We played our first campaign, Night of the Zealot, with my sister rather than a stranger group, and something about going all in on the theme with someone who already knows my sense of humor turned a fairly simple core-box scenario into one of the best gaming nights I’ve had, we came up with our own reasons a Beat Cop or a stray Guard Dog would suddenly appear, and it stuck with both of us long after the cards went back in the box.

Mechanically this is deceptively simple at its core, most of what you’re doing across a scenario boils down to gathering clues, but the skill check system with its chaos bag full of positive, negative, and wildcard tokens keeps that simple loop tense in a way pure dice never quite manage, you’re never entirely sure if a check you’d normally clear is about to autofail on you. New keywords and mechanics do stack up with every expansion the way Magic’s have over the years, which some players find bloat and I find, mostly, additive, though I understand the complaint that a base core set alone is really a starter rather than the full experience, you’re meant to graduate into a campaign box fairly quickly.

The expansion dependency here is real and worth budgeting for honestly, each campaign box plus its chapter packs adds up fast, and I’ve seen the “scammy” complaint online more than once, dozens of cards per fifteen-dollar pack does feel steep in isolation even if the actual play experience earns it for me. Two-player is our sweet spot, solo works with the right deck but loses some of the table-talk magic that makes this game what it is for us. Setup and the fatigue/resource tracking asks a bit more bookkeeping than a lot of card games, worth knowing if you’re coming from something lighter.

Four stars. This is a game I keep going back to specifically for the story it generates, not just the puzzle underneath it.