Videos/ Photos provided by Blueprint Gaming Concepts
Company: Blueprint Gaming Concepts
Game: Crimes In History: H.H. Holmes' Murder Castle (with expansion pack of the 2nd story)
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Board Game 📬
Genre: Detective
Date Played: 1/21/2021
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5/10
Size of Team: 2-6 Players (can also play it as a solo player)
Time: Approx. 45-60 min per game session
Price: Kickstarter
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The back story of Crimes In History: H.H. Holmes' Murder Castle took us back to 1893. During this year, Chicago held the World’s Columbian Exposition to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World. The world's first Ferris wheel was build during this celebratory event.
Herman Webster Mudgett (a.k.a. H.H. Holmes) was working as a pharmacist at the time but his real job was a con artist. He eventually "made" enough money to build his own three-story World's Fair Hotel (a.k.a. "Murder Castle"). This is where the game takes place. Will you be able to escape traps, strategize your escape plan and be the first to make it back to safety with Holmes' crime evidences ? Or will you become his next victim?
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Partnered with Holly Carden, you'll be able to enjoy beautiful graphics throughout the game (box cover, game components, rulebook layout, manufacturing file prep, etc.). The attention to details was impeccable. We were "wowed" by the quality of some of the game pieces: cotton draw string evidence bags, metal key, 3D character minis and more!
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We played the game as two players. It took us about 40 minutes to get through one game session. We felt that other than strategy. there were definitely luck components to the game as well. If the Ferris Wheel evidence selection so happens to have items that you would need on your evidence board then you'll be able to collect those much quicker. The other player will also have to get unlucky with their event cards or having Holmes stop you from collecting the evidence you need. Regardless, there's no two games that'll be like. Because of the numerous factors presented in this game, it's highly replayable.
The original game plays more competitively than the expansion pack. In the 2nd story, if one of the players want to take on the role of H.H. Holmes, the other players will actually get a chance to collaborate to go against Holmes.
For a board game, this is probably consider easy in terms of set up but our specialty is mostly in puzzle game boxes where there's little to none set up and rules required. After watching 3 other blogger's "how to play" videos and reading the 20+ instruction booklet, we came up with what we think is a simplified version of the "set up and play" unboxing video (below). I hope this is helpful for players who are not familiar with board game set ups. But if you need certain cards to be explained in detail, you'll still have to refer to the instruction booklet.
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We really enjoyed the game components provided as we were able to recreate the story ourselves. Although the back story may seem to be quite horrific and gruesome, the game play is far from that. As many of you probably know by now, I'm a huge fan of "Dexter", "CSI". "Criminal Minds", etc...
This game gave me that thrill of being a haunted victim trying to solve crime and escape at the same time. If you're into strategy games with a bit of eeriness to the story line, then you will enjoy making a fun game night in H.H. Holmes' Murder Castle.
Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:
*** We regret to inform this company has closed its doors ***
Disclosure: We thank Blueprint Gaming Concepts for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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