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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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My wife and I do not really have a habit of thrifting for games. Every now and then if we are dropping something off to Goodwill, we will walk in and peek. Usually the piles of old Scene it games, chess boards with missing pieces, and Candy land games is enough to keep us from getting our hopes up. On one of these wayward stops, we ran across this game on the shelves. We knew nothing about it, but Goodwill had a 50% off sale that day, making the game only $1. We figured that it would be worth at least that, and it was even better to get home and discover that all of the components for the game were present. So was 221B Baker Street a good find or is $1 to much to spend on the game?
Game Overview
221B Baker Street is a Sherlock Holmes roll and move game. At the beginning of the game a Case card is read. This card explains the crime that happened and to whom. The card also gives information about the possible suspects as well as clues as what locations might reveal the best information. Finally, the clue card tells the players what information is needed to win. For example, for the case we played for this game we had to ascertain the 1. Murderer 2. The Weapon 3. The motive. Once the case begins player will roll a die (note: to speed the game up, we use two dice) and move that many spaces. Eventually players will make it to a location on the board. There are multiple locations, and if you have ever played Clue this part feels very familiar. At a location, the players must consult the clue book. On the back of the case card the location is printed with a clue number. The player at the location looks at this clue in the clue book, and then makes notes on their answer sheet. There are a couple kinds of clues. There are informational clues that can help feel in some of the details of the case (or be a red herring). There are also puzzle clues. These puzzle clues are what answer the information needed to win. Often these clues come in multiple parts, and they are simple clues that when put together reveal the answer (for an example read the upcoming session report). There are ways to temporarily block a location from other players, but this continues until someone has gotten the answers they need. They return to 221B Baker Street and check their answers with the answer book. If they are correct they read the case conclusion out loud and win, if they are wrong that player is eliminated and the game continues until someone solves the case.
The Game We Played
Warning! Spoilers!!! Skip this section if you want the case information a secret
For this game we played case #6 which was about a murdered bank comptroller who was found dead in his office. We had to figure out the murderer, the weapon, and the motive. We both used our rolls to get to whatever building we could make it to first. Early on in the game, I had slightly better rolls so I got to a few locations quicker. I was quickly able to figure the murderer because the first puzzle clue I found for this was "The opposite of front". One of the "witnesses" that heard a commotion was a Mr. Bakman. The opposite of front being back clearly made him the killer. I also figured out the weapon. The case card said the victim was killed with a large blunt object. There were three weapon puzzle clues, but I was able to figure out with only finding clues 1 and 2. Clue 1 was "Crime does not ____" and clue 2 was "the sound a content cat makes." I took the answers of pay and purr to combine into "paper", I then safely assumed that the third clue would lead me to "weight" so the murder weapon was a paper weight. This only left the motive, which had four parts. I got three of the parts (part 1, 3, and 4), but could not figure out the answer from those three clues. I had really bad luck in finding the last motive clue, and it turned out to be the last building I had to check. I lucked out though, because my wife had messed up in writing down the motive clue and marked two of the clues as number 4, and this made it difficult to figure out. I got the last motive clue and put it all together. The first motive clue was "the letter after L". Clue two was "the sound a bee makes". Clue three was "the letter after k", and clue four was "past tense of mean". I took the answers of M, Buzz, L, and meant. When said fast and in that order it sounds like "embezzlement. I had solved the case. The bank Comptroller was killed by Mr. Bakman with a paperweight because the comptroller was going to reveal that Mr. Bakman had been embezzling funds.
Our Thoughts
My Rating: 3 (it's ok)
My Thoughts: I love the concept of this game but do not care for the execution. The act of collecting clues and putting them together, while simple, is fun. However, the clunky nature of the roll and move and use of the clue book are not so great.
Her Rating: 2.5 (do not care for)
Her Thoughts: It feels like the game always comes down to who rolls better. It can also be boring to play, but despite that I kind of want to play through all of the cases to see what happens.
Verdict
Combined Rating: 5.5
As a game 221B is objectively not a great game. However, as an interactive story it fares better. The narrative of the game overcomes the "blah" mechanics and makes for an engaging experience. We will not always own this game, but until we play through all 20 cases the game comes with I think we will keep it.
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