Shadows (Masters of Crime)

• Designers: Lukas Setzke, Martin Student and Verena Wiechens
• Publisher: Kosmos
• Players: 1-6
• Age: 16+
• Time: 2-4 hours
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/40M3Qmw 

Incognito is a cooperative deductive murder mystery game where players must solve puzzles, follow clues and make decisions to solve a case. They do this using the included deck of cards, 12 hidden realistic clue documents, and the Internet. Through a choose-your-own-adventure mechanism, players make decisions that influence the course of the game and lead to solving the case in the end. One by one, they enter different realistically designed locations and encounter the various suspects. Then they choose from a menu of different ways to deal with the situation and receive points based on their decisions. Complex puzzles and escape room elements must be solved in order to progress further in the case.

The theme/backstory: “An assignment awaits you in Amsterdam. You must break into the famous Bachmann Gallery and steal a mysterious painting. Before you can do this, you must scour Amsterdam’s underworld for a team capable of carrying out such an operation. You will also scout out the gallery, inspect building plans, hack security systems, and plan your theft. Every decision you make affects how the story develops. In addition to the high-fidelity game materials, the use of real online maps, emails, and websites draws you deep into the story. Can you pull off the million-dollar heist of the century?”

The game is closely intertwined with the real world, and players have to keep using traditional apps like Google Maps or Wikipedia to gather information. Writing emails, detailed web pages and cell phone calls are also part of the immersive gaming experience.

[Editor’s note – I will have a few pictures of actual game components in this review, but I will blur out parts of the pictures to ensure that there are no spoilers given away while letting you get a feel for the components and the level of information on them!]

This is a game originally released in 2022 (per BGG) that is just now being reprinted in English by Kosmos – they are definitely jumping onto the successful bandwagon of investigative/deduction games.  Kosmos is no stranger to the consumable puzzle games as they are also the folks behind the wildly successful Exit series.  This new series takes a more in-depth approach to a single investigation – with game lengths projected at 2-4 hours.

Don’t be scared off by the game length – as much of that time will be spent in discussion.  If you’re playing by yourself, this might actually end up more in the 90-120 minute range, umm, that is unless you like arguing with yourself a lot!

To set up the game, simply open the pack of cards as instructed and read the first card.  There is no rulebook here – everything you need to know comes from the cards.  Admittedly, the first few cards include most of the rules (and could have been a book) – but it’s fine coming from the cards.

Without spoiling the story, the gist is that you plan to break into the Bachmann Gallery in Amsterdam in order to steal a famous painting — but to do that, rooms must be examined, security systems hacked, and puzzles solved. There are many ways to steal a masterpiece. Which one will you choose?  The theivery theme is a bit adult, but this has the least graphic descriptions of any of the Masters of Crime games,  and the 16+ age recommendation may be a little conservative here.  I guess a safe rule would be – if you’re ok with your kids watching a PG-13 rated movie, then you’d likely be OK with that same child playing this game.  That being said, it will take a certain amount of brainpower to do the investigations here, so older children will still be better suited for this.

As you play the game, you’ll note that there is a LOT of reading here.  I’m one who does not learn well by listening, so either I do the reading, or I just grab the card later and read it myself.  That being said, I’m sure that there’s someone out there who does a lot better from hearing things – so do what works for you.  

Make sure that you have a computer or cell phone handy – like one of of my favorite escape room games ever, Fire in Adlerstein, as well as the other Masters of Crime games, this game makes great use of the Internet.  You’ll be directed to webpages, need to do online searches or use maps, and you might even need to make a phone call or two!  Anytime you see a globe icon on a card or other informational piece, this is telling you that you need to go to the Internet and get a clue!  The level of detail of this is truly amazing – and it gives a very immersive feel to the experience.  It’s unclear whether this game will be playable forever, as there are a lot of websites that were created solely for this game – but more importantly, some things that rely upon Google Maps – and who knows if anything changes on that site as time marches on.  At least as of November 2024, it all works fine.

You’ll work your way through a deck of cards that contains much of the story – but again, not all – because you’ll be sent to the Internet for some things as well as 12 dossiers included in the box.  At certain points in the game, you’ll be asked to make a decision, akin to a “choose your own adventure” book.  Carefully think about your decisions at these junctures, as they can permanently affect the trajectory of your game.

The deck is divided into a number of different locations, and when you first learn about a location, you’ll be instructed to get out the cards for that location.  When you start each new location, you’ll have a decision to make – and this will actually determine which cards you’ll see from that location – the others will be discarded from the game permanently! So, you’ll never get to see any clues that were on those cards!  Like I said, take these decision points seriously!

I’d definitely recommend using a large table for the game as you’ll end up with a bunch of cards and papers that you’ll want to be able to refer to.   Definitely pay attention to any detail in anything that you’re given access to – some of the connections are super hard to find – though will look obvious in retrospect once you see how they go together!  

You’ll definitely want to take notes.  You have a large foldout board which you can use to organize cards and jot down some notes as well a separate note sheet that provides a handy grid area.  You may have some figuring to do along the way and this will help.  While we’re on the big board, you’ll also see a row of stars near the top.  As you play through the game, you might earn stars for making certain decisions – color these in as they are awarded to you.  This will help determine your overall success in the game.

There are some puzzles/codes that you’ll need to solve along the way – think of these as challenges like you would find in an Exit or Unlock game.  In general, I found these challenges to be on the easier side – but I think this is because this game is less about solving puzzles and more about putting disparate pieces of information together.  Observation and connecting-the-dots will be more useful than knowledge of semaphore or being able to put a jigsaw puzzle together. The puzzles are just a way for them to set aside some information that you can only retrieve by typing in the correct code at the game’s website.  That being said – if you do get stuck anywhere along the way – the game’s website does have a whole area for hints to get you unstuck.

If you’re looking for an in-depth detailed investigation, this is the game for you.  The level of detail is really amazing, and it provides a story that you’ll remember for awhile after playing.  Probably best with a few friends as it’s always helpful to have extra sets of eyes looking at all the scattered bits of information – you never know who will be able to make that crucial connection that suddenly ties all the dots together!  

On the Thames & Kosmos website – there are three more investigations set to come out this year – so you’ll have plenty of these to try!  https://store.thamesandkosmos.com/collections/masters-of-crime?srsltid=AfmBOooJd5g33tkZPF4H572p178DDX5SymU3rikE7HNAHMMJ0NtgQesG

This one can be found at:  https://amzn.to/40M3Qmw 

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor