Chaos & Confetti

Awkward Guests: The Walton Case gives players a chance to use deductive and detective skills to solve a murder mystery in a head-to-head competition.  Someone has murdered Mr. Walton, and now a team of detectives must work together and against one another to figure out the who, the how, and the why.

In this game, players each start with some private information about the case, which comes in the form of cards with numerical value.  Players will then take turns asking about information topics, including suspects and locations.  Other players who have related information may offer to exchange their information cards for what the initial player may have to offer. 

It is up to players to decide what they are willing to trade for more information.  What is worth sharing and what needs to be kept from other players to slow them down is where the strategy lies.  However, you can’t learn more without sharing more.

As the game progresses, players will record and synthesize their findings until someone is ready to make a final guess.  They will need to correctly reveal who did the crime, why they did it, how they did it, and if they had an accomplice (and if so, what is the accomplice’s motive).

Everything you need to play is contained in the box, with many setups to make each murder mystery session unique.  While players can check the answer from a physical card, there is also an app that can be used for set up and answer checking.  If the app is used, possible answers will only be said to be correct or incorrect.  This option allows a player to keep playing, even if they are wrong since they still won’t know the answer.

Awkward Guests is for 2-8 players, ages 12+.  Each play session is marketed to take 45-75 minutes.  As a group of six, mostly new to the game players, we took slightly over an hour to complete the game.

OUR THOUGHTS:

The Puzzles: 3/5 Stars

Awkward Guests is mostly a deductive puzzle with dozens of factors to consider.  With six suspects, twenty murder weapons, multiple rooms, and dozens of information cards to learn from, players will have to piece together plenty of information to crack the case.

As an added wrinkle, not every piece of information gathered can be trusted.  Anything shared by housestaff or the police is solid information.  Suspects, on the other hand, may have reason to lie, especially if they are the murderer.  Players need to be careful about who they trust, looking for conflicting information that may shed light on the truth.

The one overarching deductive puzzle should feel like plenty to solve for even the smartest players.  With information shared in a variety of ways, including witness statements, police reports, and autopsy records, the answer never sits in plain sight.  Players will really need to put on their detective hats.

Personally, we really enjoyed the deductive aspects of his game.  This game works as a race to eliminate the wrong answers in order to zero in on the correct solution, even if a few leaps of faith may need to be made eventually.  The different ways that information is shared keeps the game fun, as you try to eliminate false leads. 

The Narrative:  2/5 Stars

The game’s narrative is a little on the lighter side.  Each of the suspects do have a backstory, and players are trying to piece together the events surrounding the crime, but all story stays pretty surface level.  This game is much more about the deductive challenge than the actual plot.  

Overall Fun:  4/5 Stars

As a whole, Awkward Guests is a fun and exciting game.  It’ll provide a good brain exercise as players work to solve the case before everyone else, while also weighing what information they need and what information they need to hide.  The balance creates an interesting dynamic.  There is also the challenge of figuring out what to ask without giving away too much through your questions either.  

Players are able to record their findings on a chart that includes suspects, motives, a house map, and a list of murder weapons.  It’s thrilling to record information and eliminate possibilities.  However, there is a lot to keep track of at all times, so players will need to make sure not to get lost in their own notations.  The page can become very full very fast.

The biggest flaw of the game is the potential for too much down time.  There is a lot of information to sift through and record every time evidence is exchanged.  This is exciting for those doing the trading, but for others they may find themselves waiting a while for others to get through their information gathering.  A larger group allows for more depth of trading and evidence tracking, but it also increases the amount of down time.  For those into faster paced games, this could be a problem.

As a total experience, we liked Awkward Guests a lot.  We definitely recommend it for those who like deductive puzzles, slower paced games, and murder mysteries.

FINAL SCORES:

Puzzles: 3/5

Narrative: 2/5 

Overall Fun: 4/5 

OFFICIAL C&C FINAL SCORE: 3/5 Stars

The Product: Awkward Guests: The Walton Case

Website Link – https://a.co/d/e66m8rE 

Price – ​​$41.99

Disclaimer: this review is not sponsored. All thoughts are our own.