Micro Macro Crime City is a little different when it comes to calling it a ‘game’, is it really a game or is it more of an activity? Do I care? After playing it, not really. I hear ‘x is not a game, it’s an experience’ but isn’t that what this hobby is about?

Micro Macro Crime City drew me in because it is a cooperative game which doesn’t rely on skill or understanding of the rules to play, meaning that the whole family can get involved. In the base game there are 16 cases which you have to solve on a map. The map is a kitchen table sized wimmelbilder map ala Where’s Wally (Waldo in case of US) depicting a cutesy city where anthripomorphic animals go about their days….and CRIMES!

The really cool thing about the map is that the city depicts the past, present and future. You can track a criminal from where they committed a crime through to where they stashed the loot all in the one map.

Each case starts with a synopsis read by the ‘lead investigator’ which starts the detective work. Once the initial clue is found and confirmed on the back of the first card by coordinates, the lead then moves on to the next card and so forth until the case has been totally solved. Quick, fun play is the result with players (literally) climbing over one another to try to find the next clues.

We played 4 cases in a row and probably could have kept going on our first play. I haven’t played some of the later cases but they do very much increase in difficulty, with the first case taking ~10mins and the 4th taking around 20mins total. If you really wanted to, I can see that this would be a game that you could pull out several times over a gaming weekend and solve all the cases in that time.

Community Opinion

Micro Macro Crime City is currently ranked 205 of all games on BGG with a rating of 7.6.

Overall

I have really been loving this experience. In addition to the cases there is so much to see on the map and it is just such a great fun time with the family. The thing that sets it apart from other family games is that there are no advantages for age or experience and that anyone playing has just as much chance at finding clues as anyone else. If you are looking for a filler, a game to spend a rainy weekend on, or something to introduce new players to, I would highly recommend Micro Macro Crime City.