This game is drenched in theme! The game tells you which villain is terrorizing the village right from the start. As one of the investigator, your job is to find his lair and kill him off. As easy as it may sound, the villain is more powerful than you are at the start of the game, simply because you do not have the equipment that allows you to withstand a battle with the villain. However, there are forces of darkness that will try to stop you at every turn. In addition, there are the villain's minions and bad events that will unfold throughout the game that will challenge you, or even knock you down (at a cost of losing your items). On the bright side, you can search and buy items that assist you in times of needs. If you are in town, you also have the opportunity to collect event cards that can help you during difficult times. After a few plays, you will start to realize how powerful these cards are, especially when confronting the villain during the showdown.
As with all stories that revolve around murder and mystery, there are always mysterious characters roaming around. In this game, they are called the elders. They are NPCs (non-playing characters) that hold one or more secret unknown to the investigators in the beginning. As time goes by, you can know if they are good or evil as you unravel their secrets. Good elders can be invited to join you when confronting the villain, while evil elders will join the villain. The concept of the elders is really interesting. However, the execution of how the elders affect the gameplay is slightly disappointing. I guess I was expecting a bit too much. There are variants on boardgamegeek.com with how the Elders should be encountered, and how their secrets are harder to reveal. However, they make the game longer. With a gaming group of 4, it didn't work as well as I wanted.
Although the game supports up to 8 players, from my experience, the game is best for 1 to 3 players who play cooperatively. When played with 4 players, the game's theme fades off a bit. The reason is simple. This game has lots of text to be read and if the gaming group has players who do not immerse themselves into the game world, or if they like to chat and joke around during the game, the whole atmosphere will be gone. If it's played competitively, the game suffers more, as players tend to race against each other to get the best weapon and equipment, making the game lose its great theme. With 5 or more players, I highly recommend going with team play where the fun comes not from the story on the cards, but the interaction between the players.
This is one of the factor that weakens the game. By the time the investigator goes for the final showdown, he has enough firepower, protection and event cards that will almost make him win over the villain. To remedy this problem, I play with a small variant. The mystery card is drawn at the end of each player's turn rather than at the end of the players' round. I thought it might make the game much too hard, but after using this variant for more than 10 games, I can still win 9 out of 10 games. The difference is that my investigator can never fully prepare himself due to the decreased time, resulting in suspenseful showdowns with the villains in every game. This variant also balances out the game, despite the number of players.
Will you like the game? That depends on whether you like thematic games in the veins of Sleepy Hollow. I personally love the theme and thus am willing to play the game anytime. There are more than enough cards to pull off in each location so you won't draw the same cards even after playing it a few times, making every game feel new. I've brought the game out onto the table quite a number of times, but in most occasions, the game was a failure. I believe the reason is not the game mechanic itself, but that I added numerous variants to make the game feel more like a movie. That actually backfired as the game dragged on longer than expected, and players who aren't into the whole supernatural thing simply gave up halfway into the game. I learned quite a bit from this experience, knowing that games and movies are two very different things, with movies being more passive and games more active. If you like mysterious atmospheres and are going to play alone, this is one of the best games on the market. If you have a gaming group that are there just to enjoy the evening, this game works with the base rules with the variant that I mentioned above. So for those who wonder if this game is worth getting, I say yes.
Overall (Group Play): B
Overall (Solitaire Play): A
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