Digitally Implemented
Not to sound like a total
elitist, but knowing that this next statement will probably make me
sound exactly like one: I'm not a huge fan of digital versions of board
games. I do like ones that are well designed and even wrote a blog post earlier
about what ways there are to play games digitally. There are even some
excellently produced digital implementations for board games that I've
had the opportunity to play. Games like Root, Evolution, and Scythe
all have beautifully created digital implementations that make the game
come to life on the screen. Not to mention the numerous Tabletop
Simulator implementations of board games that have been created that are
excellently done by both game devs and users alike.
Despite all
this praise, I still find myself preferring to play a board game
physically versus digitally. Maybe it's because I have played too many
video games and I have very specific tastes when it comes to games that I
play on the screen (I've got at least 300+ video games in my collection
and it's always growing more and more). It might be because there's a
tactile sensation of being able to move the pieces around on the table
versus just moving a mouse. It might be because I enjoy the push/pull of
playing a game with another person and seeing their reaction to what
I've done. It also might just be that I don't fully trust that the
implementation of a digital AI into the game doesn't allow for
"cheating" from the AI.
Whatever the reason, I have found over
the years that I prefer to play games on the table with other people
around me and given the opportunity to choose a virtual meetup to play a
new game, or an in-person play of a game that I'm familiar with, I'll
trend towards an in-person game despite the call of a new game. With the
pandemic occurring in 2020, there has been an explosion of digital
versions of games, and yet I find myself still gravitating towards the
physical versions, despite them often being far more expensive and
time-consuming to play. I know that there are many who aren't able to
play physically and rely on digital versions to do so, and for that I
have the deepest sympathies. However, in my case, I am fortunate enough
to have some friends (and a beautiful wife) who live locally that I'm
able to play with, and that's my preferred method of playing games.
Again,
I know that sounds a bit elitist to say "I only want to play physical
versions of games," but I've found that over the years, I just prefer to
play physically versus digitally. I don't think there's anything
inherently wrong with playing games virtual and if that's the best way
for you to connect with your friends, more power to you. I personally
just prefer to have the physical components in my hand as I'm very much a
tactile kind of guy, so take the first review below with a grain of
salt as I've only ever been able to play the digital implementation of
the game.
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Publisher: Hans im Glück
Year Released: 2000
Mechanics: Area Majority / Influence, Map Addition, Pattern Recognition, Tile Placement
BGG Score (Overall Rank): 7.4 (#217)
Times Played: 3+ (several unlogged plays back when I originally purchased the game)
Josiah's Score: 6.5
What I Liked: There's a reason that Carcassone has remained a perennial favorite to introduce to new players. It's easy to learn gameplay paired with a seemingly endless number of expansions allows the game to be played with large amounts of variation and introduction to non-regular board gamers. The game itself is fairly simple to learn with only a few nuances that players need to be aware of when learning the rules of the game, which makes it fantastic to teach to new players.
The tile-laying mechanic of the game allows for constant variation on the game as they are shuffled and drawn each game that is played, resulting in almost near-infinite building of the countryside during the game. It's also quite satisfying to see your French countryside build and expand as you play the game, resulting in a beautiful, growing board that gets larger and larger with each turn.
I also appreciate that it implements strategic choices into the game with the placement of meeples on the shared board with a potential loss of a meeple due to it's placement on a tile that isn't completed by the end of the game. Interestingly enough, I learned that a review of Carcassonne by Alison Hansel here on BGG is what initially coined the term "meeple", being a portmanteau of "my people." Since then, the term has spread to encompass any small person-like (or animal-like) figurine in board games. It was an interesting factoid that tickled my fancy.
What I Didn't Like: I'm just going to come right out and say it that I don't like playing the game digitally against an AI opponent. To me, even the "Easy" opponent still seemed to pull out wins from nowhere. Out of the 5+ games that I played against the AI, I lost every single one. The AI seemed to pull just the right tiles in order to frustrate my plans yet continue to score points for itself, which I couldn't seem to get beyond. It frustrated me that as someone with a generally favorable win ratio, I saw loss after loss against even the most basic of opponents.
