Batman Animated Series: Almost Got 'Im Review

The Batman Animated Series: Almost Got ‘im Card Game is a social deduction card game based on a single specific episode of the (excellent) Batman Animated Series. In that episode a few of classic Batman villains sit around telling stories of their attempts to kill the Bat, unaware that one of them is secretly Batman in disguise. That provides the core to this social deduction game: one player is Batman attempting to subdue the villains and the others are trying to figure out which player is Batman.

Players have both a secret role (top) and a Batman Villain Character card (middle)

It’s a setting that works great in the show, though it falls apart in the game. It’s odd that the villains would knowingly play poker with Batman in disguise. It’s especially odd that the villains would continue sitting around playing poker after one of them is subdued following a power outage. Subdued in this game means a player is still playing the game, just unable to use a secret ability that actually makes the game mildly interesting. That’s right; instead of player elimination a “subdued” player must sit there continuing to draw cards despite being unable to use their ability, hoping to be healed by a role that may not even be in the game.

It’d be fine of the theme was pasted on a compelling social deduction game, but unfortunately Almost Got ‘im just isn’t very fun. It’s boringly simple in the places that need depth, and frustratingly complex in the places that need to be simple. Players have two special abilities, one tied to their public Villain persona and another tied to their secret role. The secret role is where the action is; “Batman in Disguise” will subdue people, and various roles like “Crafty” or “Saboteur” help the group in ways that will be familiar to fans of the genre.

The problem with those roles is that they aren’t just something you get to do. You have to first craft a poker hand. This is the really interesting part of Almost Got ‘Im. Players take turns drawing cards-either from a public row or the top of the deck-hoping to build the Poker hand that allows them to execute their special ability during the blackout phase. It’s the only compelling part, but it’s also the part that is too simple. You get 1 card each round before going into the blackout phase. If you’re building a more complex hand, like a straight, then you may have round after round of not being able to do anything.

Two-Face can swap his Jack for the 6 of Harley Hearts to complete his flush.

Meanwhile, that single draw is also the only concrete information you have to ground the deduction part of the game. Deducing which villain has which role involves attempting to track who seems to be drawing for a straight and who is happy building pairs. This is where it gets frustratingly complex. Not only do you have to know which role does what, you have to remember which poker hand is required to activate that ability. Because you only draw 1 card per round, you’re attempting to track the draws of 3-5 other people across multiple rounds with long frustrating breaks in between them. I’d still be willing to overlook this because of the poker mechanic, but the worst thing about this game is that it has an incredibly frustrating moderator role.

One player has to sit out every round watching everyone else actually play, waiting until the blackout to have a chance to act. Then they have to execute an incredibly complex system of asking each player in turn if they’re going to do their role, loudly dealing a fresh hand of 5 cards to each one and reshuffling the deck whether they activate or not. Villains aren’t supposed to know who acted, so it’s critical that the moderator spend exactly the same amount of time talking to each player, making the exact same amount of noise, all while memorizing who each player targets so that you can cross reference the list you wrote down at the beginning of the game. It’s awful. One slip up can reveal a single piece of information and topple the entire house of cards.

There’s a good idea in this game. Building specific hands of cards to activate your roles is a fresh twist that I’d love to see explored further. It’s all the rest of the stuff that feels antiquated and clunky. I can’t imagine a group ever playing this enough times to become sufficiently familiar, to say nothing of trying to teach new players or add a new player to the group. There are simply better games in this genre worth your time. It does come with a standard deck of 52 playing cards with neat art, so there’s that I guess.