INTRODUCTION

If there is one thing that we Swedes love more than anything, beside coffee and “fikabröd”, it is crime dramas. There is something inherently captivating about a professionally written murder mystery that sparks our curiosity, after all there is a reason that the tales of Sherlock Holmes and his exploits continues to fascinate us to this very day. It is also the case that deduction themed board games like T.I.M.E. Stories and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective make for captivating narrative experiences. However, these days you need to bring something new and unique to the game table if you are going to stand out amongst the fierce competition. Enter Chronicles of Crime: a 1 – 4 player app-driven, highly interactive murder mystery game designed by David Cicurel and published by Lucky Duck Games. Ever since its first release in 2018 I have been curious to take a closer look at the game to see how it fares as a solitary experience, both from a technical and also a narrative point-of-view.

Full disclosure: a review copy of Chronicles of Crime along with the VR expansion was kindly provided by publisher Lucky Duck Games.

COMPONENTS

As far as the quality of the components goes, Chronicles of Crime is definitely something of a mixed bag. On the one hand I really like certain aspects of the custom insert, which stores and organizes not only the cards included in the base game but also the content of the Noir and Welcome to Redview expansions. But on the other hand, the very same insert cannot store the Virtual Reality (VR) glasses as a result of the designated compartment being too small, at least not the model that I was sent from publisher Lucky Duck Games. From what I can tell there has been a revision to the design of this accessory so the problem in question could potentially be contributed to a lack of compatibility between the two components, regardless of reason I still find it a bit peculiar. In terms of quantity, Chronicles of Crime is a pretty light affair consisting of a single game board and a couple of card decks with a rather minimalistic tone to them especially the evidence cards. On the plus side though, is the fact that setting up the game is a shockingly quick process; place the Evidence board on the table, next add the three non-shuffled deck of cards to one side and the forensic boards to the other and Bob’s your uncle. You can have a session of Chronicles of Crime up and running in less than a minute which is a really enticing selling point.

OVERVIEW

Author’s note: this review is completely spoiler-free, the photographs featured in this written article have been either staged at random or partially based on the tutorial case.

In the world of Chronicles of Crime monsters are not limited to tales of fiction and children stories. In fact, there are people wandering amongst us whose acts of violence can best be described as insidious. As the member of an elite team of forensic investigators, your job is to get to the bottom of the most brutal and complex crimes committed on the streets of modern-day London. In order to solve the case you will need to obtain clues, interview witnesses and potential suspects but also trust your gut instinct that have guided you throughout your career as an officer of the law. So, put on a fresh cup of coffee, polish your magnifying glass and sharpen your pencil because it is time to hit the streets.

As one might construe given the title, Chronicles of Crime is a murder mystery gaming experience about investigating and hopefully solving cases featuring acts of corruption and homicide before time runs out, much in the same vein as Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective or Detective: City of Angels. However, the thing that separates Chronicles of Crime from the rest of the pack is the integration of a digital app as the main mechanism of interacting with the game. Not only does the program provide the player with a storyline relating to the events that transpire over the course of the investigation, it also serves as an instrument to gather evidence and information needed to progress through one of the four scenarios included in the base game. Whether it is a piece of evidence or a potential suspect, every single card in the game is tagged with a QR code which is scanned using the camera of your mobile phone. In order to bust the case wide open, you will be scanning codes like a caffeinated lab rat as you try to find the crucial piece of the puzzle. The result is a board game that is unlike anything I have previously experienced.

Each case has you starting at Scotland Yard, home of some of the most talented minds within the British law enforcement. More often than not, you will be summoned to the Chief Inspector’s office where you are assigned a case file which acts as a narrative starting point for unravelling the figurative thread. Depending on the nature of the committed crime, you are then instructed to travel to a specific location and start the investigation and this is where the magic happens. Whenever you scan the QR code of a person of interest, the app will essentially “lock” the conversation to that individual. As long as you have an active open dialog, you can then start to scan additional cards like pieces of evidence or even other people in order to deduce if there is a potential connection to the interviewee. If there is a successful match then the app will instruct you to add a new character or item card to your Evidence board, symbolising the evolving state of the ongoing investigation. What started out as a simple card with a little black-and-white square at the bottom end suddenly transforms into a living, or deceased, person with their own backstory and potential motive as you try to untangle the web of lies that is laid before you. This digital method of connecting the dots can at times feel incredibly satisfying, as you unearth new leads which expand the scope of the ongoing investigation.

