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?
The Game is Afoot! Playing as detective, you’ll need to find the three evidence cards that point to a specific suspect in order to catch a killer in this crazy criminal caper. Will you uncover them in the crime scene? Could the other detectives be willing to collaborate and share their findings? Or will you resort to more tricky tactics, and plunder the proof you need to solve this crime?
What did I think?
Well this is a bit different, instead of a review of a crime book it's a review of a crime game and what a brilliant game it is. The game is presented as a pack of 52 cards but this is no ordinary pack of cards as there's a murderer among them. The players (between 2 and 5 of them) must act as detectives and race to collect the evidence in order to be first to identify the murderer. There are even two variations of the game (Good Cop and Bad Cop) so there is great fun to be had with this small package.
 |
The suspects
|
When you first open the pack you will find four double sided instruction cards. The instructions are clear and easy to understand so don't worry if you don't usually play games. The cards give an overview of the game and the rules of play, details of each card's actions, how to play and win Good Cop and how to play and win Bad Cop.
We played both versions of the game with two players and had very different experiences but I'll talk a bit about Good Cop first. In the Good Cop variant, you are searching for three evidence cards that will identify the murderer. We had great fun stealing cards from each other, swapping our cards over with cards in the crime scene and discarding cards we didn't want. It took around half an hour for one of us (not me) to find the three evidence cards and identify the murderer. There were plenty of laughs to be had along the way (especially when playing the Foul Play cards to steal cards from your opponent) and we thoroughly enjoyed playing.
Playing Bad Cop with two players only took about five minutes to play. As all the evidence cards are in play, it's a lot easier to find three evidence cards and identify a suspect. I think if there had been more players, it would have taken longer for one of the players (not me) to identify the murderer. This isn't necessarily a negative point as it would be good to play Bad Cop if you didn't have much time and just wanted a quick game.
 |
Game in progress
|
Taking up as much room as a pack of cards, Foul Play is the perfect game to take with you when visiting family and friends or jetting off on holiday. It's not suitable for a travel game as it does require a small playing area to create a nine card grid of the 'crime scene', an 'evidence locker' of cards in play and a discard pile.
We played five or six games and although I lost every single one of them, I absolutely loved it. I'm not usually one for playing games but Foul Play is so easy to play and so much fun that it's definitely something all of the family could enjoy. Priced at £8.95 it's excellent value as it's basically two games in one and there are hours of fun to be had.
Foul Play is the perfect stocking filler for murder mystery fans, book lovers, gamers and anyone who needs a bit of fun in their life, so that's everyone! Start leaving massive hints that you want this game for Christmas and I hope you find one in your stocking this year.
I received a gifted game to review and all opinions are my own.
My rating:
Buy it HERE
How Foul Play was born:
What’s a Murder Mystery Events Company to do?
With a pandemic sweeping the nation and no sign of being able to perform their confounding criminal cabarets or incredible interactive investigations any time soon, they needed to come up with a plan, another way to provide mystery to the masses (and provide income to keep themselves afloat)!
Well, lockdown does strange things to people, especially actors who can't go out and perform. So one fateful evening, Ben & Lee Cooper-Muir decided to come up with a whole new way to murder people. Keeping their cards close to their chests they plotted and schemed until Foul Play : The Murder Mystery Card Game was born. So, what to do next?
This is where After Dark enters the picture. After all, Ben and Lee were two of the operators of the infamous murder mystery company. Maybe they could collaborate to bring the game to the masses. When Lockdown restrictions were eased a top-secret meeting was held with the other criminal masterminds behind After Dark, Helen Burrows, Sophie Webster & Tom Fisher and a pact was made. The game would be launched and licensed under the After Dark banner. In true After Dark style, the team burst into action and then began the beta testing, design updates, promotional planning, character changes, proofing, proofing and more proofing until finally all the kinks were ironed out, mysteries solved, and FOUL PLAY came to life!
We hope you enjoy playing it, and although we all hope to be back performing soon, WATCH THIS SPACE! Now we know we can create and produce games we've got a lot more fun things planned for the future!
Follow the tour and see what other players thought:
