Customer Reviews

Looting London

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Reiner Knizia, famed game designer, has created Looting London, a game where players interview witnesses to solve five robberies. Looting London is published by Gryphon Games as one of their yearly bookshelf games. The game comes in a small, very compact and convienent box, making storage (a la a bookshelf) very easy.

Players take turns drawing cards from either the draw pile (face down) or from four random cards that are available face up. Before drawing a card, players may play a meld.

A meld is a set of cards all matching the same witness. There are four witnesses, each from a archetypal British motif: the London bobby, the waif, the organ grinder and the society dame. To play a meld, you must have enough cards in your set to claim the evidence tile.

The evidence tiles have one of the four witnesses on it and have a number from 2 to 6. This number represents the amount of cards in your set that is required to claim the evidence tile. It also represents the amount of points you gain if the crime is solved. Players may eliminate an evidence tile to claim the evidence tile immediately behind it.

When all the evidence tiles of a crime is claimed, that crime is solved. When four of the 5 crimes are solved, the game ends. Players score points based on the evidence tiles they garnered from the solved crimes but do not gain any points from the evidence tiles from the single unsolved crime. If a crime is solved, the player with the majority of evidence claims a bonus tile which awards him extra points. The winner is the person with the most points.

Looting London is fast. You can play in 30 minutes. It's easy to teach even to nongamers. There is an element of strategy because you have to decide which evidence tiles to claim and which to destroy.

Unfortunately, the theme of the game feels pasted on. There is no real mystery to solve, no real deduction. It's really just a set collection card game like Traders of Carthage or R-Eco. The theme is so weak that I am reducing my rating to 2**. People who don't mind the theme's weakness would probably be more forgiving and give this a 3*** rating. It's a good, quick filler game. I wish the theme was stronger.