Murdle Board Game Review

DISCLOSURE – THIS ITEM WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS…

Reviewed by Fiona Jones

Many people will already be familiar with the hugely popular ‘Murdle’ puzzle books, which encourage readers to solve murder mystery puzzles through the use of logic. Others may even be familiar with the daily online ‘Murdle’ puzzle which started it all – created by G. T. Karber in 2022, modelled on the lock-down favourite, ‘Wordle’. The latest iteration of the ‘Murdle’ puzzle is this board game, designed for 2-4 players to enjoy. I am a big fan of logic puzzles so I was really excited to give this game a go with my friends.

In this version, the mystery to be solved is the murder of a secret agent, who had been working for the mysterious S.P.Y. Agency. Each player starts with just part of the mystery, so the idea of the game is to share information with fellow players to reveal the full story of ‘whodunnit’.

The instructions provided were clear and easy to follow, and even included a sample gameplay to get the idea of how each round was played. This meant that all players, whether previously familiar with logic-style puzzles or not, were able to follow the rules and get stuck straight in to playing the game. Instructions of how to set the board up initially were also easy to understand, and did not take long to do.

The game starts with all players able to look into an evidence folder of their choosing and peek at two pieces of evidence. This allows them to link together either a suspect with a weapon, weapon with location, or suspect with location. It also gives information about which pairings can NOT be in the other evidence folders, with each piece of evidence only able to appear once. Each player has a notepad on which to record the information, along with an individual version of the famous ‘Murdle’ grid, in which you are able to place ticks and crosses to summarise your findings as you go.

On each turn of the game, each player is given the opportunity to share a piece of information they have uncovered – either choosing to share a tick or cross on the main board, which is a communal grid for all players. Sharing information is rewarded by either picking up a discovery card (which points the player into looking at certain pieces of evidence from the evidence folders) on placing a cross; or the player’s choice of which evidence to look at on placing a tick. Unfortunately, it is this aspect of the game that means the game can be won without deducing anything from the puzzle grid and instead being lucky in the evidence folder you pick to look at – particularly if you see a ‘Guilty’ verdict very early on, and can focus all of your attention on that folder. We played the game through twice, and this is how my friends won both times, without actually having to solve the logic puzzle!

I think this game has real promise, as I love the idea of sharing information with each other in order to solve the puzzle (whilst being careful with what you share and when), but found that it became more a game of luck. I think if I play the game again, I would adapt the rules so that you can’t sneak a look at any verdicts until you have correctly matched all suspects with their weapons and locations. This would mean that you really do have to use logic to solve it first.

Rating: 3/5

RRP: £19.99

You can buy the board game here.