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D. Turner –
Pros: Very stylish and cool artwork. Certain scenes you visit are illustrated in comic book style.Cons: Game tries to restrict how many story threads you can actually follow. Since each scenario (4) is really only playable once this feels like you are supposed to ignore a significant portion of game effectively forever. My gaming group ignore this and follow all threads however, this exposes the real flaw – the answers are still totally unclear. Knowing ‘everything’ still led to illogical answers that left us feeling very unsatisfied. A final point is that this is a text heavy game with lots and lots of reading and dense plot lines. It turns a genre of fast paced biff! and Pow! action and replaces it with pedestrian monologues and dull storytelling.Bit of a miss – could have been amazing, with a reduced dialogue, tighter story, more logical results and simpler rules.
Jennifer Douglas –
Good Gift
This game is interesting and it is a good gift for kids who are into Batman or adult kids too. It’s not a super long play, but very much along the same lines as any CSI type of game. There are only 4 cases to solve and once those are done then it renders the game kind of pointless for people who have gone through all 4 scenarios but it is still and interesting crime solving game that helps teens work on deduction and reasoning. I hope you find this review helpful!
S & L –
Bat-tastic!
Ok.. cliche headline aside.. this game is fantastic.I’ve always been a fan of Portal games’ ‘Detective’ series of games, but sometimes the logic leaps are a bit beyond what you’d expect of a real life sort of who-dunnit..However, once you take the same sort of premise, and apply it to a game based on a series of comic book characters… well, all of a sudden, you’re not grounded in the 100% reality of the real world… and I feel that change of atmosphere works exceedingly well, here.The biggest complaint that I can see most people having, is that most of the players sort of take on the roles of what I would call B-Listers in the DC comics world… you’re not Batman, or Robin, or anything like that.. but rather you’re a reporter, or a detective. Only one person will have the chance to play the role of an ‘A-list’ character, which is Catwoman… and I can see that being a point of contention, here.If the character were Rene Montoya or another sort of supporting character, it would work better, in my opinion… since all of the players could then engage in the world, at more of what I would call an even level.. not playing a superhero, or a supervillain.. but rather someone that directly assists those that are.Still, without giving away any of the storylines or plots, that would also change the way the game plays, too, so I can understand why the decision(s) were made to include the characters they did.If I had one complaint.. it’s that the game suffers from much of the same problems all of the detective games do.. once you’ve played the game from beginning to end, it sort of becomes a bit less fun to play again.It DOES encourage you to find a local group of board game players, in my opinion, to trade and exchange games with.. but, that does tend to cannibalize some of the sales that Portal may get, otherwise.That said, the game is worth every penny, and I would encourage everyone to play it… we’ve been having a blast with it.
JIsa –
Good arts and scripts
Batman Everybody LiesThis board game has solid arts and scripts. You can’t believe there are two piles of cards of stories and traces. You would like to take notes and the final goal is to tell which npc did what behind the desk. You can use the given website to search some hidden files and do the final quiz of each episode. I wrote this review after finishing the prologue. It seems to me more like reading a detective novel or playing a PvE mystery party game.
Jeffrey Van Wagoner –
The World’s Greatest Detective
I have not played other Detective games from the series but have played similar titles from other publishers. Everybody Lies compares well to those. The mechanics are simple and easy to grasp. The complexity comes in the narrative and mysteries you unwind as you progress. The game’s strength comes from starting with what seems hopelessly little information and eventually solving the mystery.The game contains four episodes that allows players to choose from among four characters in the Batman universe. Ironically, Batman is not one of them. That said, Batman is involved in each mystery in a satisfying way, and I do not think the game suffers as a result. As a team, players choose the next lead to follow but can take individual actions to gain tokens which help unlock locations and develop their personal goals. The personal goals (information that a particular character can uncover) help prevent quarterbacking (whereby someone takes over the game and makes all of the decisions) since a player can choose to keep their goal private.Within a few turns there will be a lot of leads to choose. The team can follow them all, but will score lower since it will take more turns overall. The trick is to try and solve the mystery in as few turns as possible. As a result, players must be careful which clues to follow next. The website is integral for some clues and also helps you determine your final score. The fewer turns and more personal goals solved, the higher your score.The narratives are engrossing, the text well-written, and it is fun to be inside the Batman universe (as opposed to some generic setting). My only complaint is that the instruction booklet could be better written. For such simple mechanics, the instructions had us scratching our heads at a few points.
My Paradigm –
lots of reading, neat investigation style game
This is an interesting game and it reminded me of escape games I’ve played. There is an online component, so internet access is required. On the website, there are ‘files’ (evidence) and also the final ‘report’ (a few questions) at the end of each episode. There is a prequel that is shorter than the episodes (kind of a trial run) as well as 3 full episodes. My biggest piece of advice is to read ALL the instructions before beginning. Play/progress will be a lot simpler. Also, read the ‘long version’ of the explanation online after finishing the episode so that the story will make total sense. Like escape games, this one doesn’t seem to be immediately replayable after completing the episodes because you already know what happens. It’s recommended for 14+ and 2-4 players. I played with my husband and I was more interested in it than he was, even though he is the Batman fan. A good deal of it is reading. The prologue is much shorter, but the episodes are 2-3 hours. Definitely not a ‘casual’ game night, but it’s well made, enjoyable and unique.
Erik Benjamin –
Neat game for Batman fans
This makes a great gift for anyone who is a big fan of Batman or DC comics. The box has a nice looking design, the game contains many references to Batman and was fun to play.
T-Rock –
Well thought out quality game – I did not find it fun
The game is a well thought out crime solving game. You use your investigative deductive reasoning to solve a case. It is a cooperative game. You work as a team of two, three or four players. It is not going to be the type of game for everyone. It is like reading a short whodunnit story out loud. They also use a website to obtain some of the case files when you are instructed to read them. The game pieces and graphics are well done. It looks like it is a quality game. The instructions are well done and very complete. I did watch a YouTube video of how it is played. That helped get started faster. It actually would have been nice to have that type of video on their own website.While I found the game mechanics well done, it is missing the element of tension. There is no race against the clock or race to solve it first. There is really no reward or sense of accomplishment.Also, I think that it would be more appealing if there were videos of the lead and scene cards (even if it were animation). That would have made it more like a mystery movie and probably move along faster.Overall, the game is interesting, but not fun or compelling. It is not something that I feel I need to continue on to the next cases to see what happens next.
Anonymous Customer –
A batman game with no batman!Ok, I could live with that, since the game is fun, but really, no batman!Also, no notepads or paper, so you’ll need that.Overall it’s decently fun for a couple plays, but will soon just help support the tall stack of your fun games in the hall closet.