The clock is ticking, detectives. You only have 48 hours to close this case, or the mayor will have your jobs! I don’t care if you work together or solve this thing on your own, just make sure the job is done and the right perp is caught, got it? Then what are you waiting for? Get to work!

What Is It?

Modular Board – The board is placed randomly each play, always with HQ in the center

Grid Movement – Players will move their cars around the board to get to the spots where they want to perform actions

Variable Play Style – Players can play as a team (cooperative) or compete to solve the case. In the competitive mode, some of the elements have a semi-cooperative nature

Variable Player Powers – Players get an ability card each game to help them solve the case. In cooperative mode, players have access to different actions, depending on their role

Events – Throughout the game, events will come out that will affect the game state. Players will have to work on the event conditions to clear those (and earn rewards by doing so). Not clearing events can result in negative effects for the players

Turn Order – Time Track – Movement and actions cost players time and whoever is farthest back on the time track takes the next turn. When players reach the end of the time track, they’ll end their game and close the case

Dice Rolling – Players will roll dice to populate the board with mobsters, and will sometimes roll for event-related actions

Who Is It For?

  • 1 to 4 Players – Solo is fine, but the multi-player is a bit more interesting. 2 players requires less clues to find certain evidence, but otherwise the game is pretty similar at any count
  • Ages 10 & Up / Family-Weight Gamers – Rules/actions are pretty straightforward; can also help if you play cooperatively to lessen the learning curve
  • Fans of cooperative games or competitive games that have some semi-cooperation
  • Fans of noir/detective themes

Expansions

Crooked Capos – This is a mini expansion with 2 modules. “Crooked” adds in clean vs crooked loyalty cards, and players can try to figure out who is crooked for a reward. “Capos” adds a few unique mobsters to the bag which have specific requirements to arrest them and give special rewards when you do. — I wasn’t big on “Crooked,” especially with less players. I thought it was kind of easy to forget about while playing. On the other hand, though “Capos” was also a small addition, I thought it added some nice variety to the mobsters, and the unique rewards were fun.

Kingpins – This expansions adds a Patrol Wagon that players take turns controlling, moving it around the board to bust Flophouses to ultimately reveal the kingpin’s identity. Once the kingpin is identified and on the run, the players must topple them by taking an apprehend action on their spot. This also adds in scheme cards which can “attack” players and move their time tracker forward. And it has a few new abilities and events. — I thought the shared patrol car was interesting and the different kingpins/effects added some variability to the game. I did, however, think there was a lot of build up for finding out the kingpin, and then arresting them was very simple, which just seemed a bit surprising.

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Nice art and table presence
  • Components – Overall nice quality; most things work well despite their “tiny” nature, which was impressive
  • Symbology is clear
  • Variability in events and player abilities, as well as play style
  • A lot of options turn to turn of actions
  • I like that players are penalized if too many events come out to incentivize them to pay attention to them
  • The Kingpin expansion adds some interesting elements without too much complication
  • Smooth/quick turns
  • Cooperative game was unique since players only had access to certain actions depending on their role
  • I like the ghost officer in 2 player games to increase suspect cards available to see

CONS

  • It felt like a cooperative game that added competitive as a secondary option. The semi-cooperative nature of how evidence is processed once the final clue is collected just felt disappointing if you had collected clues early but couldn’t get the last one
  • My one complaint about the tininess is the time trackers are a little too big for the time mat so it’s hard to see when an event is passed and sometimes if you were on night vs day
  • The theme didn’t really shine through the mechanisms
  • Difficult to get everything back in the box
  • Some force cards seemed very impactful while others felt much more circumstantial
  • Can last a bit too long for what it is

Final Thoughts

Given the theme, which I really like usually, I expected a bit more deduction in this game. Ultimately, I felt like I was just collecting tokens to unlock information and I wished I was doing more to feel like I was actually solving a case.

Additionally, the “semi-cooperative” feel of the competitive mode made it feel like the game was just better fully cooperative. It just seemed to make more sense with the gameplay and flow. There are definitely some fun elements here, I mostly just wanted it to connect a little bit better to the theme.

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6/10

Designer – Scott Almes
Artist – Nikoletta Vaszi
Publisher – Gamelyn Games
MSRP – $35.00
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

If you like what I do, consider Supporting Me.