221B Baker Street (Board Game) 7.5/10

At some point last year I played Cluedo for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it, and although it was fun, playing the game with just my girlfriend during lockdown made the game very quick and very easy. We'd introduce our own rules in order to make it more difficult which kind of worked but it didn't scratch that 'detective' itch that I'd developed over the days of playing the game. Because of this, I started developing my own version of the game that was a bit more challenging and in turn more rewarding. The thing is, the whole time, 221B Baker Street existed and I only stumbled upon it by accident when looking at boardgames randomly on Amazon. The premise of the game is simple - each player is Sherlock Holmes and they have to find clues in order to actually deduce the answer from different pieces of information you've gathered. Think Cluedo, but instead of stabbing in the dark at a killer, room, and weapon, you're trying to come up with a complicated story of how and why one of three suspects stole a foreign king's baby from the theatre.

The game comes with 75 different mysteries you can solve, some of them being easier than others, but all of them being very fun and chock full of riddles and intrigue. Because of all of these mysteries, the re-playability of the game is outstanding as no adventure is the same. I guess you could argue that for Cluedo as well but the difference is, with 221B Baker Street you actually have to use your imagination to come up with outlandish ideas rather than guess based on predetermined variables. Because of this, when you get it right, you feel like an absolute mastermind; going through collecting clues and then coming up with the correct answer feels like 50 games of Cluedo condensed into one brain bending experience.

The game is supported by some very strong gameplay features such as its simple yet fun play mechanics, the idea of rolling dice and moving around a board is something we're all familiar with, with the addition of looking up case-specific clues when they are gathered from the on-board buildings. The clues can be found in the clue book (who would've thought it), which includes hundreds of clues in random order, for example, while playing, if you enter the pub, you're given 'clue 578', which you'd then look for in the book and that clue might be a riddle that tells you the first letter of the killers name. The clues can very from a riddle as just stated, to a random piece of information like 'the postman hasn't been for a haircut in 5 years', just to put the player on the right track in their deductions. This paired with an added 'lock and key' system where you can lock players out of buildings, delaying their success, makes for some very memorable moments while playing.

As well as having some good game content, the game also looks great - the pieces, case files, booklets, and board are all designed well and very clearly which helps in a game like this. The board is designed to look like a turn of the century watercolour painting which is a nice touch and actually really pretty.

Although I highly recommend the game, there are some down sides - one being the fact that there is always a queue to look at the clue book. You'll finish looking at a clue, leave a building, get into another one and then have to wait a little bit for the other players to finish reading their own clues (there is actually a 30 second max rule for the clue book but who can be f*cked to enforce that). That and the fact that one or two of the clues just don't work, or don't exist kind of hinder the game a tiny bit but these are very isolated incidents. One really cool thing about the game is that the case files are actually one big story where Moriarty shows up every now and then, and I'm guessing (haven't played all of them yet) that you catch him in the end! In short, 221B Baker Street is a very fun game, it's interesting and at times very challenging, but for those who are looking for something that's going to take a little bit of effort to work out 'who dun it', 221B Baker Street is for you.

7.5/10