Review Details

Mysterium

Product Review (submitted on July 3, 2016):

Mysterium is a game which has quickly become one of my groups most played games. I played the original version about a year ago and had a lot of fun, even though I couldn't read any of the rules since it wasn't in English. This version has the same art on the Dream cards as the original, but the new person, place, and weapon cards are all new. They tend to be a bit darker, which I think works well. The biggest improvement in this version is the Ghost's "Screen". In the original version, you had to maintain different stacks of cards for each player, a stack of cards for the other items in play, and prevent the players from seeing them. In this version, you have a very hefty screen with pockets for each player to organize your side of the game. This makes keeping track of everything a lot easier and lets the game run much smoother.

Another change is the betting system, which wasn't present in the original. After everyone figures out what clue they want to guess, you have the ability to bet on if you think they are correct or incorrect. Each correct guess takes you further on a track determining how many clues you get to see at the end-game. This mechanic, to be honest, feels a little tacked on, but for the most part works. The problem comes in when you are fairly certain everyone is right, but all you have are incorrect guess tokens. You end up just guessing players are wrong for the off-chance they actually are, regardless of what you believe because you get the tokens back at the end of turn 3.

I would highly recommend this to any group of gamers who enjoys cooperative games with a bit of abstraction. Trying to guess the clues is a lot of fun but I find my love of the game comes from behind the ghost screen. I love watching people try to sort out my clues as a team and love seeing how one player will completely change the mind of the group causing the player to make an incorrect guess due to some minute part of the clue I didn't even consider! The game is amazing and this version is extremely well put together.