Although crime and mystery board games are not as popular as before, due to the rise of smartphone games and consoles in the last few decades, they are still unmatched when it comes to bringing adults and children together in family gatherings.
If you miss the psychological intrigue and the joy of these slow-moving games, check out our hand-picked list of some the best crime and mystery board games around for 2020.
Detective cases are fictional stories set in the real world, so you will have access to any data found on the Internet. On the Antares Database, you can find information stored by the police, the FBI, the military, and federal intelligence agencies.
This is one of the most immersive crime games around. You are really thinking like a detective and the plot is like living a detective novel. Having access to the realistic Online database also adds to the fun experience of going through the cases.
Experience being an L.A. Detective, and realize that sometimes you may need to bend the rules to do your job. Try some controversial methods to solve your case, All the while battling with the red tape of bureaucracy. Use all new mechanics: stakeout and observation to learn more about your suspects. The choices are yours, but are you willing to cross the line?
You can also try some controversial new methods to solve your case, all the while battling the red tape of bureaucracy. Use the new mechanics, Stakeout and Observation to learn more about your suspects.
They will start the app, choose the scenario they want to play, and follow the story. The goal being to catch the killer of the case they have been given in the shortest short time possible.
Using the scan&play technology, Each component (locations, characters, items, etc.) has a unique QR code, which, depending on the scenario selected, will activate and trigger different clues and stories. That means players will be able to get new stories way after the game is release Simply by downloading the app’s updates, without any shipping of new physical components involved.
Six of these cases are one-off adventures, while four others form a linked campaign that challenges you to stop the murders of the notorious Jack the ripper! with a new map of Whitechapel, newspapers hot-off-the-press for every case, and ten unique casebooks, it’s time to put your mind to the test.
Another is the forensic scientist who holds the key to convicting the criminal but is only able to express their knowledge through analysis of the scene. The rest are investigators, interpreting the clues to solve the crime and the killer is among them.
This is an immersive and interactive party game unlike many other games. It truly gets your methodical brain going for the good guys, and your game-face and acting abilities going if your’e the bad guys.
Was it Plum with the wrench in the library? Or Green with the candlestick in the study? Eliminate information throughout the game in this classic whodunit. The player who correctly accuses Who, What, and Where wins.
Over the course of four acts, players send out Family Members and Thugs to shake down businesses in order to earn money, illegal goods, and other benefits. They battle over territory in Turf Wars and get special bonuses for completing jobs for the Don. Players can add new Allies to their family business, if they’re willing to pay heavy bribes, but having the most money is the key to victory.
After four acts, players receive bonuses for the Turf they control and the jobs they’ve managed to pull. The family with the most money will inherit the business of Don Corleone and take control over New York City.
221B Baker Street. Players travel through the streets and alleys of Victorian London picking up clues while attempting to solve 200 intriguing Sherlock Holmes Adventures written especially for this game. The game can be played competitively by 2 or more individuals or teams.
Or it can be played as a cooperative game, with all players teaming up as Baker Street Irregulars to help Holmes solve the case. When played this way, the group bands together to decide which of the fourteen locations to visit first, and the meaning of each clue is discussed by the group. The game can also be played solitaire.
In the story-line, a mysterious invitation from three detectives leads you to a house of riddles. But when you arrive, you find everything looks abandoned. With a bang, the front door slams behind you.
You are trapped! What’s going on here? Where are Sandra, Mario, and Tom? Will you be able to crack the case and find your way out of the house?
Multiple cases are available inside the box, each offering varying degrees of difficulty. In each one, players race to be the first to collect all the clues, make their educated deductions, and check their answers with Holmes.
Players discover clues by visiting different locations represented by cards in hope of solving the mystery before anyone else. Carriage tokens can be bid to beat another player to a location, and police can be used to lock a location down. Each option buys players time to solve the case first.
A QR code can be scanned at the beginning of every case to hear the narrator read the introduction, ensuring the entire group will be immersed in the experience.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. This game challenges fledgling detectives to prove their mettle. Designed for ages 13 and up, this thrilling game emulates the popular TV show—and places you on Grissom’s team. With help from CSI characters, players become crime scene investigators in a race to collect evidence from 7 crime lab divisions: interrogation, autopsy, identification, trace, ballistics, forensics and DNA.
The first player to present Grissom with a correct arrest warrant proving means, motive and opportunity wins. Disclosure cards and Grissom cards affect players as they employ modern science and old-fashioned police work. Features 8 stories written in unique CSI style by award-winning crime writer Max Haines.
The game includes CSI game board, 8 crime stories, 24 suspect and evidence cards per story, 2 Grissom cards per story, 25 disclosure cards, the CSI handbook, 4 arrest warrants, 4 playing pieces with 8 CSI character choices and 1 die.
In 1985, University Games introduced the Murder Mystery Party to the world as its first game. Years later, these parties-in-a-box still include everything players needs to solve a murder during an evening with friends.
This is an interactive murder mystery party game in which your guests for the evening become characters suspected of the crime in question. The crime must be solved before the evening is out. It is in each guest’s best interest to prove their innocence by interrogating their fellow suspects until the murderer is exposed.
Whitehall Mystery. Track a killer or become one in Whitehall Mystery! Whitehall Mystery is a refined game of deduction and bluffing set in 1888, in the London of Jack the Ripper. It is a game for two to four players, age fourteen and older. Scotland Yard is hot on the heel of another serial killer, right when Jack the Ripper is active!
In the tight network of streets and alleyways, a hunt for a new and mysterious murderer begins.The Jack player wins the gae if he is able to complete his crime without being caught. The Investigator players play together, and they win when one of them captures Jack.
at the beginning of the game, The Ghost player receives a story card with a full description of the murder. Each card depicts all the details of the case. Each detective receives asymmetrical, pre-constructed set of interaction cards, player investigation sheet, and a player screen.
On their turn, each detective asks the Ghost any open question they want and plays a single interaction card. The card implies the way the Ghost may answer the question. There are 9 different interactions total, most of them giving information to all detectives. Since detectives may ask any open questions and interaction cards vary, The game allows for lots of creativity for both the Ghost and paranormal detectives.
Detectives may try, twice during the game, to guess what has actually happened to the victim stating who was the killer, where did it happen, what was the motive, how was it done and what was the murder weapon. Then the Ghost writes down secretly on this detective investigation sheet how many of their answers are correct. The game can end in two ways: -if a detective gives all correct answers.
In this case, they win, together with the Ghost player. -If all detectives run out of interaction cards. In this case, if no one has guessed everything correctly then, whoever guessed correctly the most information is the sole winner of the game.
*****
To view Mystery Tribune’s full coverage of notable crime, mystery and detective, action thriller, and horror games, please visit here.
