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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2022
I really love this game and find it unique. The basic mechanism is simple: you are given a case to solve with a brief introduction that already contains many important clues. Then you can gain additional clues by going anywhere on the map (using the directory to look up addresses) or reading the newspaper. If there’s an entry for that location, you read it and hopefully gain some more clues. When you’re ready to solve the case, you turn to the back and see how well you did.
What I love about this is that despite the simplicity of the mechanics (which means anyone of any age can play, and I’ve heard about people even playing this in the car, with one person reading the entries), the cases have great depth and nuance. You’ll be discussing the case with your partner (I enjoy playing this two-player) and trying to piece together clues and evaluate theories. Eventually you’ll have enough clues to think of a coherent theory.
I’ve played this with my mother, who doesn’t play board games but enjoys watching Colombo and such shows, and it works great. We’ve solved the first two cases with 70 and 85 pts—very respectable scores. Some people find it too hard, but if you are willing to keep investigating, you’ll eventually have plenty of clues. It’s also great that the game allows you to bring in your real world knowledge to help you solve the case: the battle of Trafalgar, the way people smoked cigarettes, etc. The detail is fantastic.
The materials are also top notch. Everything looks and feels great. I’m very much looking forward to the future cases and future boxed sets. There’s nothing else I’ve come across that’s quite like this game!
What I love about this is that despite the simplicity of the mechanics (which means anyone of any age can play, and I’ve heard about people even playing this in the car, with one person reading the entries), the cases have great depth and nuance. You’ll be discussing the case with your partner (I enjoy playing this two-player) and trying to piece together clues and evaluate theories. Eventually you’ll have enough clues to think of a coherent theory.
I’ve played this with my mother, who doesn’t play board games but enjoys watching Colombo and such shows, and it works great. We’ve solved the first two cases with 70 and 85 pts—very respectable scores. Some people find it too hard, but if you are willing to keep investigating, you’ll eventually have plenty of clues. It’s also great that the game allows you to bring in your real world knowledge to help you solve the case: the battle of Trafalgar, the way people smoked cigarettes, etc. The detail is fantastic.
The materials are also top notch. Everything looks and feels great. I’m very much looking forward to the future cases and future boxed sets. There’s nothing else I’ve come across that’s quite like this game!
