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Dare You Return To Warwick Manor One More Time
Six months after the last séance where Conrad MacDowell thought he'd assisted the spirit haunting his family's Scottish manor house to pass on, with the help of his friends and fellow pyschics... Alma Salvador, Jessalyn Smith, Madame Wang, Alphonse and Ardhashir... the ghost is manifesting once again and trying to communicate. But something is different this time; Jessalyn's cards suggest there's many grey areas surrounding the unsolved murder from thirty years ago, perhaps even a motive. But could it be blackmail, treason, love? Obviously, the only way to offer the anguished spirit peace is to conduct another séance. So come in, take a seat, and follow your intuition. Let's find out in the Secrets & Lies expansion...
On The Surface
Following on from Libellud's much loved Mysterium, an innovative bestseller that pulled players into an immersive game of cooperative investigation, and the first expansion Mysterium: Hidden Signs, Mysterium: Secrets & Lies is the second expansion of this extremely replayable game. Whilst not much is changed from the original mechanics, Mysterium: Secrets & Lies offers players a new facet of story where instead of finding the murder weapon, the pyschics are now tasked with discovering the potential motive behind the gruesome crime.
Mysterium: Secrets & Lies expansion contains ninety six beautifully illustrated cards, manufactured to the same high quality that players expect from a Libellud game. The expansion once again features artwork from illustrator Xavier Collette, who worked on the original game, and M81 Studio.
Mysterium: Secrets & Lies introduces another six new brooding suspects, six new interesting locations, six new detailed objects for those who wish to play with the original objective (a surprising but thoughtful addition to an expansion that doesn't utilise the hunt for the murder weapon), eighteen intriguing story cards that may just reveal the motive, along with another forty two exquisitely eccentric visions that are full of surrealism and open to interpretation by the players.
A Little Backstory
The original Mysterium is a deeply engaging, cooperative 2 – 7 player game (which is as enjoyable with only two players, thanks to it's special rules for duos, as it is in a larger group), where players share a common objective: interpret the ghost's visions to discovered who the murderer was, where the crime was committed and what the murder weapon was; which ranges from something as obvious as a gun, to as unexpected as a fork. It's a race against time, with game play divided into two phase.
The first phase consists of seven turns as the clock counts down from midnight, creeping closer to dawn when the ghost will disappear and the murder will remain unsolved. Each psychic has a unique set of clues they most uncovered, and all suspects, potential crime scenes and possible murder weapons must be discovered before players can move on to the final phase... the ghost's final vision to the group, that will hopefully resolve the murder once and for all. If they don't, the spirit will be unavenged and left in limbo forever.
The Third Séance
Where it's predecessor Mysterium: Hidden Signs added no new mechanics at all to the game, Mysterium: Secrets & Lies slightly twists the original game play by replacing the hunt for the murder weapon (or object card) for the pursuit of uncovering the motive (or story card) behind the crime. That being said, this new addition does not change the feel or drastically modify the game play, so those who love the original game just the way it is don't need to worry about learning additional rules.
The player who embodies the ghost still cannot talk, only being able to communicate with the clairvoyants by knocking on the table, whilst the player(s) taking on the roles of one the beautifully diverse psychics are still required to work with the ghost and each other to help solve the mystery.
As Mysterium: Secrets & Lies is a set of illustrated cards that more or less only adds greater variety to the already highly replayable base game, with the newly introduced story cards replacing the object cards during set up, it's safe to say the game is still aimed at players 10+, with an average game continuing to take a minimum of forty minutes to complete.
As stated, Mysterium: Secrets & Lies is a set of extra cards, so the same easy game set up that takes less than five minutes still applies. Simply find a flat surface with enough room to comfortably set up the ghost's screen (that hides the unique set of 'clues' from the psychic players), along with the clock, hourglass, and three of the four progress boards depending on what information you want to discover... be it the murder weapon or motive... plus the clairvoyancy track and final progress board that are required if you're playing with three of more players.
Despite the new addition of story cards, the game play remains unchanged due to the set up selection. The ghost player knows the suspect, location and object each psychic needs to find, and helps the other players throughout the investigation via the illustrated vision cards. The psychics must follow the clues given by the ghost through the vision cards in order to find the suspect, location and object cards assigned to them; with the psychics discussing between themselves how to interpret the visions given by the ghost.
Thinking Out Of The Box
With this series, one truly fascinating part is seeing how your companions' minds work. The vision cards are often so surreal that its hard to see on the surface what the ghost is intending to convey when playing as a psychic, whereas the ghost player may be surprised to hear the meanings the psychics give to details they hadn't even considered on the vision cards they gave the psychics.
The vision cards in Mysterium: Secret & Lies are perhaps my favourite to date, and build on the surreal feel of the previous one hundred and twenty six illustrations that have come before them. It's definitely a game that can bring you closer to your family and friends, and give you an unexpected peek into the ways their minds work. Even playing as the ghost during the discussion phase is enjoyable, despite not being able to talk, and you'll likely have a hard time keep a straight face as you listen to the psychics speculate on the meaning of the cards you've given each of them.
It is worth noting that the same mild criticism that affect the base game and first expansion still affects Mysterium: Secrets & Lies; younger players may struggle with interpreting the vision cards and need extra help from other psychics during game play. Which arguably isn't much of an issue, as the game is an enjoyable way to help children expand their critical thinking and communication skills, without them realising they're learning something whilst they play.
For added emersion, having some atmospheric music playing in the background certainly adds to the experience (there's even an official soundtrack available on Libellud's website if you don't fancy trolling through playlists on YouTube or Spotify), and if you have a small group of friend's who are into role play games, the Mysterium series could be a great starting point for a murder mystery evening at home.
That concludes our thoughts on Mysterium: Secret & Lies. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy Mysterium: Secret & Lies today click here!
