On the detective’s desk lies a steaming cigarette. Smoke fills the room and dances on bright colors – from the neon lights of the clubs street – illuminating the room through the cracks of the slats. Paper flows through the room like waves at high tide and on the desk is a sloppy battered pile of files. Unsolved murders. For months a killer has been at work in the dark nights. It’s up to our inspector to find the killer. Will the inspector succeed or will he become the killer’s new victim?
NOIR: Deductive Mystery Game is collection of different game concepts – though with a common premise – in a small and luxurious box. Noir was originally published in 2021, but 12 years later this streamlined new edition was released.
In addition to four game variants, the game includes a deck of beautifully, thematically illustrated cards. There are double-sided suspects (and side shows that the suspect died) and a deck of evidence cards corresponding to the suspects. In each game variant, players form a grid of 5 by 5 suspects and in each game players can influence the grid by shuffling cards and each player has only limited information to try to infer information about the other player. Players win by correctly deducing.
Killer vs Inspector & Buddy Cops
Killer vs Inspector is a two-player game variant and the creators recommend that players start with this game variant to get to know the game. In this game variant, most of the principles of gameplay return. One player takes the role of the murderer and the other player of the inspector. The murderer receives two evidence cards. One card is the identity of the murderer and the other card is a disguise. The inspector receives 4 evidence cards. “Ah ha, among these potential suspects the killer is not hiding anyway! “ The inspector secretly chooses one of these cards as his secret identity and places it closed in front of him and keeps the other cards in hand.
Players may perform a single action during their turn. Players may slide cards into the grid (similar to The Enchanted Maze) or if several cards have already died, remove these cards and reduce the size of the grid. The assassin may turn over an adjacent card (if that is the inspector then the assassin has won) and the inspector may gather information by deploying evidence cards. Players gain information about each other through actions back and forth.
Buddy Cops is similar to Killer vs Inspector, but here two cops take on a dangerous killer.
Spytag & Dragnet
In Spytag, 3 – 4 players compete against each other. Each player draws a proof card as a secret identity and players try to expose each other. They may capture adjacent cards and thus exchange information, but also try to kill other players. Players can also gain information by treating an adjacent card as a sort of informant.
In Dragnet, several inspectors are active, all of whom have 2 suspects in mind. Players try to be the first to find out which other suspects are active by placing and moving evidence on the grid. Aside from deduction, it is primarily a puzzle that you want to be the first to solve. If you think a row contains only correct suspects (both completed evidence cards already on the grid and still on players’ hands count).
Conclusion
NOIR is an interesting collection of different deduction game modes. It is lighthearted, fast-paced, but also offers satisfaction for fans of deduction games and cat-and-mouse games like Scotland Yard, Mind MNGT and Cluedo but in a very manageable and portable form.
