Masters of Crime: Incognito

Masters of Crime is a detective series by Kosmos (of Exit escape games fame). I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this when I first bought it on a whim, but was pleasantly surprised to find an entertaining combo of in-depth murder mystery, choose your own adventure story, and escape room puzzles. Half of the game uses cards and a detective board to tell the story and provide images of suspects and evidence. You must have internet and a browser to access the other half of the materials. I’m not a big fan of requiring internet to access websites that may go down in the future, but they do work well as ways to input puzzle solutions and solve the mystery. There are also unique websites made entirely for the game, adding immersion and showing more effort put into this game than I expected. The story itself, which I found fun, deals with the murder of a prisoner, so you play as the main character and infiltrates the prison undercover in order to meet the suspects and solve the crime. You get scored on how many stars you obtain, which you tend to get from making “good” decisions. There is a logic behind it, however. Even the choices you make have correct answers that can be deduced along the way. The game took our group of 2 around 3 hours, but there is no penalty for time, and you can even save progress if you need to take a break. For someone like me who loves escape room puzzles, adventure stories, and murder mysteries, this series is a great trifecta, and I look forward to more!