I just love clever logical deduction games

We are big fans of logical deduction games, so naturally ArcheOlogic got on my radar early on.☺️ In this game you play as archeologists who have just found an ancient city, and now you are in a race to be the first to find all its buildings. 🕵🏻 To help you deduce their location, you use a tool called the Archeoscope to ask questions regarding rows and columns of the city, then mark and track the data behind your player screen.

The Archeoscope is a cardboard gizmo, so good news, you don't need an app to play! 😉 (Well, you can use an app to check whether your solution is correct at the end, but that's all). The city you are searching for is basically a 5x5 grid with some hidden tetris shapes on it. Tetris shapes also have certain symbols on them. As you ask more and more things from the Archeoscope, you will slowly deduce the exact placement of each building.

ArcheOlogic uses a time track. 🕰️ Things you ask will move your player marker on a board - the more useful the information, the more time it costs. Whoever is behind on the time track gets to take their turn.

So what can you ask from the Archeoscope?
How many cells of a certain shape are in a row/column
How many different tetris shapes are in a row/column
What kind of symbols are in a row/column
How many empty spaces are in a row/column

The way you get the answers is very clever. 🧐 You just rotate the cardboard wheel to the type of question; this lines up certain holes, then you put the scenario wheel behind it, and see some symbols. One side of the scenario disc has the information for rows, and the other side for columns.

💬 The game shares some similarities with other games of the genre, but the tetris shapes give it a unique feel. I like the way you deduce and rule out things with the help of symbols, and how symbols are placed on the tetris shapes. It feels new. And of course the game has that fun feeling I love in logical deduction games: having no clue whatsoever at first, but slowly putting everything together in your mind, until everything clicks! It's so satisfying! 😌