Family game nights are always excellent fun (even with the tantrums). Those legendary weekly evenings where the family gather, the Monopoly board comes out, and suddenly, your sweet Granny transforms into a real-estate mogul with a penchant for sending you straight to jail. Yes, family game nights, the time-honoured tradition where the dice roll, cards fly, and the laughter is as plentiful as the playful banter. It’s a magical realm where age and wisdom often bow to sheer luck and brazen strategies, and where the youngest member of the clan can claim victory over the seasoned board game veterans. But if you like to add a bit of intrigue and mystery to your game nights, take a look at Sleuth from Cheatwell Games.
Sleuth is a murder-mystery family board game, similar to Cludeo, for 2-6 players, age 10+. Get ready for a ride on the rails of mystery with a playing board that is over 150cm long! A murder has been committed aboard the Oriental Express, and it’s up you to solve the mystery.
In the box:
- Oriental Express Game Board – 6 sections
- 6 Sleuth Character Playing Pieces
- Evidence Card Deck
- Sleuth Card
- Sleuthing Sheets
- 6 Pencils
- Die
- Instructions
All aboard the Oriental Express! We are off on a murder-mystery adventure where intrigue and suspense are your fellow passengers! A relaxing train journey has been ruined by a murder onboard. Fortunately there is a group of detectives on the train to help solve the murder – will it be you? The object of the game is to play the part of a sleuth, looking for evidence, ruling out suspects, and revealing who committed the dastardly deed, to who, with what, why and where!
The playing board is made up of 6 train carriages; Carriage 1 – Suspects, Carriage 2 – Locations, Carriage 3 – Motives, Carriage 4 – Victims, Carriage 5 – Weapons and Carriage 6 – Guards Van.
There are 6 playing characters (thick cardboard cards with cardboard stands) with fun family friendly detective names; Hercules Parrot, Hugh Dunnit, Ivan Inkling, Lauren Order, Missing Marbles and Sheerluck Homes.
The evidence cards are made up of:
- 7 Suspects cards; Chester Minute, Ivor Motive, Lee Vitout, Miss Dee Meanor, Poppy Cox, Private Matters and Shirley Knott-Mee.
- 7 Locations cards; Bathroom, Cab, Couchette, Dining Car, Guard’s Van, Lounge and Track.
- 7 Motives cards; A Fit of Pique, Bitter Revenge, Blind Jealousy, Crime of Passion, On a Whim, Personal Gain and Unrequited Love.
- 7 Victims cards; Björn Loser, Eamon Etonian, Hugh Ray, Major Des Aster, May B. Dunn, Miss Taken-Hydentity and Mona Lott.
- 7 Weapons cards; Ice Bucket, Knitting Needles, Poison, Port Decanter, Revolver, Scarf and Scissors.
Setting up to play is simple. Join the pieces of the train playing board together (just like putting pieces of a jigsaw together). The board when fully joined is over 150cm in length, so if you haven’t got enough space on the table do it in two parts. The train carriages are numbered (dice symbols in the middle of each carriage) and need to be assembled in order. Each player selects a playing character and is given a pencil and sleuthing sheet. Arrange the playing characters so that no piece is in the same carriage as another. Sort the evidence cards into their sets, shuffle them and remove one card from each deck without ANYBODY seeing them and place them facedown out of the way covered with the Sleuth card. Deal one card from each deck to each player. Place any left over cards on their matching carriage. Players can look at their cards and mark them off on their sleuthing sheets.
To play, players need to eliminate evidence to find out what cards have been removed from the decks which will reveal the murderer, their victim, the where, when and why they were murdered. The youngest player starts by rolling the die and moves their character to the carriage represented by that number. If there are less than six players they will also take a card from the deck that represents that carriage, adding it to their hand and marking it off on their sleuth sheet. When they move their character to the carriage, if there is another player already there then they can interrogate that player – the player being interrogated holds out, face down, any evidence cards that they hold that match that carriage (if they are in Carriage 1 – Suspects, they hold out any Suspects cards). The interrogating player takes a card, looks at it and marks it off on their sleuth sheet and places it back in the other players hand. If there are no players in that carriage, the player can interrogate any other player.
As play progresses, players gather evidence and mark it off on their sleuth sheets until they whittle down enough information to be able to guess and reveal their answer. If a player guesses correctly, they win the game. Guess incorrectly and they must display their evidence cards to all players for them to mark off on their sheets and they are out of the game.
Overall, Sleuth! is a fun murder-mystery game where players gather enough clues to deduce who was murdered, by who, where on the train, with what weapon and their motive for doing so. It is very similar to Cluedo but more family friendly with the fun and colourful character names and illustrations.
I love that you are not just passively moving pieces around a game board; you’re actively engaging with the narrative, questioning suspects, and trying to deduce the identity of the culprit. It’s an easy to play, charming and interactive game.
The components of the game are all very good quality – thick cardboard game board pieces and characters, good quality evidence cards and a generous sleuth pad with double-sided sheets (although I couldn’t find an option on the Cheatwell website to download a copy for printing when the pad runs out, which is a shame).
The evidence card deck, sleuthing sheets, and character playing pieces all contribute to an fun immersive experience that is both visually appealing and mentally stimulating.
Sleuth is a fun, immersive and interactive game that brings people together and interacting with each other. It’s a game where players of all ages can happily play together as a family and it helps children to sharpen their observation and deduction skills, while providing lots of fun.
Sleuth is excellent fun for family game nights with children age 8-12. It has easy rules and is simple to play.
Can you solve the murder on the Oriental Express? Gather your family and friends, board the train and get sleuthing!
Rating: 4/5
RRP: £20
For more information or to buy, visit cheatwell.com. Also available to buy from Amazon here.
