Has it always been your biggest dream to follow in the footsteps of the world-famous investigator Sherlock Holmes? No evening goes by without Criminal Minds, CSI or an exciting detective novel. Then the puzzle game "Crime Master - Tatort: Großstadt" by game author Sonja Klein and Gmeiner Spieleverlag is the right game for you. Are you ready to be part of a team of investigators into suspenseful criminal cases?
Then our review of the crime and guessing game "Crime Master - Tatort: Großstadt" is just right for you.
Puzzling crime game for cunning hobby investigators
Enter the world of Crime Master - Tatort: Big City and solve twenty-five curious criminal cases in Germany's major cities with your team of investigators. Here you meet Bernd das Brot sticker as an aid to crime and Heidi Klum willfully destroyed roses as a trigger for a serious crime. But what looks like a simple guessing game after reading the case cards for the first time quickly turns into a tricky game of cat and mouse to solve the mysterious cases. Imaginatively designed playing cards and criminal cases that convince.
Our first impression when unboxing the game was consistently positive. Crime Master - Tatort: Big City comes up with twenty-five lavishly designed criminal case cards with a great sense of humor and their reconnaissance cards; there is also an investigation file, which the investigative team uses as a memo and information sheet. The only downer when it comes to processing: The playing cards are made from relatively thin cardboard and are therefore prone to kinks. The rules of the game are clearly described and so we could start playing after an unusually short training period.
Quick entry into a mysterious crime role play
The game "Crime Master - Tatort: Großstadt" revolves around the resolution of an exciting criminal case in every game. At the beginning, a "Crime Master" is selected who, as the omniscient head of investigation, takes over the control of the game. The other players take on the role of investigator. As soon as a case has been drawn from the face-down pile, the tricky search for answers and the resolution of the deed begins. To do this, one of the investigators reads the case card out loud and the “Crime Master” secretly familiarizes himself with his investigation card for the same case. When things can finally start, the investigators ask the “Crime Master” questions about the course of events, possible motives, tools used or the perpetrator to precisely solve the criminal case. The questions from the “Crime Master” may only be answered with yes or no.
Meanwhile, the investigators note important information in an investigation file. If the criminal case has been solved or the investigators can no longer think of any questions, the game is over and the team is judged by the "Crime Master" using a rating system.
A big advantage of Crime Master - Tatort: Big City* compared to other puzzling role-playing games is that it is also very suitable for two players and thus for a game in between.
While we were playing, we noticed the tricky and humorous, but not silly-looking, criminal cases that were designed in a particularly positive way. If one or the other player still finds it difficult to ask suitable questions about the criminal case at the beginning of the game, a case idea builds up in the investigator's inner eye after a short time and the case and its clarification take on an increasingly concrete form. Because the investigative work remains a tricky business, it took us around thirty minutes to resolve a criminal offense, which is significantly longer than the fifteen minutes estimated on the packaging.
Images of Crime Master
Infobox
Number of players: 2 players
Age: from 14 years
Playing time: 30 to 45 minutes
Difficulty: medium
Long-term motivation: low
Published by Gmeiner Verlag
Year of publication: 2016
Authors: Sonja Klein
Language: German
Cost: 11 Euro
Conclusion
The role and crime card game Crime Master - Tatort: Großstadt has cast a spell on us from the very first moment of the game. The cases are designed to be exciting and humorous, the resolution remains a tricky matter for the team of investigators until the last minute of the game.
The only downer is that after going through the twenty-five criminal cases there is a high probability that you will remember the details of the resolutions and will therefore not go through them again. An interesting alternative for fans of the board games Mister X, Scotland Yard and players who have always wanted to follow in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes.
