1400 with you and will share the other two at a later date.
Chronicles of Crime 1400 is a cooperative crime investigation game which takes place in medieval Paris. This game mixes physical pieces along with digital technology to enhance your game play so you'll need a electronic device to download the app, however after you've downloaded the app you won't need the internet to play this so you can take it with you on the go.
Each game in the series has a number of pre-loaded mysteries on the app and there is also a tutorial that has a mini game to help you understand how everything works and get used to the app itself. (Plus it gives you a bonus game to play). You'll find a number of different cards inside of your game box, there are people cards, place cards, two sets of item cards and vision cards. The cards themselves are very well done, they are thick enough that they won't bend or be damaged easily which is nice because you'll get quite a bit of use out of the cards shuffling them and re-arranging them. The images printed on them are bright, highly detailed and fit the theme.
The app is a lot of fun to use and has a ton of features that really make this game stand out. Our favorite part is the "Search the scene" during the investigation which virtually allows you to search the crime scene in a 360 view. You have the option of using it along side 3D glasses or the no glasses option, you will then move the phone around the room to look for clues.
Earlier I mentioned "Vision cards", they are the only cards that can not be scanned to investigate however they can really help you see if you are on the right track with clues/persons of interest and will help guide you a little. The investigator whom you play as has a gift where he has dreams & visions in the night of crimes that have happened, then when he wakes in the morning he is hired to investigate scenes which were the same as his dreams. The cards are the flashes you saw in your sleep, it is kind of a psychic glimpse of "move clips" from what happened. If you look above at the blue card with the priest and the man holding what looks like a burning zombie arm, that is an example of one of the vision cards.
Each game will vary in length, some investigations seem to run a little smoother as the clues easily link while others might have you scratching your head a little. Good news is it is easy to get back on track with just a few adjustments to who or what you are scanning while looking for clues, and there is no hard set real world time you need to complete the game in. There is a time in the app that is calculated by the places you visit, the people you talk to, etc to make the days in the game progress that will effect your score but it isn't constantly running, which means you can take a break from the game or discuss options and what to do before moving forward. My husband and I played a round of this by ourselves & we've also played two rounds with our kids, each game has been exciting, fun to figure out and entertaining! We still have one more scenario in the series to play, then we will be moving onto playing 1900 which is the next game in the series.
Is this a family friendly game? That entirely depends on the parent, some of the investigations include suggestive materials such as mentioning prostitutes', showing the dead bodies in the crime scene, etc. If you are comfortable enough with the mentions you can play the game as is, or when you are reading through the story you can skip over read certain words and actions out loud without taking away from the game itself. None of the physical cards are suggestive so there is no worries there.
My nine year old and thirteen year old play this with us and both have fun helping figure out clues along the way. One of the steps is figuring out which pieces of a crime scene are important and should be scanned to see if they are a clue or not, they like helping grab the cards for each thing shown in the scene then we all talk about what might be clues and what sounds like a waste of time. We always have a good score time wise and our over all score is usually 60-80 out of 100 which isn't bad! On the last game we played through there was a way to save two of the people in the story, however in the moment it wasn't really something we had on our mind it was kind of a "Hey we know how to solve the case, let's go solve it" vs we need to save this person first so we didn't get those points.
Lastly I want to note that I LOVE that they included a cover that fits over the cards, it always drives me nuts when the playing cards are sliding around in a game box.
PRIZE ALERT:
One lucky winner is going to win a copy of Chronicles of Crime 1400!
This is open World Wide! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email! This giveaway is hosted by ME.
9 comments:
I also like the Paranormal Detectives game.
Kids Chronicles: Quest for the Moon Stones sounds like a lot of fun.
Chronicles of Crime: 2400
We have and enjoy Paranormal Detectives, but I'd love to try some of the other Chronicles of Crimes games as well! (Especially 2400)
I have the original Chronicles of Crime but haven't played it yet! Destines also looks awesome.
I would also like to play the Paranormal Detectives & the Chronicles of Crimes games too.
I like playing a large assortment of games this looks fun and so does their Small Island game.
I would say Destinies.
the boardgame looks fun and it is totally up to my personal taste in games! I would LOVE to play it. I actually have to check if we have it available here.
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