The base game of Chronicles of Crime by Lucky Duck Games is a detective simulation that launched last year to rave reviews for its integration of board game mechanics and app-based storytelling. The game uses QR codes to serve up dialogue, information, and most importantly crime scenes to investigate. As fans of board games, user interface design, and modern technology, this sounded like our kind of game and so we investigate.
Chronicles of Crime is a game that can be played solo or as a group. It is a board game that uses an app to host all storylines and content with a VR option available to heighten the experience. (VR Module sold separately and not necessary to play). While VR is an optional component, the app is not optional and holds the entire game together.
Lucky Duck calls their process Scan&Play Technology which gives each game card a unique QR code that can only be interpreted by the app. The interpretation of each game card varies in different scenarios. Existing interpretation may also change whenever the app receives updates. Possibility is endless.
The base game comes with 1 tutorial and 5 scenarios. Downloadable scenarios can be purchased at $4.99 each.
Crime In A Box
Open the box, right away you’d notice a few empty card slots with no cards. They are not missing game components; by design, the empty slots are for expansion packs (that you may purchase in the future).
The base game comes with 40 character cards, 35 evidence categories cards, 10 special item cards, 4 forensic contacts, 12 location boards, and 1 evidence board.
The evidence board is like a dashboard that helps you organize the investigation. Each game scenario will assign a specific location as the “home” location, which is the gray region at the bottom of the evidence board.
Above the location, there are 3 “human” slots; character cards who are currently in custody or confinement at the “home” location will be kept in one of these slots.
All slots with magnify glasses are placeholders for special item cards and evidence categories cards. Keep all the important clues and discard the useless ones.
Along the border of the evidence board are location icons — they are for you to keep track of the locations you have investigated and the people you have questioned. Characters found at each location are placed in the white-overlay slots on the location card. Though some characters may move to different location depending on the time of day.
Playing Chronicles of Crime
The game play is a lot like reading a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book or playing a RPG game — you get to decide where to explore and how the story should unfold. The only metric that counts against you is time, which I will dive into shortly.
The game begins as a crime is committed.
Go to the crime scene and look for evidence using the app. This is where VR is awesome for the experience. If you don’t have the VR module, you can search the crime scene using just the app. Hold up the app and take a virtual 360° tour, or swipe left-right and finger-pinch to examine the scene on the screen. This process is entirely visual, though you are allowed to take notes during observation if it helps.
Next is to pull out all evidence categories cards that may be relevant. For example, if you see blood at the crime scene, one of the evidence categories you want to investigate may be the “blood + organs” card. But be careful not to pull out too many evidence categories cards, because every QR-scan will cost you time. If you only have a few hours to solve the crime, you don’t want to waste your time scanning irrelevant categories.
If there are witnesses, be sure to talk to them to collect more clues. It is important to pay attention to what they say; they may have important evidence, alibi, or suspicious locations that you may want to investigate. Be analytical, as people you talk to may feed you lies to derail your investigation.
The Forensic Team
As you uncover new locations and new clues, you can also call on forensic experts to analyze evidence.
Lou Chin, a scientist, provides lab work on physical evidence.
Dr. Jeremy King, a doctor, provides autopsy and medical report.
Eric Gloomerry, a hacker, provides digital forensic work.
Harvey Marshall, a criminologist, profiles criminals and provides psychological insights.
For example, (potential light spoiler) if you found blood at the crime scene, call Dr. Jeremy King for consult. If you find a cell phone, ask Eric Gloomerry to extract intelligence.
The Challenges
Let’s talk about time. It is important to manage your time wisely throughout the investigation. Your boss may give you deadline, which defines your time allowance. Some locations are closed during night time. If you need access, or if you need to speak with someone, you may need to wait until morning. Similarly, some locations and characters are only accessible during night time.
There will be times where someone wants to meet you at a specific time and certain location. Don’t be flaky, or it will cost you time. Time is also spent when traveling between locations, investigating evidence, and talking to people. The good news is, the app keeps track of time for you, so monitor it like it is your watch.
When you have gathered enough evidence, you can proceed to make an accusation and end the game. The app will tell you how many points you have collected, and whether you have all the right answers to all the questions (i.e. who did it, the weapon, the motive, etc.)
If you catch the wrong guy, or if you fail to uncover the weapon, you can always start over and play again; if you are the type who just want to know the right answers, the app can reveal the correct answers to you, but you will not be able to play the scenario again because you already know the answers.
Technically Speaking
This is a very well designed game and experience. In my opinion, the schematics are simple enough to not pigeonhole itself into any specific genre. The underlying mechanics can easily be re-purposed to tell all kind of different stories. This is the first board game I have ever experienced that integrates technology with observable scalability, flexibility and re-usability. Much respect to game designer, David Circurel for the brilliant design behind Chronicles of Crime.
Co-Op Experience
“QR code, please.”
Scan.
“Ooh, forgot to scan the location first…”
Scan.
“QR code one more time, please…”
Scan.
One and a half crime cases later, my partner bailed. (Mike is a visual-spatial gamer, so being the assistant got boring for him after awhile.) So I took over and solved the second case, then went on to solve two more cases solo. It was so much fun (and gratifying) to play detective.
Solo Experience
I spent at least 2 hours playing alone on a Saturday afternoon and I can easily go into binge mode with this game anytime.
Family Experience
We have not expose our 8-year-old to Chronicles of Crime, as the game is intended for age 14+.
If you’d like to get a copy of the base game of Chronicles of Crime, visit the official Lucky Duck Games.
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