Chronicles Of Crime 1900 is an David cicurel et Wojciech Grajkowski which completes the millennial series of the same name (CoC 1400 is already available and CoC 2400 should be released by the end of the year). The game is intended for 1 to 4 players for games of about an hour and has been localized into Spanish by the publisher Lucky Duck Games.
A direct sequel
Before talking about the universe and the game itself, we will look at the hardware and the packaging. First of all, we must again salute the fact of having a quality thermoforming where it will be possible to store all the equipment easily and efficiently. Setting up the game is quite quick because the majority of the game elements are cards and all you have to do is simply put the piles on the playing area. Unlike an Unlock!, all the material is available and usable for each of the surveys in the box.
If you are not familiar with the Chronicles Of Crime series, you should know that each game box is independent of one another and that you are therefore not obliged to have all the opuses to satisfy you. of the universe and its gameplay. This time again you will play as a character from the Lavel family, Victor, who officiates as a journalist for the newspaper Les Nouvelles de Paris, but who is more interested in crimes and kidnappings than in the gossip of the capital.
Scan & Play game
Chronicles Of Crime 1900 offers five scenarios including a tutorial in case you have never played one of the games in the series and have not read the rules provided. The latter ends in about twenty minutes and allows you to learn all the game mechanics through an investigation into a crime that has been committed. To play the game you will need to have an iOS or Android device and download the specific application (common to all games in the series) that will allow you to interact with the different elements of the game.
Each scenario always begins in the same way: you go to the editorial office of your diary where you systematically meet two of your collaborators: Charlotte Hibou who will help you with your progress in your investigation/riddle and Jonas J. who will give you your assignment for the day. Your goal will be to complete your article/survey before midnight, otherwise your task will be a failure.
Even if the time is limited to solve the investigation the game is not an escape game because the time passes only when you perform actions in the game which allows you to take your time to think about what you have discovered as well as following the events of your game. Regarding time additions, most actions will take you 5 minutes in-game and 20 minutes when changing locations.
The gameplay of the game remains quite simple because you will be able to interact with the place cards and the characters present. At the start of the investigation, you will be able to search the scene, which will allow a player to take the phone or tablet to explore the said scene. This player will have to quickly look around him as well as up and down to try to find objects to advance the investigation. While the other player explains what he sees, the other players can try to find the closest matching objects in the pile of object cards. Afterwards, you can question the characters of the place to find out if you have found the right ones and include them in the specific game board. The red area of the play area is for items you have found and remain in your possession, while the blue area is for items you have only heard of.
The novelty of this opus will be the integration of enigma cards which will make the difficulty a little more difficult, because you will have to study the various objects that you have been able to recover to understand the enigma and advance its elucidation. For example, some characters will ask you for specific information that will only be unlocked by solving a puzzle. In the event that you stall in your investigation, it will always be possible to go see your colleague Charlotte at the newspaper to potentially unblock you, but it will cost you a lot of time.
As you progress in your investigation, you will find out what happened and who carried out the crime your uncle, Commissioner Lavel, asked you to investigate. From then on, you will be able to return to the newspaper to solve the investigation and write your article. To do this, you will have to answer different questions and the answers will mainly consist of scanning the QRCodes of certain cards. For example, it will be necessary to scan the card of the character who carried out the crime. Thereafter, the application will give you a score out of 100 which will depend on your success in these questions and the time you took to solve this survey.
Conclusion
Chronicles Of Crime 1900 is the first game in the series I got my hands on and I really liked what came out of it. In the same kind of game, I have done many surveys of Unlock! but I must admit that the time factor has always put me off at the highest point. There, time will only affect your final score and will allow you to take the time to analyze your clues and the situation itself.
Regarding the scenarios, they are quite immersive and, even if you have to scan the cards quite often, you don't particularly notice it and/or it doesn't break this feeling of immersion. During our various investigations, we found ourselves discussing continuously on the various subjects in order to define what actions to take to advance the quest: questioning all the characters on all the elements (or not), or agreeing on the place to explore, ...
The Scan & Play mechanism is really well put together and, even if you make a mistake in the cards to be scanned, the application will tell you directly. With five scenarios available, Chronicle Of Crime 1900 will allow you to spend several hours of play to manage to complete all the investigations. Even if there aren't any yet, community scenarios will surely be there to extend the life of your base game (this option already exists for the classic Chronicles Of Crime game).
The game is offered for around twenty euros in all the shops and if you wish to acquire augmented reality glasses for the search of the scenes you will have to add an additional ten euros.
