Series: Foul Play
Publisher: Foul Play Games, After Dark Murder Mysteries
A game for 2 – 5 players | Age 8 +
£8.95 + p&p
Source: From Foul Play Games for review.
About the Game:
Rating:
Carabosse the Bad Fairy is dead, and her Big Book of Villainy has been stolen...
In a shocking revelation, the magic mirror has revealed that all the suspects are goodies, but who had a motive to go bad? You’ll need to swap, steal and search for the evidence in order to scupper the other detectives and sleuth your way to your happily ever after!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?
Review:
4 rule cards, 8 suspects, 15 evidence cards, and 28 action cards make up the Once Upon a Crime Foul Play Murder Mystery card game. The game is made for 2-5 players ages 8 and up and the goal of the game is to figure out which goodie became a baddie and is now a murderer. Using the evidence and action cards you must match them to a suspect to prove your case to your peers.
What made this game interesting is that there are two ways to play. You can choose a good cop or a bad cop, your choice alters the rules that you play with. That being said, there are a lot of rules. With 4 cards front and back, there is a lot of reading and understanding to do before starting your card game mystery adventure. At times we felt like some of the rules were conflicting but we still had a wonderful time playing this game. 
In bad cop mode we felt that it might be harder to play with more than 2 players, but enjoyed the first to the solution approach. The good cop mode set up made it more interesting but also had the added need for group agreement, which in a competitive game might be problematic.
The cards themselves are good quality and the images are vibrant and fun, especially the suspect cards. They are very detailed and great to look at. The rules cards from the onset were a bit overwhleming and we felt that it was a lot, specicially for a card game.
Overall, for a card game, I felt that it was a lot of fun to play and easy to pick up once you knew the rules, however it was a very rule heavy game. Having the different modes of play may allow for jumbled rule recall once you own it for a while but also adds to the longevity of the game giving you more options for play. We look forward to playing it more and with all our friends.
Find Them Online
Facebook: @afterdarkmystery | Twitter: @afterdarkmurder | Instagram: @afterdarkmurder
Facebook: @foulplaygamers | Twitter: @foulplaygamers | Instagram: @foulplaygamers
The History of Foul Play
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 : Manor House Murder came to life!
The team didn’t stop there though! Due to the popularity of the first game, a second version ‘Once Upon A Crime’ was put on the table, designed, and then launched on Kickstarter. Fully funded in under 48 hours the team at After Dark had another success on their hands and players had another murder in theirs! Once Upon A Crime hits the stores on 1st July 2021 and Manor House Murder is available to buy too.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!