I have yet to play the game against another opponent that isn't a bot, but from what I could gather with the game itself, there doesn't seem to be much to the game. I know that the expansions add some depth to the game, but base game for me just is not really something that I really feel the need to play too often. Carcassonne, while definitely a new classic, is not really one that fits into my preferred play, despite having easy access to it at any time with the digital platform.
I will note that my feelings for the game might change if I'm able to play the digital implementation with another person, but overall, I'm not certain that it will ever get over a 7 for me, just due to the gameplay. I love the tile laying mechanics, but I'm not really sure that it's the game for me to play, nor is it something that I would choose to play over something else.
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Game Name: Chronicles of Crime
Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
Year Released: 2018
Mechanics: Cooperative Game, Scenario / Mission / Campaign Game, Solo / Solitaire Game, Storytelling
BGG Score (Overall Rank): 7.6 (#279)
Times Played: 5
Josiah's Score: 8.0
What I Liked: I am a huge fan of procedural crime shows and Chronicles of Crime
definitely captures that feel of attempting to piece together what
happened, all the while interviewing suspects and witnesses, as well as
finding evidence and following along the lines of the story as it's
pieced together.
The game itself does require an app to play,
which while I'm not entirely thrilled about it, does manage to integrate
the game fairly well with the paired app. There are a few complaints I
have about the app (more on that below), but overall the idea of
scanning in potential clues, interrogating witnesses, and moving to new
locations is done pretty well with the app. I'm absolutely floored that
you can ask any person a question about another witness/suspect and
depending on the state of the game or even the time of day, they might
give a different response.
I love the storytelling aspect of the
game and how the cases grow organically through the entire procedure to
determine what occurred. As you play through the game and scan the crime
scenes as well as interview witnesses and pick up evidence, players are
able to piece together what occurred. The time mechanic is very
interesting as each piece of evidence, person interviewed, or move to
another location that's made adds another set amount of time to the
investigation. At the end of the case, players are asked to scan in the
cards to answer questions about the case in order to solve it. They are
then assigned points (and a star rating out of 5) based on whether or
not they correctly scanned the answers to the questions. Time also plays
a factor and there's an extra amount of points awarded to players if
they manage to get under the allotted time for the case, pushing players
to reduce the scans made.
I also very much like that there are
standing characters that you have to reach out to within the department
for additional support. A doctor at the morgue, tech in the lab, hacker
at the IT department, and profiler at the precinct all help provide
valuable information to help the investigation along. Players are
encouraged to contact each of the respective individuals regarding
evidence found during the case or to obtain further information about
the individuals that they may have come across in the investigation.
It's nice having a reliable set of helpers to point the player in the
right direction, although it comes at the risk of spending time
discussing the clues/persons of interest that could result in a lower
overall score.
The balancing act of attempting to learn all the
correct information all while under a time limit for the day is
challenging, yet doable. While there's only one instance where players
are timed (the VR investigation of a crime scene), all other decisions
can be made without worrying about the time limit as it's only scans
that increase the time spent on the case. Players are actively
encouraged to discuss the materials with one another to determine what
next steps should be taken.
Having played several games in the Unlock! series as well as the Exit: The Game series, I find myself enjoying Chronicles of Crime more than the aforementioned games. With the two expansions for the game, Chronicles of Crime: Noir and Chronicles of Crime: Welcome to Redview included in the box by my friend, I have quite a bit of content to play through, which I'm excited about.
What I Didn't Like: The "one and done" nature of the game play. As mentioned above, I've played games in both the Unlock! and Exit: The Game lines and unfortunately, Chronicles of Crime
falls into the same pitfall that the other games did as well. The game
is a "one and done" kind of game where once players determine the
solution for the crime, there's no additional way to play that same
scenario again without knowing most, if not all of what to do. It's
disappointing that the game doesn't have some kind of randomization
feature that would allow players to replay the same scenario but with a
different twist to whodunit. I've seen Chronicles of Crime for
sale quite a bit for $10 and that's honestly what I probably would pay
for the experience especially since there's a total of 6 scenarios
(including the intro scenario) included in the game.
