Whodunit: A Preview of Mysterium & Mysterium Park

SUMMARY:

Ages: 10+
Players: Mysterium: 2-7 / Mysterium Park: 2-6
Est. Length: Mysterium: 45 Minutes / Mysterium Park: 30 Minutes
Game Design: Oleksandr Nevskiy, Oleg Sidorenko
Illustration: ArtistIgor Burlakov, Xavier Collette, Oleksandr Nevskiy, Oleg Sidorenko
Publisher: Libellud
Genre: Family
Mechanics: Communication Limits, Cooperative, Deduction, Pattern Recognition
Reviewer: Lex Judge

INTRODUCTION

The Ghost’s view of a typical game of Mysterium

Taking inspiration from games like Clue and Dixit, Mysterium (and it’s stand-alone sequel Mysterium Park) has you and your fellow players embody the role of psychics. You all must cooperate to interpret visions given to you by the ghost of the murder victim and discover who killed them, where they were killed, and what they were killed with. Every player must discover their suspect/location/weapon, and you must all vote on the correct murderer/location/weapon, before time runs out. (think: Colonal Mustard, in the library, with the lead pipe.)

One player will play as the ghost of the murder victim. The ghost will have a large cardboard game screen that secretly shows which suspect, location, and weapon they are trying to get each other individual player to guess. They will also have a deck of cards that they will draw from to make up their hand. These large, beautiful, and strange illustrated cards have no words or numbers on them, only dream-like tableaus that are to be used to evoke some sort of response or connections from the players.

Once the ghost has finished giving out cards to everyone, the players must use their crystal ball pawn to try to correctly guess one of their suspect/location/item. The players have 7 turns to identity their suspects/locations/weapons and then vote on which set is the one true guilty murderer, scene of the crime, and murder weapon. If that happens, everyone wins! If even one player isn’t able to correctly guess one aspect of how the murder went down, the crime goes unsolved and you all share defeat.

Mysterium Park is played similarly, but there is no murder weapons to worry about, and the suspects & locations are laid out in a grid, making it a lot easier for the ghost to coordinate their visions. The other major difference is that in Mysterium Park, the potential scenes of the crime are only revealed after all players have correctly guessed their murder suspect, encouraging more collaboration between players and, once again, making it a bit easier on the ghost.

The game screen the Ghost uses to know who to give clues to.

THE MOMENT THE GAME “CLICKED”

Unlike watching television or reading a book, board games inherently have a learning curve. Every time you want to play a new game, you first have to learn how to play it. Games vary in difficulty and complexity, but every game has a moment where it just “clicks”. Once this moment happens, you’re able to fully grasp how the game is played, and what the goal is. This moment happens at different times for different people, but having an idea of when it can happen is a good indicator of whether or not you’ll enjoy learning and playing a game.

The first time I played this game, it was brought over by a friend for a game night. I had no time before hand to read the rulebook or watch a tutorial online like I usually do before I play a game. Fortunately this game was not too overwhelming with it’s rules, and my friend Jared who taught it did a fantastic job explaining it to us. The game clicked within the first two turns, and I knew shortly after playing that this was a game I wanted to own, and I request to be the ghost every time I play it (I have yet to play it as a psychic since the first play).

SHOULD YOU PLAY IT?

There is a reason I always play as the ghost, and it’s not necessarily because I enjoy playing as it. The main reason is that playing as the ghost, at least in the base game of Mysterium, is actually pretty difficult. I don’t want to put that kind of responsibility on my loved ones. If you are playing with more than 2 or 3 people, there is an incredible amount of information to keep track of as the ghost, and it can be pretty daunting. If you aren’t able to do your role as the ghost well, everybody has very little chance at winning. If you are a person who is ready to undertake this role, or if you have someone in your gaming group who can handle it, then Mysterium is an absolute joy to play and can be a staple party game that you will keep coming back to. The game creates these incredibly tense and delicious moments of anxiety and excitement. As the player, you’re sitting there staring at the cards you’ve been given, trying to glean out every ounce of possible connection to the suspects, discussing with the other players what the ghost could have POSSIBLY been trying to tell you. As the ghost, after you hand the cards out, you sit there in silence, screaming internally as your psychics easily miss what is right in front of them, instead seeing some obscure connection that you had no idea they were going to make. It’s a game where, with the right group of people, can be thrilling and gives you lots of “so THAT is what you were trying to tell me!” moments. If you don’t have anyone in the group capable of playing the ghost, it can become a series of long and argues task that causes unnecessary stress.

I believe that the designers of this game understood this problem and directly addressed it in the sequel game, Mysterium Park. Capping the player count to 6, so the ghost would, at most, have to worry about 5 clues at a time, makes a big difference. Giving the players a chance focus on helping others once they have discovered their own suspect/location is also something that is a much needed relief for the ghost. The setup for Mysterium Park is also much easier than the first game, and the box is much smaller and travel friendly.

I love playing Mysterium, but I think I would recommend anybody looking into this kind of game for the first time to pick up Mysterium Park, and picking up Mysterium and it’s expansions only after playing Mysterium Park to their heart’s content.