It’s rare to have an opportunity to test Finnish games that will come out in Finland. Kimmo Sorsamo is a designer who has done it once before with Maximus which unfortunately did not make into stores after it was nominated as a finalist in the Finnish Game of the Year 2008. This time game is published by Kimmo himself in a cooperation with Competo so there should not be any problems getting the game out.
Epäillyt is a game which presents Helsinki in 1930ies and a murder mystery that players try to solve. Deduction with an action mechanic is the heart of the game, game is for 2-4 players, lasts approx. 60 minutes and is targeted for families. Game is also solely targeted for Finnish consumers which means that it is not available in English; game itself is mostly language independent so if some geek is willing to translate the rules there should not be problems to play the game even outside Finland.
The first impression of the game was a surprise; I have not seen such a cool cover art in a game probably ever before. Obviously I’m not objective here since I live in Helsinki and the cover presents snowy Helsinki in the 30ies but nevertheless designer of the art has done a great job. Gameboard and rulebook are also beautiful and historically accurate which adds spice to the game; it’s superb to learn local history from a board game.
Gameplay is rather simple: players collect clues as a form of character tokens from the gameboard with three detectives. On player’s turn he/she can introduce new detective on the board (there’s three for each player) or move already existing detective. Moving is done by using action tiles (1,2,3,4) which show how many steps player can move the detective. Detective can also be moved with a tram and there’s also a possibility to gather information from other players on player’s turn. The aim of the game is to be the first to solve the identity of the three characters who have committed the murder.
Epäillyt is a solid family game because rules are not overly complex, game can be playerd in an hour and game is very thematic. Game is not a gamers’ game but our group of three, who all have played a solid number different games, did still enjoy the game so much that we played it twice. I’m sure this game has potential in the family game segment and I’m sure it’s going to succeed in the Game of the Year competition this year. There’s absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t also attract a new audience to play board games in Finland because of the nature of the game and gorgeous designand art.
On a personal level it’s also great to see Competo publishing Finnish board game. They have done such an awsome work with exporting quality games to Finland that it’s huge that they have began using their skills also in the Finnish board game field. We need more Finnish game first for the Finnish market and then outside and I hope this is a sign for growing activity to reach this goal.
Epäillyt should be in stores sometime during Autumn and I can’t wait to see the final version of the game.