Mysterium

We bought this to play with me, my husband and our 8-year-old daughter for Halloween during the COVID lockdowns. We loved it and have played several times since! The game pieces are beautiful and very nice/sturdy quality. They definitely feel like they live up to the price of the game. I also really love that everything has a particular place in the box, so you can put everything back very neatly -- which helps keep the pieces in beautiful condition, and avoids the frustration of figuring out how to cram it all back in and shut the box. The instruction book is very detailed (which I actually love!), and will take some time to read all the way through. The only person who really needs to read it though is the "ghost". Their role is the most complicated, but still not hard once you've played it through once. There are also a lot of variations on how to play for different sized groups, or to make it more challenging. So far we've only played with three of us. And we did modify the gameplay a little to make it easier for our 8-year-old. The game is sort of like Clue in that you need to figure out the who, where, and how of someone's death. In this case the "ghost's" death. One player plays the ghost, and they are not allowed to speak at all during the game. They communicate through giving other players cards with these really random images on them. The players need to use those cards to try to interpret what the ghost is trying to signal to them. They could be trying to tip the players off with the colors in the card, or some shape, or a particular image or theme. It might be that the person they're trying to help ID is wearing a hat and there's a person wearing a hat in their card. Maybe the location was in the kitchen and there is food somewhere on the card. The thing is there's a ton of other stuff on each card too, so it can be very easy to misinterpret what the ghost is trying to communicate. And the ghost isn't supposed to give any facial expression or other indication of whether you're on the right track until the end of the turn when they merely confirm or deny your guess. We have played it with all three of us being the ghost at different times. It is really interesting (and challenging) to have to get into the mind of the person playing the ghost and try to interpret what they might think is meaningful. Even "worse" the other players can talk to each other, and even help each other try to interpret it. Which sometimes helps you figure it out, and other times you're sitting there as the ghost thinking "don't listen to him! He's wrong, and you were on the right track!" but you can't say anything. Which keeps it interesting and engaging no matter what your role. The game has endless playability, especially if you change up the players. After a while, you can start to get a sense of what kinds of clues certain players tend to focus on (for instance, my daughter focuses a lot more on the colors or bigger images, whereas my husband gets ridiculously nuanced). But even then, we love playing it, and every game is different.

The game is great, which is why I want to add a five star review. It's beautiful, and fun to play. It's Clue with psychics, a little more thought, and some rules you can take or leave depending on how complicated you want to make the game. My complaint is that I received this game opened. This was 100% NOT a new game. All the cardboard had been punched out, all the cards unwrapped. The cards were bent, and there was some dinging along the cards and the cardboard bits. The cards were also curved as though they'd been shuffled with a little too much force. It took me forever to sit down and organize everything and make sure I had all the parts. If they're going to re-send already opened boxes, they could at least make a baggie for the cardboard bits, or put some plastic back around the cards. Fortunately, I did receive everything, but it was so badly packaged that some of it had slipped between the plastic packing organizer and the bottom of the box, which meant I was annoyed for a lot longer than I needed to be.

This game is so much fun! The packaging is made specifically for this game and even shows how to repackage. We’ve played this with several groups of people and everyone has had a great time with it! The materials are well made and meant to last. I would recommend this game if you’re looking to shake up your game nights and want a bit of cooperation!

