MicroMacro Crime City: All In Review – Familiar Streets and Seedy Secrets

Unsatisfied with the muggings, thievery, and murder I saw on my last vacation to Crime City. Over the weekend I visited the city once more, this time in MicroMacro Crime City: All In. Having enjoyed the other two games, MicroMacro Crime City, and MicroMacro Crime City: Full House, I couldn’t wait to dive into the pool of murder and mystery that is MicroMacro.

For those new to the franchise, MicroMacro Crime City: All In takes search and find books to the extreme. You get a massive paper map showing a district of Crime City and all the crimes taking place. What makes these games so special is that each character is shown in several different locations on the map. Every time you see them it represents a different time of the day.

For instance, you might see one character in a dead president’s mask enter a bank. You might then catch sight of the same character running down an alley with two bags of cash. Once again, you see them get into a car. Before finally finding them hiding in their hideout counting loads of cash.

Apply this idea to each of the hundreds of characters on the map and it blows your mind thinking about the effort gone into creating this game. As a player, and Crime City detective, you care naught for that. Instead, you’re interested in solving the 16 case files that come in the box. Each one telling a different story of crime within the city.

Usually, you’ll start with the crime itself, and then unravel what happened as you follow different people around the map. Eventually learning why the crime happened and catching the perpetrator from escaping.

All of these case files take around 20 to 60 minutes to play and are stand-alone. You don’t need to have played any game from the series beforehand. Although I recommend it because this is the hardest MicroMacro game so far.

What’s new in MicroMacro Crime City: All In?

Being the third instalment in the series, there are no surprises when it comes to components or mechanics. You get a new map, with a whole new district of Crime City to explore, as well as 16 fresh cases for you to solve.

Everything felt more familiar this time around. I instantly recognised characters in this district from cases in previous games. This was equal parts nostalgic and offputting, as they often distracted you from the case as you wondered… I know that person, what are they up to?

However, the big surprise of MicroMacro Crime City: All In was the amount of sexy stuff in the cases. Up until now, we’ve dealt a lot with thievery and murder. This time around there are a lot more references to characters rocking the casbah. You’ll come across someone stepping into a brothel, deal with a sexual harasser, and peep on two people bumping uglies.

Given how sensitive some people are to this kind of stuff, it was a bit of a shock to see it so brazenly in the game. So I think more than ever, you need to be a bit careful about introducing this version to new players. Thankfully, the rating system has returned and you’ll have fair warning about what you’re going to see before you start the case.

How does it compare?

MicroMacro Crime City: All In is in a weird spot within the series. As mentioned, it had the hardest cases of any game so far. Yet, outside of a few scenarios that stumped me, I found it to be the easiest. But only because the previous two titles trained me on what to look out for to solve a case.

So in a way, a lot of the cases felt like rehashes of previous cases without a lot of new ideas for clues. Meaning that even though the stories were as fun as always, the actual playing part of the game began to feel repetitive.

That’s not to say there weren’t highlights of MicroMacro Crime City: All In. My favourite case was one where you contact-traced an epidemic. Following one person, then the next, then the next, and so on was a lot of fun. More than that though, was how weirdly grounding the case was. In a world that is often silly, and filled with mischief, it was nice to find something so relatable.

On the other hand, my next favourite case followed the plot of I Know What You Did Last Summer. So you know, swings and roundabouts.

Anyway, the few cases that stumped me were more annoying than clever. Mainly because the leaps in logic to get the answer were just too big. Therefore, instead of yelling ‘a-ha,’ as I put together the clue to catch the criminal. It was more of a deflated ‘oh’ sound. Leaving me wondering how the designers expected me to get that, and feeling cheated rather than beaten.

Thankfully these moments were few and far between. As a whole, I enjoyed MicroMacro Crime City: All In, but it didn’t get close to hitting the same heights as the previous game. Making me worried about the next one: MicroMacro Crime City: Showdown.