Jump forward to 2019 and it’s impossible not to compare Van Ryder Games’ Detective: City of Angels to the L.A. Noire experience — indeed the designers themselves invite the comparison. This is a board game that throws the players into the seedy underbelly of 1940s Los Angeles. You solve crimes by exploring the city, gathering clues, and, you guessed it, interrogating dishonest suspects. The Detectives Detective: CoA uses the innovative ARC (Adaptive Response Card) System to create the feel of interrogating a suspect. Suspects do not simply give paragraph-book responses; instead The Chisel carefully chooses how they will answer. When Billy O’Shea insists that the victim was a regular at Topsy’s Nightclub, is he telling the truth or is The Chisel subtly leading the detectives toward a dead end that will cost them precious time? Detectives can challenge responses that they think are lies but at great risk: If they’re wrong, The Chisel will acquire leverage over them, making the case that much harder to solve.

Detective: CoA includes separate, detailed casebooks for both the detectives and The Chisel. Each crime is a carefully constructed puzzle that can unfold in a variety of ways depending on how the detectives choose to pursue their investigations. As the detectives turn the city upside down, uncovering fresh evidence and "hot" leads, hidden suspects may be revealed and new lines of questioning will open up, creating a rich, story-driven experience.This isn’t a game where you’re exerting effort trying to remember all the rules or digging through the rulebook. The play is easy, leaving you to focus on what’s important: using your personal deductive skills to solve the case. It is more complex than the classic board game, Clue, but there are certainly similarities… traveling, investigation, making wild accusations. Detective will require you to have hard evidence so there’s no cutting corners. Detective: City of Angels, set in the dark and violent world of 1940s Los Angeles, is a game of mystery, deception, and investigation for 1–5 players. Most players will step into the shoes of LAPD homicide detectives, hungry for glory and willing to do whatever it takes to successfully close a case, even if that means intimidating suspects, concealing evidence, and hiring snitches to rat on their fellow detectives. One player, however, will take on the role of The Chisel, whose only goal is to stall and misdirect the detectives at every turn using bluffing, manipulation, and (often) outright lies. The game does have limited replay-ability… there is currently two expansions, but I’m hoping for plenty more

A game begins with each detective being handed a case file containing the details of the mystery they are about to solve. As well as some thematic script, these briefings will include important information which can give the detectives a head start in their investigation. Each round, the players will use up to four actions. You can move across the map, search locations, and question witnesses, building up a picture of what happened and trying to be the first to solve the case. The Chisel

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While the multiplayer experience feels like the true way to play Detective: City of Angels, the game also comes with a solo/co-op mode where search cards and suspect responses are scripted in a specially designed ‘Sleuth Book’. In this variant, the detective still challenges the suspects, but an incorrect guess will result in stress. Get too stressed and you’ll lose precious time. Sleuth Mode also leaves out all rules involving scratch, since you’ll have no need to bribe fellow officers. Detective: City of Angels comes with nine cases, varying in difficulty from Gumshoe (easy) to Hardboiled (hard). Each case is unique and can be solved only once. Each provides a new experience for the detectives who will use any means necessary to catch the killer (or culprit. They aren’t all murder cases!) Detective: City of Angels, set in the dark and violent world of 1940s Los Angeles, is a game of mystery, deception, and investigation for 1-5 players. Most players will step into the shoes of LAPD homicide detectives, hungry for glory and willing to do whatever it takes to successfully close a case, even if that means intimidating suspects, concealing evidence, and hiring snitches to rat on their fellow detectives. One player, however, will take on the role of The Chisel, whose only goal is to stall and misdirect the detectives at every turn using bluffing, manipulation, and (often) outright lies.

All of that is powered by an enormous volume of text that covers every possible question and every possible response. As detectives ask more questions and uncover more about the case, they scribble down everything on a big notepad (pictured), and as time draws to a close (each case has a limited number of turns), they’re supposed to think the case through, work out who’s guilty and then make an accusation. Detective: CoA uses the innovative ARC (Adaptive Response Card) System to create the feel of interrogating a suspect. Suspects do not simply give paragraph-book responses; instead The Chisel carefully chooses how they will answer. When Billy O'Shea insists that the victim was a regular at Topsy's Nightclub, is he telling the truth or is The Chisel subtly leading the detectives toward a dead end that will cost them precious time? Detectives can challenge responses that they think are lies but at great risk: If they're wrong, The Chisel will acquire leverage over them, making the case that much harder to solve. If you want to get ahead in this town, bein’ squeaky clean ain’t gonna cut it. You’ll have to get your hands dirty.” Detective: City of Angels is a game that draws players into 1940s noir using well-written scripts, dynamic mechanics and thematically perfect artwork – the board itself is based on a real map of Los Angeles from 1932 that was the original inspiration for the game! At times, it almost feels like a tabletop RPG, and like many RPGs, it can live and die on the Game Master. The instruction manual does come with a great example of how the Chisel can make the game more exciting, and the more the Chisel gets into the theme and the excitement of those interrogations, the more fun all the players will have.The heart of Detective: City of Angels is in its strong storytelling. The cases are all really well written. The setting and characters come to life making the game really engaging and thematic. It’s not just the in-game writing… this game has a TON of literature! The game comes with a comprehensive Rulebook, Tutorial Book, Detective Case Books for each detective, The Chisel Casebook & Solutions and a Sleuth Casebook. Each one is uniquely presented and dripping with theme. The game never seems to break character even if you’re just reading the standard game rules. You’ll be immersed in this one from start until finish. Will one detective rise above the rest and close the case on L.A.'s latest high profile murder? Or will the Chisel sow enough doubt and confusion to prevent the detectives from solving the crime? Using the innovative ARC (Adaptive Response Card) System to create the feel of interrogating a suspect, the Chisel will control how suspects choose to answer questions. Detectives can challenge responses that they think are lies, but at great risk: If they're wrong, the Chisel will acquire leverage over them, making the case that much harder to solve. When a player chooses to question a suspect, the Chisel will choose one of several possible answers. It’s then up to the detective to deduce whether that suspect is telling the truth or deliberately misleading them. Guess right, and you get the truth, as well as leverage over that witness to use in future questions. Guess wrong, and the Chisel gets the leverage over you, making the case that much harder to solve. Detective: City of Angels is a game of mystery, deception, and investigation. Most players will step into the shoes of LAPD homicide detectives, hungry for glory and willing to do whatever it takes to successfully close a case, even if that means intimidating suspects, concealing evidence, and a hiring snitches to rat on their fellow detectives. One player, however, will take on the role of the Chisel, whose only goal is to stall and misdirect the detectives at every turn using bluffing, manipulation, and (often) outright lies.