Mythos Tales is a very interesting boardgame in that it does not feature a board and the main focus of the gameplay is performing interviews and detective work by visiting locations and people in Arkham to figure out the mystery in each of the 8 cases provided within the game.
To describe the gameplay in short I would probably say that it is a mystery/puzzle solving game with a taste of a roleplaying game that does not require a game master. The theme of the game is that of H.P. Lovecraft's horror filled universe. Over the 8 cases provided in the game players will investigate weird murders, cult activity and monster sightings in the city of Arkham. The premise is solid and we were initially – yes initially – very enthusiastic and engaged in the gameplay and stories.
To describe the gameplay I need to mention the components first. The game includes a main scenario book that is printed in full color – some 190 pages. Each of the 8 cases have their own segment in this book. Each case is wonderfully described with an intro, time limit and starting hints and clues. Each case also has a reference to a multitude of locations that you can visit in Arkham to make inquiries about sightings and questioning people of interest.
To help you out you will also have a full color map of the city of Arkham with reference numbers on each building, park and location of importance (and locations that are completely unimportant as well). Also a directory of the inhabitants of Arkham, Arkham businesses, university, city utilities etc.
Finally each case also comes with a 1 page newspaper "The Arkham Advertiser" that has news printed on it relevant or irrelevant to the case at hand.
Each case begins with a short introduction telling you about something that has recently happened in Arkham, a short rundown of events and locations and sometimes people of interest by professor Henry Armitage of Arkham University who needs you to help him figure out what's going on. In the short intro description you often get a couple of leads right away to get you started. Reading the newspaper can also provide some clues, sometimes they are directly tied to the mystery and sometimes you realize that something in the newspaper becomes relevant at a later stage during your investigation.
Our enthusiasm however came to an abrupt halt near halway through the game, as case 4 was a complete mess, and the remaining scenarios culminating with the final 8th scenario were riddled with weird restrictions, odd design choices and game breaking typos/missing content.
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