Portal Games POG1375 Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Multicoloured

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Specific lead cards, Investigator cards, and Antares Database information will allow you to spend Authority tokens to perform actions. If you have the required amount of authority tokens, remove them from the game to spend them. Questioning Another interesting thing about Detective is that certain pieces of information are marked with a “wifi symbol,” meaning you can do your own research on them. Google, Wikipedia, Google Maps, etc are all fair game. In one scenario, I spent a good amount of time browsing streets and rivers in Virginia looking for information. The game comes with 5 cases, all linked together in an overall campaign.

When I played, we failed to solve the first case even on our second attempt, then we were able to solve the second and third case after a lot of head-scratching. Busted down to beat cop If you prefer something a little less real, Detective has also been taken to the sci-fi universe of Dune in House Secrets, where investigating crimes is swapped for political machinations, and the comic-book streets of Gotham City in Batman: Everybody Lies. Whichever of the Detective games fits your fancy, the blend of tabletop, mobile app and classic puzzling remains a delight. Note: In the upper right of the board, we've provided cabinets to allow you to store Plot cards and Discovered cards to be used in later cases, simply drag them into these containers when you finish a case, and out again when you start a new one. Cards have QR codes that can be scanned to interrogate a perp, inspect a piece of evidence or sweep a crime scene for clues. Instead of reading from heavy tomes of text entries or managing hundreds of cards, you’ll be tapping through what looks like a visual novel. Scanning QR codes will allow you to travel from location to location and speak with the suspects there to gather information. You might then scan the QR code of an object to see what that suspect has to say about it. Not all characters are going to have something to say about every piece of evidence though, so you’ll have to be careful about who you approach with your investigations so as not to waste precious time. When scanning the QR codes of crime scenes, you’ll be taken into one of Chronicles of Crime’s more impressive features as you use your phone or tablet like a looking glass into a full 3D panorama of the locale. This enables players to search for relevant objects you can find matching cards to that will allow you to investigate further. So improving on the game, comes in the form of additional components. Throughout the game, you're encouraged to keep your theories and evidence, which generally you'll do with pen and paper to keep up and make your connections. The new edition will provide 30 photos of character portraits, that you can use instead of or alongside this to create a mind map, linking your suspects or people of interest.Each Player then chooses one investigator to play the double-sided character tiles and a used ability token. Each character has a unique ability and several tokens listed on the card. Once all players have selected a character, flip the remaining tiles to the consultant side. Add all tokens from the investigators you chose and the consultants you flipped to a general pool of tokens.

There are a few other roles that you can only include if you have enough players, such as the Witness and the Accomplice. The Witness starts the game with the knowledge of who the murderer is. But what they don’t know is how the murder was carried out. This may seem like a huge advantage, but if the killer discovers the witness then they can win the game by pointing them out at the end. The accomplice knows as much as the murderer does and can be a fantastic ally in throwing off the scent from certain pieces of evidence. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong takes the best elements of the murder mystery board game and expands them into a great social deduction game. And then there is the Antares Database. Some people still scoff at using any kind of technology in their board game (which they really just need to get over and embrace the greatness of it), but the database in Detective is a big part of the charm of the game. I felt like a real detective following leads, matching evidence, reading personal files and interrogation transcripts (which even show the stress level of the person talking). One link will often lead to another, letting you follow a breadcrumb trail of clues.

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If you were eyeing up the original Detective but were concerned about group play or game length then your prayers have been answered. The game cleverly does not tell you the answers to the questions until you tell it to, which means you can restart a case without huge spoilers. But of course, it will be easier the second time around. When I first heard about Detective, the premise sounded like a breath of fresh air to the classic “who-dunnit” genre. Having to use actual detective skills and the fact the game even suggested that players write EVERYTHING down had my interest peaked! Far too many detective-style games try to lead the player to an outcome or try to guide the story too much and this is an instant turn off for that genre in my opinion. “Detective” on the other hand promised a completely “free” experience, one which would have an outcome very different for each player, depending how good of a detective they are. But eventually it dawned on me that in Detective, you have to use your intuition and “gut.” Not every lead is worth following and in the end, you’ll have to connect some dots on your own. More than once I angrily wasted time on a lead that wasn’t worth following. But that’s OK because the game smartly ends with a multiple choice questionnaire. You can still use your best judgement, based on the information you do have, to answer the questions even though you don’t have all the concrete evidence you’d want. I thought that this was a fantastic design decision that works well with the limited information of the game. I assume only in TV shows do cases wrap up perfectly neat.

Granted the core of Detective is still here. So, if you didn’t like the time-limited lead system or the digital integration, then this probably won’t be the game for you. But for everyone else, Detective: Season One is a flat out better experience than its predecessor and one I hope Portal Games focuses on going forward. They managed to improve upon an already great game and make it one I really enjoyed playing. This is the version of Detective I want to play and it’s excellent. Final Score: 4.5 Stars – A more streamlined version of the original Detective that lets players focus on the fun and moves the rest to the side.Detective: Season One is a new product in the award-winning Detective line, one with a shorter playing time that’s tailored for a mystery game night with simpler family-friendly rules. The game consists of three standalone cases, and each of them can be played in around 90 minutes. Each of the cases challenges players with different settings and styles. The cases are: Detective: A Modern Crime Game (Portal Games) is a brilliant new concept on the crime game genre, encouraging players to break the fourth wall and use every resource they can get their hands on to help solve each case included with the game. When a lead card has a token icon, this is “Dig Deeper,” If you have the correct token in your skill pool or a wild token and the team thinks you should flip it over. You take the token from your collection and remove it from play. Then flip the card and read on in the story. If you choose not to or can not flip the card with the “Dig Deeper,” it is essential to note that you will not be allowed to do this action later in the game. The players can review all lead cards they have already uncovered at any time, but only the sides you have already read. Plot Cards