Game 117: Mysterium

 

Mysterium is a game we had played quite a while ago, having borrowed it from my brother.  It's one that intrigued us, and so it eventually ended up on our shelves as well.  We've had it for a while now, and David and the boys played it earlier in the semester, but I was too busy to join in.  I finally got my chance and am also finally getting a chance to post.  I'm not sure how best to describe this game.  In some sense it's a bit like a séance (though I know describing it that way will put some people off).  It feels to me like a combination of Clue, Dixit, and Deception.  It's a cooperative game in which players are trying to solve a murder.  It's the ghost of the murder victim who is giving clues to the other players, but he can only do so through images.  The images are pictured on cards, and I find the artwork to be gorgeous, evocative, and dreamlike. The ghost cannot speak, so the players trying to solve his murder have to do their best to interpret the dreamlike images as they try to solve the mystery.
Pictured below is a sampling of some of the clue cards - the flashes of insight or intuition the ghost tries to get across and that the players need to try to interpret.
The next three pictures are of some of the character (suspect), location, and object cards.  As with Clue, you need to determine the murderer, the location, and the weapon.  In the second picture on this post you'll see tokens; those represent each player's progress in determining each of these elements of the murder.  You'll also notice a clock; there is a time factor involved (number of turns by which you need to have your solution in order to be successful.)


I love competitive games of strategy, but a cooperative game is a nice change of pace, and I'm particularly a fan of cooperative games when playing as a family.  It feels fun to join together in a common goal.  Even though the game is cooperative, it is challenging; just try communicating through dream-like flashes of imagery! This game exudes a certain atmosphere, and the illustrations on the cards really support that well.

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