The original Chronicles of Crime is set in modern-day, and features 6 scenarios, with more purchasable through the app. It also has 2 expansions, Noir, with its 1950’s LA setting, and Welcome to Redview with its 80’s teenagers. You can read our review of them all here. Chronicles of Crime manages to deliver a tense, puzzle-solving-filled experience that thoroughly tests your deduction skills. The blending of physical components and digital media has been achieved with perfection, setting an exemplary example for future puzzle and detective games to come.

The app adds dimensions to the game. It allows characters to behave realistically and have their own lives within the world. On a mechanical level, it also makes Chronicles of Crime effortless to play. The scanning works perfectly, and next steps are clearly indicated. While there is a lot of scanning and reading of the app, the player interaction is critical. You want to be discussing where to go investigate next, whether a witness was trustworthy, the primary suspect and what that weird clue means. Having the key players and clues of the mystery laid out in front of you helps to piece the puzzle together immensely. You may not have the strings connecting the pins of the photographs, but you have the second-best visual after that. Using the same set of physical components (a board and cards representing locations, characters, and items), the Chronicles of Crime app lets you and your friends step into a world of mystery and play out your investigations.London, today. You just left the commissioner's office. You're not sure how you feel, but definitely not good. A body was found in Hyde Park, and the commissioner just made it your case. You leave the police station, get in your car, and close the door. You shake off your thoughts, start the engine, and drive away to the crime scene. Time to get to work. Chronicles of Crime is super easy to set-up; you put out the various components, most of which have a QR code on them, turn on the app and start the tutorial. If you have splashed out on the VR module as well, you’ll need to keep that handy too. The VR module looks like a small set of glasses but clips on to a normal side phone nice and snugly. The time mechanic is reinforced with the entire game being a living world. Characters move around, they might not open the door to see you at night and there’s pressure to solve a case in a certain amount of time. They also react to certain clues. If a character asks you to keep something a secret, and you scan that item with another character, you can get a negative reaction next time you speak to them. Chronicles of Crime: 1400 is a fun detective game with a range of different types of mysteries, interesting characters, and a cool setting. The use of the app enables more nuanced and specific investigations than is generally possible in storybook detective games. To add to the pressure, everything you do in the app costs time. Have to repeat a search or a question? Boom more time gone. Will another pair of eyes be worth it or a massive waste of time? When you think you have enough evidence to solve the case you will be asked a serious of questions and then marked on your answers. The satisfaction of solving a case completely correctly is akin to beating an escape room – it feels like an achievement.

I love the setting of medieval Paris, I love the dog companion (Perceval!), and I especially love the inclusion of the Visions. You are Victor Lavel, a young ambitious journalist working for a major newspaper. It's the year 1900, the middle of the Belle epoque, and Paris flourishes. There are so many stories to cover, the Exposition Universelle, the Summer Olympics, the opening of the first metro station, but as a Lavel, a family famous for solving crimes since the Middle Ages, you are much more interested in murders, kidnappings, and robberies. Being a journalist helps you be among the first ones to know about them, and your wits often make you the first one to find the perpetrator.” You will also be told which Vision cards to draw and look at. These represent prophetic dreams your character has had and usually depict scenes connected to the case in some as yet unknown way.

Each case only has one solution, but there are generally multiple ways to get there depending on which characters you show what evidence to and when. For that reason, it may be fun to attempt a case again a while after playing it the first time, to try and get a different experience. Their answers may reveal new information, lead you to new locations, or make you aware of new characters.

Some cases have built-in timed events that will trigger at certain points in the investigation to introduce some new aspect and put everything you already know in a new context. I really liked that, especially how talking to characters about another character or a piece of evidence would change wildly before and after such an event. Chronicles of Crime does have a fantastic cooperative nature, and there is usually a lot of discussion about who to talk to, and if they’re lying (characters lie). One player can keep the phone, and control everything, but as each player has a go investigating the 360 images and also the map spreads out with location cards around the table, it’s easier to pass the device running the app around and have discussions about the next steps. The latter two aspects are a subtle difference from the mechanics in other games in the series, but they have a huge impact on how one as a player interacts with the game. As far as player count goes I think you could play it with a large group, but it works best with two or three players. Most of the action comes through an app so you have to pass the phone or device around. Only so many eyes can help look over the various clues and plot a course of action. Too many cooks and all that… The new Chronicles of Crime: 1900 standalone game challenges players not only to skillfully collect evidence and interrogate suspects but also to solve some escape-room-style puzzles incorporated into each scenario.

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Chronicles of Crime 1900 follows the same format as its predecessor. Using an app, you scan a combination of locations, witnesses/suspects, clues/evidence and puzzle cards. Playing The Game Each case usually has a deadline, meaning the in-game time by which you need to give a solution. Each piece of evidence found, each character interrogated, and each location travelled to add to the time spent, so you have to choose your actions with care. Final Score: 3.5 Stars – A good app integrated game with some intriguing stories that leans a bit too much on the app for my taste. If you like the sound of app assisted mystery solving, but the Middle Ages are not your preferred setting, there are multiple other Chronicles of Crime games. At the start of a game, you choose in the app which case you want to play. During a short introduction, you will hear about an important character or two, and a location where you can start your investigation.

The way the narratives and the investigation mechanics merge together is very satisfying, and the pacing of each case is generally good.

WE SAY

Chronicles of Crime 1400 is an app-driven investigative board game. It uses the core rules from the original Chronicles of Crime, but has an entirely new setting and is a complete stand-alone product. In this article, we’ll review the game, spoiler-free, and also have a look at what’s new for anyone who’s already played Chronicles of Crime. The base game (Chronicles of Crime) lets you investigate murders and other crimes as police officers in modern day London, and with the expansions you can either be a hardboiled private investigator in the 1950’s Los Angeles, or teen members of the Redview Mystery Gang in 1980’s Maine.