A classic of the literature and film history will be taken up as a board game theme: Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" was developed for the American publisher Days of Wonder "is reason enough, a complex investigation game, taking elements of long-familiar Deduction classics with new variants supplement.

Mystery Express feels at first like Cluedo to the square. The reason is that unlike the classic indication as each card is present twice in the game. Exception: The time of day. This is determined by a separate mechanism. So search is the killer, the crime scene that time of the crime, the murder weapon, and the subject. These five cards are randomly and placed in an envelope under the board.

As far as the Cluedo - similarity, for now the journey begins and Mystery Express starts. The train we climb in Paris. About Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna and Budapest are the ride on the Orient Express brings finally to Istanbul. This system has already declared the round, as each station is a city for a round of investigation carried out. As an "energy for the differently incurred driving lessons are used between stations. Takes a part of stage four hours are available to all players 4 points available, they can use to carry out the investigation actions.

If the train in one place, thereby further events are triggered, which may be different in each place. A special mechanism is to determine the time, when uncovered a stack of cards on which a time is printed, and will be scrolled. The players have to find out during a review, which the Times is not three times, but only included twice. The cards are available but only for short periods of a few seconds open display and then inverted again. Good memory is so here are essential.

Back to the trip: On the trip from one place to the other players their characters move through the cars, which all have different functions depending on travel time and in which one or more actions can be performed. All actions have in common is that they be disclosed by crime maps, either they are shown to all that showed only the neighbors or even passed on, depending on which car you are currently located.

Is spiced up the whole with some special functions or - Effects: At train stations to get new passengers and bring new knowledge in the form of maps with a previously laid aside. Even the conductor, meet the players in some compartments, has personal knowledge in the form of hidden cards which can be exchanged with the hand of a player. Furthermore, all characters on special skills they can use at any time in the game.

The experienced investigator now has the problem that in each round, the situation may be different than even before. It is therefore essential that the players take notes on all the anomalies and make particular on the crime maps, which have become visible. Because all cards are present twice and the owner can change the cards, it is not easy to always find clear evidence of a particular crime. The authors give the game so the possibility of the unresolved. In this case, the player with the most correct suspicions.

We were particularly fine line between conjecture and evidence on which one is for the entire match, really liked. The various mechanisms of the game are challenging, but also challenging. Boredom is never really in, even if the playing time it takes. The given 60-90 minutes had two hours with us more and more. Particularly noteworthy is also the atmosphere that conveys the game. Both the "we drive train" - atmosphere and the mystery elements are compelling and make the game a real experience.

Mystery Express is designed for graphics-price "Count Ludo" 2010 has been nominated, and rightly so, because the graphical realization of the game leaves nothing to be desired.

Author: Serge Laget Antoine Bauza

Graphics: Julien Delval

Publisher: Days of Wonder

Status: Available

Category: party game

Number of players: 3-5

Age Group: 12 years

Total time: 60-90 minutes

Tags: Days of Wonder , deductive