This game has been exposed to a lot of hype over the past year or so. I mean, people were sending Western Unions over to Eastern Europe for a game and then waiting a month to actually receive the game. When we learned that the game was being localized to America, people lost it. So, how does it hold up then? In short, it's a lovely game with beautiful components and a fantastic, thematic flavor plastered over every card. It's not really a party game per se, and it's absolutely terrible if you play with people that are "analysis paralysis" prone. The longer version: The components are wonderfully done! The player screen REALLY makes the game very comfortable to play. The cards are of a high quality material, so you don't have to worry about sleeving them. Plus, I think worn cards would fit the look of the game anyway. The player's character pouches feel sturdy. The insert holds everything beautifully. Just overall a gorgeous production of the game. The gameplay itself is quite interesting. I find that you have to set up the theme quite a bit before you play, but that's not a big deal. Players will be screaming at the ghost ALL OF THE TIME! "What does this mean? Is it the water? You gave me TWO CARDS WITH WATER IN IT WHY ISN'T THE LOCATION THE FOUNTAIN WHYYYYYY!?!?!?!?" It's incredibly funny to watch your friends squabble over why you're a terrible ghost, even though everybody would do just as terribly as you would. And then the timer is on its last grains of sand. You watch over everybody scramble to place their approval/disapproval markers in hope to level up their clairvoyancy powers. The timer creates this sense of urgency, which makes the game feel like a real high-stress investigation. But then, you've run out of rounds and there's one person who didn't complete their task, and then everybody loses. That's it. No more, no less, the game simply ends. Or maybe everybody did pin their suspects down and now the ghost "remembers" who committed the murder. In other words, you either pick which person did the murder or shuffle the tokens randomly, and then give out clues accordingly. Then, your group is either right or wrong. Do this until you've run out of rounds, and then the game is over. The end of the game is so anticlimactic in comparison to the rest of the game! Throughout the whole game, the players are filled with energy and vigor, only to be met with complete random chance at the end with only two possible outcomes. Either you were right or you were wrong. I can't express into words how disappointing the endgame is every single time I reach it. I love this game to pieces. It's such a fun ride that makes your group of friends really think about what you want them to think. There's so much player interaction every minute of the game. Every time the ghost hands a player a card, it feels like a cold wind just blew through the room and now we have to figure out what the ghost is saying. I can see why gamers were clamoring to get their hands on this game! It's incredible fun, until you get to that awful end game that leaves a "meh" taste in your mouth. Make sure you do some research on the game before you get it, and if it even piques your interest a little bit, I'm sure you would at least enjoy it. Grade: 8.5/10

As old fans of Monopoly and Settlers of Catan, I wanted to try something new with my family. I spent 3 hours watching reviews/rules of 30+ games in YouTube and decided to give this one a shot. It's great for groups who: • Like to talk and communicate and strategies. • Enjoy burning calories on creativity and thinking. • Want to chill and have fun, rather than strict competitions. • Bonus: wonderful for non-English speakers as the cards don't have any texts. (A big factor for us, that eliminated a lot of other games.) === Neutral Tips === • Forget the crews for the first few rounds. Keep it as simple as "one reset of the 7 vision cards per hour." • While it's a co-op game, the negative clairvoyance tokens can be confusing/disheartening to some folks. We made it a rule that when people put the negative (X side) on the table, they mentions "it's just for the points!" since they have 2 to spare in 3 hours. • To avoid the minds getting biased immediately after receiving the vision cards and one person sharing their opinion loud immediately, we put this rule that no one can speak about it until the receiver of the card made his/her decision first and/or 30 seconds are passed. • When it comes to verifying the guesses with the ghost during the round one, we had one player (captain of the team) put finger on the pieces and look at the ghost. It made communications much easier and clearer. • It's hard to find the "up" side of the cards when the ghost hands them to people. The trick is to look at the back side of the card -- the castle being up is one side only. === Pros === • It's a co-op game, so it's perfect for family/fun gatherings. • The fun on each side of the game (ghost, or detectives) is different. That makes you enjoy being on either side and don't get bored. • No English text is a great fit for people who want it to be this way. • Graphics are great! === Cons === • Rules could be more clear. I still don't know whether clairvoyance tokens should reset at the beginning of the fourth round or at the end of it. (At the beginning means 3 round in total for reset. So average of more than one should be spent per round, which is kinda a lot.) • The counters of the clairvoyance tokens (which determine how many vision cards can be seen in phase 2 by each player) are hard to position and move. I think a better physical design (maybe some lanes?) could really help. • Looking at the game and its progress holistically, I think the objective and the connection between the two phases could improve. You will realize it after playing at least five to ten games. During the first phase, almost everyone gets to two cards for phase two on average. And the thing is, in the second phase sometimes seeing the third can adds more to the confusion (in the first four games we played, people with two cards guessed better than people with three cards, in fact!) So, win/lose result boils down to just phase two which is just one vote. I think ignoring this fact can help you enjoy the game more, but it worth thinking about and wishing the game developers come up with more coherent and connected game play, than just one single vote.

