Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong was a game I got after hearing really glowing reviews of it.  It was described as a game that killed a game I liked already, Mysterium, so I knew it was something that should appeal to me.

It also filled a nice gap in my collection of games that can handle a large number of players but are still very much a gamer's game and not a light filler.

How Does It Play?

The Components of Deception.

The Object of Deception is to find the murderer from amongst the players.  To do this you must find the murder weapon and the clue that they left.  One player will be the Forensic Scientist and will give some information to the rest of the players while another will be the murder and will try and throw the players off.

To start the game all the players will be dealt a role card which they keep to themselves (except the Forensic Scientist who turns his card face up in front of him).  Most of the players will be Investigators, who must find the murderer to win.  One will be the Murderer who must avoid being detected in order to win.  At higher player counts you can also add a Witness and an Accomplice.  The Witness will know who the Murderer is but if the Murderer can work out who they are at the end of the game they win regardless of if the Investigators caught them.  The Accomplice knows who the Murderer is, but is on their team so will help throw the Investigators off the scent.

Some of the Clue Cards

Players will then be dealt 4 Weapon Cards and 4 Clue cards which they lay out face up in front of them.  Then the Forensic Scientist will tell everyone to close their eyes, the Murderer will then be asked to open their eye and point to one weapon and one clue in front of them.  These are the two cards that Investigators must work out to correctly accuse the Murderer.  Even if the players manage to work out who the Murderer is they can not win unless they have the correctly guessed the two cards.

Some of the Weapon Cards

After this the players will open their eyes and the game can start.  Obviously if the Witness and Accomplice are in the game they will be shown the two cards that were picked as well so they know who the Murderer is.

Some of the Scene Tiles

To start the Forensic Scientist will draw and lay out 5 Scene Tiles.  These have a title and 6 options on them.  The title might be things like "Cause of Death" or "Time of Day" and the options will help the Investigators guess the Clue or Weapon cards.

The catch is that the Forensic Scientist can not talk so will have to place a bullet token on each of the Scene Tiles to indicate which of the 6 options relates to the crime that is being investigated.

After talking through the information they have been given the Investigators are all given a time to make a brief presentation (which can't be interrupted) or make an accusation.  Each player is limited to one accusation per game which they must use or lose.  If an accusation is made the player must guess the Clue and Weapon cards and can only be told a simple "Yes" or "No" if they are right or wrong, no other information.  It means that even if the player guessed the correct Murderer but got one of the cards wrong they will not be told which card was wrong or even that one was right and will not be told that they have correct Murderer.

At the end of each round the Forensic Scientist can discard one Scene Tile and draw a new one to give the Investigators more information.  After 3 rounds the game ends and the Investigators win if they found the Murderer and the two correct cards, the Murderer wins if they didn't.

What Do I Think?
The game plays a lot like Mysterium but has added elements, like the hidden traitor which makes it feel like a cross between Mysterium and The Resistance.  I think it works really well, it is tense and enjoyable with plenty of bluffing and deduction.

I do like that even if you have managed to work out the Murderer you still need to work out which of the cards in front of them are the two that you are looking for, so players that aren't great at hiding in social deduction games still stand a chance with a good choice of cards to start with.  We have had games where we were sure who did it because we had worked out one card but couldn't guess the other.

I do also like that the Scene tiles can be quite vague or slightly abstract like "Age of Victim" or "Time of Day" so the Forensic Scientist almost has to make up a crime which fits the two cards in order to get information across.  Getting rid of a Scene Tiles to swap for a new one between rounds can also be a bit of hard decision since you can't talk you can't let the Investigators know if you are getting rid of it because the players have already got the correct information or if it is because they have gone complete the wrong way with it and it is confusing them.

Some of the Scene tiles are a bit too vague to be honest and when you draw them it can be that there is no way to link it to either cards.  It does seem that it can be a wasted go if you draw a bad tile.

As a game I think it is really good.  It does feel like Mysterium but I am not sure it is a Mysterium killer.  I still enjoy both and I still like using the art from Mysterium for a different feel, also the fact one is a co-op and the other is social deduction means they feel different enough that I think there is room for both in a collection.  It is less tense that games like The Resistance but has more tension than Mysterium.

Overall I am really pleased with the purchase and at 4-12 players it works with plenty of groups and certainly bigger numbers than Mysterium.