Hi all,
I wanted to write a quick review of the board game Mysterium, which I recently obtained. This will mainly deal with the base game as the expansions haven’t arrived yet haha.
Welcome, fellow board game enthusiasts, to a captivating journey into the supernatural realms of Mysterium. In this riveting cooperative game, players take on the roles of psychics, tasked with unraveling the mysteries surrounding a haunted mansion and its restless ghost. Prepare to be mesmerized as we delve into the depths of Mysterium and discover the magic it brings to your tabletop adventures.
The game revolves around a cooperative deduction system that keeps players engaged and encourages teamwork. The ghost player, unable to communicate verbally, must guide the other players, the psychics, through visions represented by illustrated cards. This unique asymmetrical gameplay creates an, occasionally frustrating, sometimes funny, dynamic as the psychics interpret the visions to deduce the identity of the culprit, location, and weapon involved in the murder. The deduction aspect of the game keeps players on their toes and sparks lively discussions, making each playthrough a captivating experience.
Players move through each step of the case as they get clues right, meaning that you can end up with a set of stragglers. However, this gameplay does create a lot of opportunities for replay-ability. With each game, players can explore different combinations of suspects, locations, and murder weapons, providing endless possibilities for investigation. The varying difficulty levels also cater to both casual and experienced players. Although the harder difficulties do place you at the mercy of RNG.
The random nature of the vision cards do provide one of the greatest challenges for this game, so be aware of that going in. The group nature is helpful as players can compare their cards and talk about their guesses. This can be both great and terrible as I have seen my wife talk the party into all correct answers, only to doubt herself a second later and talk everyone else into incorrect answers.
Conclusion:
Mysterium effortlessly weaves together captivating artwork, immersive storytelling, and innovative gameplay mechanics to create an extraordinary board game experience. It challenges players to tap into their detective skills, explore their intuition, and communicate effectively as they unravel the mysteries surrounding the ghostly mansion. It can be a frustrating game if you don’t have the right group, or have the wrong difficulty, but it creates some lovely memories and stories!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
