The core game is that of solving a crime. You'll use the cards given to tell stories, a narrative of what is happening as you progress, which then dictate your choices - do you look further into that particular clue, using precious time? Or do you investigate another location instead for even more clues? These may be more cards, or you may even investigate using its online search, which compiles your evidence, fill in some of the blanks, and at the end of the game, will be where you answer the key questions of the case, to see if you've truly solved it. Speaking of walls of text, I was glad to see that the lead cards were toned down a little. There was less day-to-day flavor text on the cards with most of them getting right down to business. I tended to skim past the nonsense in the original game, so this was a welcome change. Final Thoughts: In Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, you are detectives trying to unravel the mystery. In this section, we’ll go through HOW you do that. Leads

In Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game you are going to solve FIVE different cases and find out what connects them, you are going to BREAK THE 4th WALL by using every resource you can, you are going to browse the game's DEDICATED DATABASE simulating your agency's resources, you will enter a city maze of old mysteries and fresh CRIME, and you will be able to COOPERATE with other agents or solve the mystery on your own. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game manages to take an underused genre and really take it into an exciting new direction. App integration always runs the risk of being a distraction or novelty instead of improving the game. Yet in Detective, it not only works beautifully, but it helps immerse you even more into the theme than the game would without it. The story line of Detective is pretty intriguing and I really appreciated how not every case played out in the same way. They really throw you some curve balls, just wait until you get to case 3, easily my favorite! 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. Each case will have a time limit and after that time has elapsed, the players must decide on the answers to the given criteria, be that who the killer was and what weapon was used for example. The answers are selected from within the app, the app giving the players a final score out of 40. There isn’t necessarily a win or a lose scenario, but simply a scale on how good of a detective you are! ThoughtsThe shorter playtime also means it doesn't lend itself to being an entertaining evening of a murder mystery. For that, I'd still recommend the original Detective game or a stand-alone murder mystery evening 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. Analyse evidence and search for clues online in this unconventional board game Scanning the cards featured in Chronicles of Crime will enable players to interact with the game's companion app in interesting ways.

Detective” relies heavily on the Antares web app, a “detective database” which players will interact with to bring up transcripts of interviews with suspects, search the data of said suspects and also compare fingerprints that are found at the crime scene (it is a string of digits and characters that make up the fingerprints and material data so you can compare them to evidence). All the information is obtained using the number system that is also used with the cards so navigating the game and the app is no problem at all.

The game went on to be well received and win a number of awards. However, some players felt that it took too long and the parts to read too verbose. A new Sherriff in town Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game is the latest offering from Portal Games, with the aim of getting players to take on the role of detectives and will have you using REAL detective skills to solve crimes, both present and historic. If I was to ask anyone to name a board game that saw players attempting to identify a killer by analysing both the crime scene and the clues left behind, you could be sure the majority of those people would answer Cluedo (Clue for our American friends). While this game would fit into this category, it's fair to say it doesn’t involve any “real” detective work and the way you get to find the killer is a frantic finger-pointing race. Portal Games want to change that.