The
expansions add a few more scenarios each (4 in each expansion) that add
to the game, as well as additional DLC for the app that adds more
scenarios (I believe at this time there's 6 new DLC scenarios), but they
run anywhere from $3-$6 a pop for the new scenarios. I can't help but
wish that there was more replayability in the game beyond purchasing new
expansions or scenarios since it's such a cool concept. This fact alone
makes this a game that would be good to pass around with a group of
friends as once you've done each of the cases, unless enough time has
passed for you to forget what happened, you're likely to remember all
the details of the case.
There's also a few issues that I've had
with the "autoscan" feature included with the app. More times than not,
as I'm attempting to scan a QR code for an item, I'll find that I
scanned the wrong code (or the app will catch a code that I'm passing
over with my camera) and I'll lose some more time due to scanning the
wrong item or rescanning the same item. The feature can be turned off in
the options, but the manual scan has a really odd design choice that
requires the players to awkwardly hold their finger on the scanning
window to activate the scan. It couldn't have been that difficult to
allow a finger to be placed anywhere on the screen to initiate the scan,
but for whatever reason, the developers chose to make it an awkward
claw placement for the scan, which is something that is done multiple
times throughout the game.
Overall, I've been fairly impressed
with the game and it is a fun diversion to bring to the table. There's
been a few times where I've replayed a scenario to see if I can do
better and while I have been able to figure out the solution on my own,
it's nice that there's an included "Solution" button on the app once you
finish the case to see what you missed. I don't believe that I'll pick
up the game for myself, but it is nice to be able to borrow it from a
friend and experience the game for myself, especially with the
single-use nature of the game.
Concluding Thoughts
It's
weird thinking about these "one and done" games that have been coming
out more and more. I understand the appeal of them: buy them, play them,
and pass them on to someone else. However, I personally like to get
more than a few plays out of the game before I pass it on or sell it to
another person. There's just something that seems to rub me the wrong
way with buying a board game specifically to play three times but then
sell it. Maybe it's the economics and cost evaluation part of me, but I
want to play a game more than three times (or once in the case of the Exit games) to really get the best bang for my buck.
I
know that some of the newer Legacy games have the idea of building your
own personal copy of a board game after you complete the scenarios and
campaign for the game. I like that so much more since there's an
inherent value to replaying the game that you've built after multiple
plays. Games like Charterstone, Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated, and Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West
allow players to then continue to play the game after finishing the
campaign, having built their own personal copy of the game board. Some
even allow for replaying the game again, although sometimes there's a
"recharge pack" that's needed to be purchased to replay. Despite that,
these games appeal to me more because they allow players to continue to
use what was bought, rather than being a "one and done" thing.
I
also do appreciate digital versions of these games as they allow players
to play and replay the games without having to purchase any upgrades,
which is one advantage that a digital version has over a physical
version. I personally own a copy of Gloomhaven
digitally and while I've not had the opportunity to play it with a
group (having done it solo), I do like that the game has built-in value
in allowing me to play the campaign again and again with only a single
copy (multiple copies if there is more than one person playing).
Games
are expensive and having a hobby that's expensive really challenges me
to look at cost/benefit analysis quite in depth. I might have paid $330
for a copy of Everdell: The Complete Collection
with all the bells and whistles (deluxe resource vessels and card
sleeves), but I know that I'll be able to play it as many times as I
like. With only 10 plays of the game, I've reduced the overall cost of
the game to $33 a play, which will only reduce further. Add in
additional factors of time as well as number of players and we could
potentially push that number even lower, which brings down cost per play
to $17.37 an hour (at 19 or so hours) or $17.37 a player per game (with
a total of 19 players in the 10 games I've played). Cost/benefit for
the game is much lower than the ratio for these one and done games in my
opinion and results in more time being played with these games.
Give me your thoughts: How do you feel about "one and done" games (examples include: Chronicles of Crime, MicroMacro: Crime City, and the Unlock Series)?
Do you find yourself tracking the cost per play of games, or is there
another factor that helps you determine if you've gotten value out of a
game? What are your thoughts on the two games that I reviewed today (if
any)?
Thank you again for all your support with this blog. I
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Have a wonderful week everyone and keep on playing games
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