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What could be more perfect than a spooky themed game for Halloween? When it comes to cooperative board games, there can’t be many that fill that description quite as well as Libellud offering Mysterium. I thought that I would give you my top five reasons that Mysterium is the ideal board game to enjoy during the Halloween period.
1) Box: Mysterium shouts “spooky” from your game shelf. A gloomy blue vision of an old style 1920s car dives towards a fog shrouded house that upon a hill that looks as if it may have, in its history (or will, in its future given the apparent era the game is set in), housed the Addams or Munsters. Glowing lights illuminate the fog giving an eerie vibe. Add in the glowing font and you can tell just from appearances that Mysterium is going to bring the horror vibes.
2) Playing a Ghost: The premise of Mysterium is that a Mr. MacDowell has detected a spirit who is at unrest present Mysterium Manor, his house in Scotland. One of the players assumes the role of this ghost. They must communicate to the other players the details of the events leading up to their traumatic end allowing them to be free from torment and move over to the afterlife in peace. This brings us nicely to…
3) Murder: It is determined that the ghostly disturbances are because it desires justice for its brutal murder. So, we have a Ghost, a Murder and…
4) Psychic Powers: It is the task of the other players to each discover the details of a person, place and object related to the murder and, if successful, must then identify the guilty party. But, how do the other players communicate with the Ghost player when the Ghost is unable to speak? Well, it turns out our Mr. MacDowell has an insane amount of money, how else did he buy a huge old manor house? And, he has recruited the best Mediums of his time to communicate with the Ghost by receiving psychic visions! The other players adopt the role of these mediums. The visions are communicated by cards, the Ghost player cannot talk about anything. The artwork of these visions mirrors that found in another Libellud classic game Dixit, being somewhat obscure and surreal. This all adds to the feeling that the psychics are only gaining a fleeting visage and having to try and tune into the Ghost’s hidden meanings. The pictures on the cards really is a huge standout element of the game.
5) The other visuals: Along with the incredible artwork on the visions, the rest of the game continues to bring the spooky. The Ghost player uses a player screen that depicts a double staircase flanked by hooded statues. These twin sets of stairs lead up to a window through which can be seen a shadowed figure. Upon this screen perches a murder of cardboard crows. The ghost can use a crow to replace some or all of its current vision cards. To one side is the clock, an old-style beaten-up mantle clock of card that is used to track the players’ turns. The clock tracks the players turns, each turn the ghost hands the visions to the players who then try to guess which person, location and object they have been secretly allocated. After making a guess the ghost will indicate, without speaking, for example with ghostly knocks, whether the guesses are correct or not. Finally, if they have all successfully guessed their allocated people, location and objects the players have a chance to receive a final vision that will indicate the “murderer” group. All-in-all, everything in Mysterium adds to that paranormal feeling.
Hopefully my list has convinced you why Mysterium fits the mould of a perfect game to play during the Halloween period. I always say it is kind of like Cluedo, but cooperative because the players work together, and you don’t move around, and the clues are all given on picture cards by a ghost player, and you have to guess different combinations of people, locations and objects first and… actually it isn’t really at all like Cluedo!
I have enjoyed games of Mysterium with my children, with my classes at school and at my local gaming store. The focus of the game makes you take turns discussing your thoughts and ideas; listening to one another. So it is a game to enjoy all year round but really fits the Halloween time of year.