I got to play a game of Mystery Express this weekend. The game feels like a more streamlined version of Clue. The basics of the game are you are trying to find the who, what, where, when, and how of a murder. Like in Clue this is done by removing a card from each category and dealing out the rest to the players. You then try and see other people's cards through various means. Where it diverts from Clue is that there are no dice roles for movement and there are two of every card (except time time card which there are three). So how does it work? Well, before every stop you have a certain amount of time (which more or less action points) to see other player's cards. Each train car has a different action associated with it and each action takes a particular amount time. For example, the passenger car action takes one hour to complete. If the current player chooses the Passenger Car he picks a category and every player then passes a card of a that category to their neighbor. If there is more time available the player then gets to choose a different car and perform that action as well. This goes on until a player's time is up then it goes on to the next player. In addition to the other player's cards there are cards on the board representing information from new passengers boarding as well as information from the conductor. Speaking with the conductor is a free action and speaking with a new passenger takes three hours to complete.
Overall I really enjoyed it. The game only took about an hour even with rules explanation and moved really smoothly with almost 0 down time. The real brain burn was trying to keep the track of which cards were revealed by which players. Since there are two of every card you have to be sure that the second time you see a card is the actual second card in the deck and not the same one you saw previously. Since you discard any card that was shown you have to try and see it's pair during the same round. Trying to figure out the time of the crime is also really tough.
At three different stops the time cards get revealed in a different way for each stop. For example the first stop the current player flips the cards over as fast or as slow and he wants. There is no note taking during this phase so you really have to remember what was revealed. I had an idea by the second time reveal phase and the third one confirmed it but it was still really tough to figure out.
I ended up winning the game in a tie breaker. (Before the last round you write down as many pieces of the crime as you think are right. For every piece of information you get right you get a point for every piece you get wrong you lose a point.) Overall if you are looking for a deduction game to play with people who only know Clue pick this up. This game's mechanics are easy enough to teach and people already familiar with Clue will already have the basics down.
Xater said:
Yeah that looks way more manageable.
I second Smallworld. It scales really well depending on the size of your group (there are two double sided boards which are used depending the number of players), it plays a lot like Risk without dice, the rules are simple, the various combinations with races and abilities change up the game so it feels different every time you play, and finally unlike Risk it won't take you hours to play. You can get a complete game done in 60-90 minutes depending on the number of players.
If you have an iPad they released the two player version of the game for around $5.00. I bought it over the weekend and it actually is a pretty good port of the board game. The only downside is it's local two player only and there is no AI so you'll have to play it with another person. It's a good way to try out the game before committing the $30 or so for the full game.
