Advert: We were gifted this game via the UK Board Game Review Circle. All opinions are ours and our reviews are always honest.

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” – Arthur Conan Doyle

Good news fellow puzzle detectives! A digital adaptation of MicroMacro launched today on iOS and Android (and hopefully soon PC/Steam!). We’ve been playing through the original game lately (we’re over halfway through the 16 cases), so I was so excited to check out the app!

What is MicroMacro?

Think Where’s Wally?, but as a whodunnit. In MicroMacro, you search and explore a massive sketched city where many petty and gruesome crimes are afoot = some more tricky to solve than others.

Each case is followed through a series of prompt questions, like “Where did the victim live?” and “What did the suspect do with the weapon?”. The map is static but represents various points in time, so you follow people at various points throughout their day, trying to deduce the who, the wheres, and the what-fors. The map design is so clever and I’m always getting drawn in to other goings on around my investigation (apparently Sherlock once said “the art of deduction is knowing what to ignore” but I’m far too nosy for that!).

Slide through some snippets of the tutorial case in the app below!

Is the app up to the case?

I’m really impressed with the seamless adaptation from paper to app: the biggest change is the shift from a multiplayer to a fully solo experience (the original is 1-4 players). The cases feel similar in length and have some interesting mechanics that I’ve not yet seen in the original version; e.g. getting you to identify multiple suspects and rule them out.

Being digital, there is a lot more flexibility in the design. You can zoom right into the details with ease, whereas with the original game it’s a bit trickier and needs VERY good lighting. The app also starts in just one section of the city, and more areas unlock as you progress through the cases. This is a great way to scale the cases and ‘get your eye in’ to the world before increasing the search area. Similarly, in the app you can access more internal locations as part of an investigation, because the app can ‘reveal’ them as needed. There are some building cross sections in the original game, but these are obviously limited (otherwise the city would look messy!). All of this means there’s potential to expand and add even more characters & cases in the future (which I hope they do).

Something that I really appreciated was the annotation element, circling key locations and using arrows or underlines to track key details. This is something we could do to our actual game, but wouldn’t want to reduce the replayability (we want to be able to pass it on for others to enjoy!). The app also has a little Yogi dude you can ask for clues – although I haven’t used him yet so can’t say how helpful he is!

I love thematic ambient soundtracks, and the music has perfect ‘detective jazz’ vibes. The seagulls in the beach area were a bit much for me (we have enough of that IRL in Cardiff haha), but fortunately you can separately modify sound effects, music and ambience in the settings as needed.

Of course, the most important difference of all, is that you’ll avoid the back pain often caused from craning over a big sprawling MicroMacro map! 

Final Verdict

I’ve already blitzed through the first 12 cases (hello, I’m Lauren, and I’m a puzzle addict). So it’s elementary to say I am LOVING IT. If you’re looking for a solo experience, it’s a very very good and intuitive adaptation that captures the essence of the original game. And comparing prices (£4.99 for the app and £18-20 for the board game at the time of writing) with the amount of cases (25 in the app and 16 in the original box), it’s very very good value for money.

With all new cases, it’s suitable for newbies and MicroMacro fans alike. And you can try the first 3 cases for free! So what are you waiting for, gumshoe? The game is afoot!