Crimes & Capers: Lady Leona's Last Wishes – A Mystery Puzzle Game

Lady Leona has died. All the guests have gathered, hoping to inherit from her will. But first, they’re going to have to hunt it down!

Crimes & Capers is a brand new game line of mystery and puzzle games from Renegade Game Studios. Lady Leona's Last Wishes is one of the first two games to be released belonging to this line. Is it any good?

Gameplay

Each player is given a character and that character’s journal. The instructions tell you which characters have to be played if not playing with a full player count. A lockbox is set in the middle of the table along with a small handful of materials that players get to start with. Everything else stays in the box for now.

Players have to find the digits for the lockbox using a letter from Lady Leona, and their journals, which cover the events of Lady Leona’s birthday ball.

The game comes with instructions on the personalities of all the characters and even suggests styles for costumes if you want to dress up in murder mystery party fashion. Other than that, there’s not really any rules to start with. A few changes to the game are discovered as you play and more materials are unlocked.

Review

Crimes & Capers: Lady Leona's Last Wishes feels like a blend of the traditional murder mystery parties with escape room game elements. There are fewer puzzles than you’ll find in an escape room in a box, while you have the role-playing and ambiance of the mystery party with a little more focus on gameplay.

The riddles and puzzles in the game are light but engaging. They’re just tricky enough to keep the evening going, but not so hard that you’re not going to reach the end of the game.

We enjoyed the story in the game, particularly the reading of the journals. Each journal definitely has its own unique style and aesthetic. The story is light but enjoyable, and we liked the setting of the traditional English manor house.

Nothing gets destroyed in the game, and there are instructions for putting it back together to pass on to somebody else. It would be quite easy to do so, and it’s always nice to have a puzzle game you can pass along to a friend. Additionally, the game even has a system to support playing online, so long as at least one player has the physical components.

Slight spoiler alert: The biggest issue with the game comes down to a labeling problem. The box calls itself a ‘cooperative mystery puzzle game’. But it is not, actually, fully cooperative, which could disappoint some players who buy it on the strength of that claim. Players could choose to ignore the part of the game that isn’t cooperative, and simply work together all the way through, but it feels like it’s been built in to be part of the game’s difficulty.

Crimes & Capers is shaping up to be a unique line of games that is bringing something new to the table, with its blend of genres. If you’re looking for a game to take center stage for the evening, or something to play online with friends, and you enjoy the role-playing aspect of the traditional murder mystery parties, you can have a lot of fun with Lady Leona's Last Wishes.

Pros: Original blend of game types, designed to be playable online, can be passed onto another group once you’re finished

Cons: (See the spoiler alert above)

Disclosure: we received complimentary review copies of these games.