This is a great game I would recommend to anyone! Make sure everyone gets an opportunity to be the ghost, as I think it helps you better understand what’s going on and how to play the game better. Trying to think like the ghost, find patterns, and make educated guesses is difficult, but also really fun. The combos are also endless, so two games will never be the same. The artwork is beautiful and the whole set is made of quality materials. Definitely worth the price.

I'll start by saying I love Clue.Especially for what it is: an easy to learn game of deduction. When I heard about this game people said it was just a little like Clue, but a lot more to it. That's all true, but still an easy game to pick up. Can be played with 2-7 people (we've only played with 3 so far, but really looking forward to more people!). All of the players except one play the role of psychics who try to figure out the clues given by the other play, who plays the ghost. The first round, each player is trying to decipher the clues given by the ghost to figure out which suspect they're supposed to guess (each player will try to identify a different suspect). This gets repeated with locations, then weapons (just like Clue right?). The "clues" that the ghost gives out to each player are vision cards: abstract pictures that could be interpreted in many different ways. The ghost tries to give out these vision cards to each player based on which suspect on the board they're trying to guess, as each suspect/location/weapon card have extra things on them telling you about the location. While this is going on, each round other players can "bid" on whether a player correctly guessed their card. Bidding correctly gives them extra "points" which will give more clues for the end of the game. Players have a limited number of rounds to have all players guess their 3 cards (suspect/weapon/location). If all players guess correctly, then you work together to find out who the actual killer/location/weapon is used. The sets of three and put out and given a number (1-6, depending on how many players are in the game). The ghost secretly picks one of the sets and puts the number token for that set face down in front of everyone. Then the ghost picks out 3 more vision cards: one representing the suspect, one the location, and one the weapon of the set chosen. Depending on how well players bid during the game, they get to look at one, two, or all 3 cards before they vote on who they think the right set is. Most votes is what the group goes with, and hopefully is the correct answer. For people who don't like to think outside the box when it comes to clues may not enjoy this game. Right now I've only played it with my wife and 9 year old and they both dig the game, and helping to teach my son to think more outside the box on some things to find connections and be observant (note on the 2-3 player games, no bidding happens, there's always 4 psychics so players will play multiple people, and all 3 clues are revealed to everyone at the end). Really can't wait to play with 7 people to see how that goes, but recommend this to be added to the game shelf.

This game is absolutely amazing! Whoever designed the box storage deserves a major raise!! There's a spot for all the pieces- it is so satisfying. No more "sorting all the pieces that had to be thrown into one single compartment". Our 8 & 10 year old are easily able to play it (we play a good amount of games). A deductive reasoning game like Clue, Rear Window (a must buy!), and Case File.

Juego muy divertido para resolver un crimen que varía en cada jugada. Ideal para jugar con familia y amistades, mejora la comunicación porque te obliga a entender la forma de pensar de quien juega contigo. La calidad y el detalle de los dibujos es maravillosa.

Super jeux, de longue soirée d'amusement avec ce jeux. Et on se rend vraiment compte que personne ne pense pareil en voyant une image, chacun son interpretation ce qui rend ce jeux vraiment sympatique. En plus il est vraiment simple à comprendre, pas besoin d'assimiler des tonnes de régles.

Probably the most fun game I’ve ever played. Super high quality pieces and the game design allows for many permutations so no game is the same. This is a must have game for anyone who enjoys tabletop rpgs. 10/10

This game is so wonderful! It is very easy to learn and with the different difficulty levels once you get the hang of it it’s fun to challenge yourselves! This game has very high replay-ability due to the randomness of the cards and the ability to “match” things The cards are AMAZING, the artwork it so wonderful we all get excited when we flip new cards! You learn a lot about the people you play with and how their brain works with grouping things, it’s super interesting and an added challenge when different people play the ghost who think differently than you The expansion packs are wonderful for this game as well! Depending on how good your psychic link with the ghost is (aka guessing) this game can be played quite fast. It usually takes us between 30-60 minutes for one round. We have lost just as many times as we have won, My family LOVES this game, we play it all the time!

Its OK, but if you play with less people you have take out some fun elements of the game.