Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsIt's not really collaborative
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2024
Ok, to be honest, this game is quite weird and it makes us feel like we're missing something. Our family LOVES to game. We have three grown kids, and their significant others, and my husband and I who all love to play games. We especially love collaborative games that can be played in large groups. This can be played with most of us (but not quite all of us) present and that is really helpful. It can also be played with smaller groups. The reviews are good and I've heard of the game so I know it has a good reputation. The actual game pieces are really good quality and it's a cool layout. The general concept sounds cool - one player is the ghost and the other players are mediums theoretically working together to solve the murder of the ghost.
Here's what's really strange - the ghost doesn't know who murdered them either, but theoretically the mediums are helping the ghost remember. For the final round, the ghost suddenly remembers ie gets to just pick from the gameplay thus far what the answer is, and tries to communicate that to the mediums through additional clues. The mediums then individually submit private guesses. The mediums aren't supposed to discuss during this portion and their votes for what they think the correct answer is are individual and private, even though we either lose or win collectively. When everyone's voted, the answer that was the most popular among the mediums is the one that we as a group 'chose' and that's what determines if we win or lose. If there is no popular answer, then the medium who had the most 'points' from the previous round is the only one whose vote matters. None of that makes any sense to me, to be honest, because we aren't individual winners.
All in all, I feel like I'm missing something about how the final round is supposed to work. We've watched YouTube videos and of course read the instructions and frankly, we aren't new to board games and tabletop games, so I feel really confident that we're following the instructions. If that's the case, then it just simply isn't fun.
Also, the clues are SO confusing. We played a few rounds on 'easy' mode and literally never won. The only time SOME of the mediums guessed correctly (but not enough to win the game), their logic absolutely didn't line up with the ghost's logic whatsoever, so it was honestly just chance that they got it right.
I don't know. I can't recommend this game for the price. I think if you could get it for free or on super discount, it's not like a waste of time, but it is far from something I'd recommend and frankly I just don't see us picking this game out of all our other options on our game shelves.