Kronologic is a new deduction game that was previewed at Gen Con 2024. As a compact game with an affordable price tag and a deceptively simple set of rules, this game is sure to be a hit with fans of the genre.
Time is Key
It’s in the name of the game. Kronologic is a clever play on words, mashing together “chronological,” as in the order of events, and “logic,” as in formal reasoning. Time plays a key role in Kronologic as players must be able to track who was in which locations at what times in order to solve each case. The puzzles in Kronologic range from being rather straightforward, all the way to mind bending.
For people who have played Clue, as most people likely have, much of Kronologic should feel familiar. Just as in Clue, Kronologic has people and places. However, the investigators appear to already know the “what” of the crime, be it murder weapon or stolen item, and are instead concerned with the “when.” Reconstructing the timeline of events is, again, quite literally the name of the game.
Where Clue features a randomized solution with players rolling dice to move from room to room, Kronologic entirely removes that element of randomization. Players don’t need to worry about a map and can instead focus on solving the increasingly complex mysteries. This is good, because one thing it shares with Clue is its competitive format, and the other investigators are trying to crack the case before you do. Those well-versed in deduction games are most likely accustomed to the idea that they cannot play a scenario more than once, and in the case of Kronologic, the low price tag helps offset that.
Figuring Out How It Fits Together
Kronologic will debut with a set of three scenarios in the Paris 1920 box. Each scenario in turn has five cases. As players progress from the beginning of the box to the end, they will go from relatively easy to tremendously complex. However, no matter how difficult the puzzle is, the method of gathering information doesn’t change.
The rules are simple. On each player’s turn, they will choose one room and either a person or a time. Each person and time has two windows in it and the locations feature a grid printed on the back. When placed back to back, the player can see the results of that particular line of inquisition. Each combination will give that investigator a piece of information for the whole group, as well as one that they do not share. By paying close attention and making smart choices about what to ask, players can try to outpace one another in their investigations.
Present and Future
If you weren’t able to pick it up at Gen Con, Kronologic: Paris 1920 should be available online and from local retailers soon. At an MSRP of $24.99 for a total of 15 cases, it’s an absolute steal. After all, how many of us are guilty of spending $60 or more on a game that we only ever play a handful of times? Also worth noting is that in addition to the Babylon 2500 and Cuzco 1450 boxes that are coming out, two extensions for Paris 1920 have already been announced. Each of these will add a new scenario for the game, and it looks as though they will skew a little more difficult.
That said, players probably shouldn’t expect mysteries on the level of those found in the much-lauded Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective series. This might be a good thing, however, because for what’s clearly meant to be a faster-paced, competitive game, the puzzles being too hard would take away from the experience for most people. Hopefully, this is just the start of the series, and it will continue to mature as it continues, offering more nuanced scenarios and novel settings.
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