The sand-timer keeps the game on track for the “42 minutes” advertised play time, adding some pressure into deciding what the ghostly vision cards mean. It also helps the game flow. Other games with similar mechanics where players must think and guess can get caught up when players are unsure. Run out of sand and you have effectively forfeited your guess that turn. Also in a 4+ game you’ll have wasted an opportunity to get some extra movement on the clairvoyance track.
The vision cards’ illustrations are reminiscent of a dream like state. It is incredibly unique to the game, something which helps the game have its own identity. The artwork of the people and places are all done with careful thought; on top of the high quality of artistic skill on show. The people cards for instance have items around them that the ghost can hint towards and the locations have small details in the background. This means if the ghost has no vision cards that directly relate to a place or person they can hint at things on the card. Then it’s just up to the clairvoyants to guess correctly.
My only issue is with the item cards. They are the final step to guessing a clairvoyant’s set. Potentially, this is why only the item is depicted with nothing extra to help the guessing process. This is just a stark contrast from the people and place cards. On top of this they are a different size card. This makes the “board” look uneven when the game is set up and the smaller cards are also hard to shuffle. It’s just an oddity of why they are different.
It may be because I like to see the look on players faces when they get a dream card and they can’t initially make a link and then the sudden realisation hits. It might be due to having all the answers. Maybe I just don’t like talking to people… No matter the exact reason I prefer playing as a ghost. This is 100% a personal preference though. You certainly get a different experience on from one side ghost screen to the other. To be entirely honest, yes I prefer playing as the ghost but if a group of people are up for Mysterium I don’t mind which side of the screen I end up on: I’m just excited to play!
My excitement for Mysterium is driven from the sense of realisation players get and the ability it gives players to see into the mindsets of others. Some weird and bizarre dream cards will be played. There is no doubt about that. It is when you determine the mental links the ghost is making or when the clairvoyants twig to what links you’re making the can reveal odd things about people. Several times I’ve seen players start to hurl abuse towards the poor ghost for a giving them a card they deem “unhelpful”, only for the mute ghost to have made in their head an obvious link. The best bit it sometimes that link is obvious but only after you’ve worked it out.
This being said, sometime it is hilarious what cards come out and the pitiful attempts at links. Once I received a vision depicting a small chicken inside a sand timer. Items I was choosing from included a wooden box, a clock, a fork and candles. My logic stop firm, the ghost must mean sand timer links to clock. This was not the case apparently because people eat chickens with forks that was the link… How we managed to help the ghost to rest its soul that game I do not know!
Mysterium is a game that verges on the edge of a party game. It takes a theme of a murder mystery we all know and puts a dream like ghostly spin on it to great effect. The mechanics are easy to pick up and teach to newcomers, so much so they won’t think of Mysterium as a full-on board game. Some would say it isn’t worth getting Mysterium out of the box for less than 4 players. While I feel the two-player variant is a bit silent and awkward, as soon as there are 3 players the game gets going! Whether you get a chance to play Mysterium at your local board game café or you pick it up you’re destined for an entertaining time. Who knew mystery, murder, laughs and other peoples realisations could be such fun?!
[Editor’s Note: Mysterium was provided to us by Esdevium Games for review purposes. The game currently available for purchase at 365 Games]