In order to solve the case, you will need to obtain hard evidence which involves scouring the crime scene for clues and potential leads. Rather than reading a paragraph from a story book to describe the thematic setting, Chronicles of Crime allows the players to immerse themselves by generating a 360-degree rendition of the actual location. By tilting and moving the phone, you will be able to examine the crime scene from various angles whilst simultaneously taking note of items present in the locale which could potentially turn out to be valuable evidence or nothing of importance to the case. This process of actively interacting with the game system through the camera lens is at times an astonishing experience, especially if you mirror the app onto a larger screen or tablet device allowing the rest of your team to inspect the crime scene as well. However, you cannot drag your feet as you only have a limited window to search for clues before time runs out. Because much like the work of real-life detectives, in Chronicles of Crime time is your worst enemy. Every single action performed costs precious minutes, time you do not want to go to waste by chasing a red herring. Interviewing a witness, traveling to a location, presenting evidence to your forensic team, it all boils down to the clock marching on relentlessly.

But for every innovation that the app presents there is an equal amount of frustration to be had when interacting with the game system. Sooner or later, when playing Chronicles of Crime you will undoubtedly find yourself in a situation where you know with absolute certainty what the right course of action is in order to procure hard evidence or bring the culprit to justice, only to find yourself being stonewalled not by the suspect in the interrogation room but the actual app. This situation of butting heads with the game system is in many ways reminiscent of the point-and-click adventure computer games of old like The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle or The Dig to name but a few. Even though you knew how to progress, the game would not allow it until you had fulfilled the specific criteria in terms of combining items at the precis juncture of the story where the solutions would border on being convoluted. To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, although you did truly feel like some sort of high-powered mutant while solving the puzzle the road to getting there was paved with tears of frustration. To be fair, Chronicles of Crime is not quite as obtuse as these previous examples, but it is still the case that the way certain cases are structured in terms of narrative and plot-points will cause moments of frustration.

THE SOLO MODE

So how does Chronicles of Crime fare as a solo gaming experience you might ask? That depends on what you are looking to get out of a crime solving game. In terms of design, the core mechanisms remain the same regardless of player count. The only slight difference being that the solitary player has to carry a heavier workload when examining the crime scene, as you alone have to both investigate and also remember which evidence cards to choose from the deck once the timer has run out. No, the crux of the matter has to do with the social aspect that is associated with the murder mystery genre. Some will arguably make the case, that it is not possible to enjoy a board game like Chronicles of Crime to the fullest if there is no one else present to discuss or bounce ideas off, a view-point that I fully understand. Personally, I am what you would call a lone wolf by nature, as a result I have no problem assuming the role of the lonesome detective trying to solve the case and immersing myself into the story that unfolds. I imagine myself as an eccentric savant, a mastermind in the field of law and human psychology that no one at Scotland Yard wants to work with on account of my less than flattering character traits. The fact that I on occasion need to seek the “advice” of the other members of the forensic team is simple something the Chief Inspector forces me to do, rather than me being unable to get to the bottom of the investigation.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If one were to look up the noun prototype in a dictionary, they would probably find a description similar to “[…] a first or preliminary version of a device or vehicle from which other forms are developed”. For me, Chronicles of Crime is the very definition of a prototype; a board game that in its current state has several noticeable flaws but with further development could potentially be evolved into a diamond. I truly believe that publisher Lucky Duck Games have laid the foundation of something that has the potential to be revolutionary further down the line, the fact that the overall structure of the game hangs together in such a coherent way is an impressive feat onto itself. But setting aside future iterations for a moment and instead focusing on the game that lies before me, would I recommend Chronicles of Crime purely as a solitary experience? After careful consideration I would probably say no, albeit reluctantly. Not because of the lack of social interaction, but rather because I find the core game system to be somewhat flawed. That being said, I am genuinely excited to see what the future holds in store for this digital, highly interactive game mechanism.