Murdero is a murder mystery themed 60-card game. The game is designed for 2-4 players aged 10 and over. The cards come in a small tuckbox with an 8-page instruction foldout sheet.
Gameplay
The aim of the game is to be the first to 'solve' a case by building sets of Case Cards which consist of Crime Scene, Victim, Evidence, Suspect and Weapon cards. There are fifteen Crime Scene cards in a deck (in three different colours) but only 12 Victims, 9 Evidence, 6 Suspects and 3 Weapons, so building sets gets progressively more difficult.
The game also contains 15 Action cards which all have a different effect on the game. Some allow you card advantage, for example; others can mess with your opponents' cases. There are also Action cards which alter the win conditions, e.g. Heavy Caseload requires a player to solve two cases to win. Action cards are divided into 'One Shot' and 'Permanent'. One Shot Action cards are played then discarded, whereas Permanent Action cards (such as Heavy Caseload) stay in play indefinitely.
When a player wins, everyone scores for the cards they have in play and subtracts those left in their hand. (The winner doubles their score before subtracting.) The game is played until a score of 100 or more is reached. Usually this takes between 30 and 45 minutes.
Game Design
The cards have a simple, clean design. The card point value is situated in the top left corner and is big enough to read easily (needed for scoring at the end of the game). Different coloured borders indicate the type of card (red, blue or green for Case Cards; grey and black for Action cards).
Each card features a large black and white photograph which gives the game a nice vintage movie style. Each Case Card also has flavour text which helps create mood (and some of them are quite funny). Clarice Beach - a Crime Scene - says, "Some stars came to sunbathe, others just washed ashore."
Playability
The basic gameplay is very simple and quick to pick up (basically, set building). Your turn consists of 'draw card, play cards'. However, once you factor in the Action Cards, things get a bit more interesting and allow you more control over the game.
The game stands up to repeated playing as each hand tends to play out very differently. There are some obviously good Action cards which you'll always want to draw but other - let's say, weaker looking - cards prove themselves to be very useful in certain situations which makes the game feel like it has a lot of variety and makes you feel like you have more choices.
You can also combine decks and build your own. A fiendishly difficult one I tried included two 'Alibi' cards for each colour (meaning you can't win by completing that colour case), and two Heavy Caseloads. The game took ages but we did manage to finish (although, unfortunately, I wasn't the winner...)
Conclusion
There's nothing mind-blowingly innovative about Murdero but it's fun to play and there's enough variety to keep things interesting. A good one to play with the kids or the parents as it combines a simple card game with some CCG-style mechanics. I've played it quite a few times and wouldn't hesitate to pick it up again if I was in the mood for something fun and unpredictable (as opposed to something headache-inducingly strategic)!
