Clever, skill-based card mechanics combine with the tension of social deduction to create an incredibly fun, never-the-same-twice experience. The setting and presentation (callout to the especially evocative card art) perfectly compliment the mechanics to immerse you in the role of witness or assassin, and the game length is just right to create memorable sessions without becoming overwrought. Being able to play with two players makes this the perfect game for you and the friend or partner that you thought you knew but will never trust again. A few of my favorite elements: - Action cards in Mantis Falls offer multiple ways to achieve the same goal, often via radically different means, and players will find themselves weighing their options short and long term. Heal off part of the incoming damage from an event or redirect all of it to your fellow player? Work with the other player to defeat the event opposition or play a condition (a persistent ability/status effect) that will yield more benefit in future rounds? End of round hand replenishment rewards playing and chaining together as many same-suited action cards as possible, while the last gasp mechanic encourages finding and holding key cards in reserve to avoid being caught flat-footed when an event resolves. There is a delicious tension between hand-building and progressing your board position, and the sheer variety and novelty of action card effects will have both players continuously discovering ways to turn apparent drawbacks to their advantage through clever combos or tactical opportunism. - Cooperation is the only way to reach the End of the Road. Mantis Falls is an unforgiving journey that makes juggling events, ambushes, existing wounds, and forward progress impossible for a single player alone but manageable when coordinating plays and sharing the pain with a partner. Two witnesses that selflessly pool their resources for the good of the group can make even the toughest roads tractable. That said... - The potential presence of an assassin completely changes the dynamic of action plays. Every card has to be evaluated not only for its utility in dealing with the environment, but also for its ability to thwart and kill the other player. A Grenade can defeat a high damage event opposition, but it also represents two wounds that can be directed at a player. A witness playing the Badger can use it to help their partner across the Broken Road, while an assassin can use that same card to force a move into an ambush or away from a phone booth. Similarly, because every action benefiting the other player could be strengthening the assassin, witnesses learn to play more reserved and less overtly helpful--exactly like an assassin might play. - As an assassin, setting up the perfect environment for your coup de grâce takes time, and a wary witness will be closely following your actions. Immediate aggression on the part of the assassin will likely be answered by the midnight-suited Call in a Hit card, a copy of which begins the game in each player’s hand and allows true witnesses within one road of a phone booth to deal nine wounds to (and inflict card loss on) the other player. Call in a Hit is the witness’s offset to the assassin’s perfect information, and a key part of the assassin’s gameplay is nullifying this advantage. Force it to be discarded, ask for it to be traded, destroy the phone booths/move the witness out of their range, or convince the witness to use the card’s secondary effect to deal six wounds to event opposition. Then watch, wait, and, when the time is right... assassinate (your friendship).
