Tag: mystery

Categories
Board Games Reviews

Guilty: Houston 2015 Review

A senator’s daughter has died mysteriously in prison, and you’re the lucky one in charge of figuring out what happened before giving a press conference to a gaggle of reporters after a long night of investigation.

The Guilty series is a new entry into the ever expanding genre of games that try to capture full fledged mystery investigations in board game form. The short, short version is it’s got the weight of a Detective case in a box closer to the size of the Exit series.

The setting is perfect for this type of game: it’s within a contained area of investigation with believable constraints and reasons for time pressure. The atmosphere is well developed, and the economical descriptions befitting a game confined to cards are on point. The box advertises the game as “immersive,” and I agree wholeheartedly. More than any other mystery game I’ve played that doesn’t use external elements this really felt like conducting an investigation the players are in control of.

The time deck mechanic is really well done. Cards are flipped from a separate deck representing the passage of time as the player chooses which leads to investigate. At different points in the deck game affecting events happen. It presents ongoing pressure and twists without making the game feel too short and is really well implemented.

Guilty thrives via its design and setup. The board that grounds the display and organizes the numerous investigative choices available really helps present the overwhelming options in an accessible manner. The progression of the investigation is completely open. The player is in control, and most uncovered cards/information feel interesting if not always vital.

This game consists of one case, but it’s a DENSE, meaty one. This takes 3-4 hours and as mentioned feels more equivalent to a round of Detective than other stand alone mystery games or even a round of Suspects (which I found weighty and challenging itself, but this is on a different level). That they accomplished this with a system that’s completely contained in the box (ie no internet component like Detective, etc has) is impressive.

There’s an overload of information to sift through throughout, but it’s by no means a negative. The case is compelling and it was extremely engrossing. There are important minute details, so players should be ready to read and observe carefully. However there really wasn’t one key piece of information that derails everything if missed. This has a mix of several visual and textual clues and figuring out how it all comes together is the goal.

Two players is probably the sweet spot for this series. Even for veteran gamers be at peak concentration level when soloing. I overlooked a couple vital points and was a bit off in my solution. That said in was still a blast as a solo experience.

The scoring system is a little odd, but good enough. It’s forgiving in a way I didn’t expect. I didn’t really solve the case (I got twisted around in my own head and picked the wrong killer), but figured out enough of everything else to get best evaluation. I have mixed feelings on that, as on one hand it seems like getting the criminal wrong should be disqualifying but on the other being recognized for solving a majority of the questions and piecing together all the other details is nice. Like I said: a bit odd but still fine.

There were a couple of red herrings I found mildly frustrating, but most of them connect to ancillary things to figure out if you dig enough so it’s not the issue it could be.

Nothing gets destroyed so the game is resettable and can be passed on to other players (the box insert isn’t great for storing the cards once they’ve been unwrapped, but that’s a minor quibble).

Overall this was excellent, and one of the best of this type of game I’ve played. Looking forward to future entries in the series.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Film Reviews

Detective Chinatown 1900 Review

“The toughest thing about a case is never the case.”

Sherlock Holmes who isn’t stumbles into a web of murder and political intrigue in early 20th Century San Fransisco.

I feel like I was peripherally aware of the series Detective Chinatown 1900 reimagines, but I’ve never actually seen any of it. And as this is a new take set in a different time period no prior knowledge is necessary.

The film is a blend of political commentary regarding a period of high racial tension and straight up comedy all tied together with a murder mystery central plot. It sounds like an absurd mix, but the melding of genres is really well done. It descends into complete farce at moments without ever having trouble reestablishing gravitas when the plot or themes need it.

The movie as I saw it in an NYC theater was presented with both English and Chinese subtitles. It’s a Chinese film largely set in San Fransisco and the dialog ends up being roughly half Chinese and half English, with some other languages mixed in. So a vast majority of viewers will need at least one of the sets of subtitles at times.

I’m a regular watcher of foreign films (usually in Japanese), so am used to reading subtitles. But even for me, the speed of the Chinese dialog and the resulting quickness that the subtitles flew by was a bit challenging at times. But key plot information was always presented somewhat slower (as it tended to land during dramatic moments) so I had no trouble following the story overall.

The mystery itself is reasonable and compelling, the humor juxtaposition masterfully done, and the societal commentary and historical aspects well presented and easily accessible even to those unfamiliar with the time period.

As far as criticism goes the film felt a little long in the tooth at times, a couple things strained credulity (beyond the things that were supposed to be absurd), and I’m not certain they completely stuck the landing. But I’m largely nitpicking here.

Overall I found Detective Chinatown 1900 to be a thoroughly engaging and entertaining movie. Definitely worth a watch.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Board Games Reviews

Suspects:Claire Harper, Eternal Investigator Board Game Review

Second verse, reasonably similar to the first.

Suspects is a card based mystery game that involves visiting locations, speaking to suspects, and examining items to try to unravel the secrets behind a crime. Claire Harper, Eternal Investigator is the second collection in this series and includes three separate cases.

I enjoyed the first Suspects game, Claire Harper Takes the Stage, despite not doing particularly great solving its cases. They required catching little details, and were generally harder than other games of this type I’ve played. But it was still a well crafted game and quite fun and I was looking forward to the sequels.

Eternal Investigator provides a deeper look at the protagonist introduced in the previous collection. She’s the thread tying the cases together and this group features different times in her life.

The game plays extremely similar to the first with a deck of cards driving the gameplay with information to uncover as the cases proceed. Each case has a couple extra things to go with the deck that help frame the investigation and present initial leads to follow. Things that can be investigated are numbered and drawing the corresponding cards is how the game proceeds. It’s extremely open in letting the players decide what order to poke at things at, although at times certain mechanics hold parts of the investigation back a bit until certain progress has been made.

With the mechanics out of the way the main question is how good the cases are. In the end it’s rather hard to compare this to the first set. I again played solo, did a little better, and for the most part enjoyed these. But while one of my favorite cases in the series was here, my absolute least favorite case in any of the Suspects series was here too (including the third collection, review to come). I won’t get into spoilers but I felt it just didn’t come together and unlike all the other cases relied a bit on educated guesses (which mysteries never should).

Playing the cases in order makes sense as it progresses through Claire’s life, but they most definitely ARE NOT in progressing difficulty. The game’s fully resettable and can be passed along to others after playing.

Overall I enjoy and recommend the series and with one really good case and one solid one out of three the good still outweighs the less so in this collection. Far from perfect but still well worth checking out if you enjoyed the first batch.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.