I am so excited to be on the Foul Play blog tour. My family and I love a good game whether it is a board game or card game so when I saw the overview of Foul Play I knew it was something I had to try out.
GAME OVERVIEW:
Welcome to Edwardian England. The Lord of the Manor is dead! The servants are our lead suspects and it's up to you to unearth the evidence, seek out the suspects and catch the culprit in order to scupper the other sleuths and win this game of murder!
There's more than one way to catch a killer though. So what's it gonna be? Good Cop or Bad Cop? These two game versions come with their own set of rules and tactics to crack the case and finger your suspect, but will you use fair play or FOUL PLAY?
Which detective will crack the case first?
PLAYING THE GAME:
The game includes a pack of 52 playing cards with 4 instruction cards. This makes it an ideal travel game or perfect for storage, allowing for 2-5 players. Each pack contains blue, purple, red and green cards; there are a set of 15 evidence cards, 8 suspect cards and a mixture of action cards.
Before beginning the game the 15 evidence cards (5 blue, 5 red, 5 green) are placed face down, 1 of each colour are selected (no peeping) and are shuffled into the rest of the suspect and action cards. The remaining evidence cards are placed back into the box and are out of play.
Once the cards have been shuffled 9 are placed face down in a 3x3 grid in the middle of the table, this is the Crime Scene. The players are then dealt 5 cards each from the remaining pack. The rest of the cards are placed in a pile next to the crime scene, this is the Evidence Locker. Discard the top card from the evidence locker and place it on the opposite side of the crime scene, this is the Discard Pile.
You are now ready to play the game. Each player takes it in turns to select one action card from their hand and place it on the table face up. They then follow the actions on the card, then place the card in the Discard Pile and pick up a card from the Evidence Locker. The object of the game is to be the first player to have seen all 3 Evidence cards and to then reveal the murderer.
MY THOUGHTS:
With any new game it takes a couple of goes to get the hang of the game and it was only during our second go that we realised how addictive this game could be. We were a group of 5 adults with one child teaming up with an adult.
Our first go was over quite quickly due to one detective using the Full Cooperation card quite early into the game so we got to see everyone's hand and therefore could read all the Evidence Cards and see some of the Suspect cards, allowing us all to work out who the Murderer was. To win the game during the Good Cop version you need to have the Murderer in your hand before stating who committed the crime. During our second go we used our block cards more efficiently to stop the Full Cooperation card being used and for blocking the detectives wishing to solve the crime. This allowed play to continue and we realised if we wanted to solve the case we needed to try to get the Suspect Cards out of the player's hand so they could not solve the case before us. There is definitely the potential to get very strategic during this game and to try and outwit your opponents.
The game was a lot of fun to play and even my seven year old, who was on one of the adult's team, picked it up very quickly, discarding cards and swapping cards for her team. The game definitely requires a 'poker face' if you are trying to outwit your opponents and some forward thinking if you are to be victorious. There were times when it was also frustrating, for example when you can't find the evidence or murderer card(s) or when you are being blocked from your fellow players but this adds to the fun of the game and the competitive nature of the players.
We were very impressed by the endless opportunities of play, as each game will be a different combination of Evidence Cards and therefore no one game will be the same. We only played the Good Cop version which I highly recommend for your first few goes of the game. The added addition of the Bad Cop version allows a harder game as you have to have all three evidence cards in your hand as well as the Suspect Card with the murderer on. I can see this version taking much longer to complete as well as the frustration level increasing especially if you have a family such as mine that are highly competitive, play very strategically and are 'no-hold barred' when it comes to winning.
The game took us around 30 minutes to an hour to play which fits perfectly for our family. It has the potential to last a lot longer if you play the Bad Cop version or if someone is holding on to the block card. During the festive period when we have the rest of our family with us and exceeds 5 players, I can see us playing this in pairs. This is definitely the sort of game where you are playing against each other, trying to steal cards and hide the evidence cards from one another to race to the finish. It is a cross between Cludeo and Rummy, where strategy and good luck is needed. The only stumbling block we had was that two of our players were colour blind and therefore one of those players had trouble telling the different coloured cards apart. The only downside to this was that when they were looking for a suspect card they couldn't see which card to choose where the rest of us could, having said that we were able to help them with this when needed.
In conclusion this was a really enjoyable addictive game which I can see us playing throughout the festive period and many more years to come. If like us you have a super competitive family or group of friends then this is a perfect way to compete and frustrate each other with your devious game play. I highly recommend this and think it would make a perfect stocking filler/ Secret Santa gift for all ages (14 years+). The Manor House Murder set up, characters and game variations will keep players interested and wanting to play, it also has the potential for further versions and this would be something I would be excited to see.
Many thanks to After Dark Murder and Emma at Damppebbles for the opportunity to get involved in this amazing blog tour!
BUY LINK:
