Automata Noir: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Deduction, Asymmetrical, Team based
Player Count: 2 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 10 - 30 Minutes
Game Designer: D. Brad Talton Jr.
Player Count: 2 - 4 Players
Game Designer: D. Brad Talton Jr.
Objective:
Automata Noir is a deduction noir mystery where you are trying to find and stop the killer, although, you may instead be on the criminal side and aim to kill 10 people or maybe just the detective hunting you down. There are three different ways to play the game each focused around different player counts. For this review, we will be focusing on the two-player game; killer vs inspector.
Card Anatomy:
There is a tile (suspects) and a card (evidence) for each of the 25 characters. The tile will have a person of interest side and a deceased side. The cards will just have an innocent side, they are used to assign players as the detective, killer and disguised character. They are also used by the detective player to attempt to identify the killer by exonerating characters on the grid.
Set-Up:
- Shuffle and display in the middle of the table a 5x5 grid made up of the suspect tiles.
- Shuffle the evidence cards.
- The killer draws two evidence cards one as the secret identity and one as the spare disguise.
- The inspector draws four evidence cards and will choose one to be the inspector. The rest will make up their hand of cards.
How to Play:
Players will take turns having one action a turn until either the killer has killed the inspector/10 other characters, or the inspector has accused successfully and solved the case. On a turn, both players can shift or collapse. A shift is when the player chooses a row or column and shifts the entire section up/down/across to open a space on the opposite end. Doing this will cause a suspect card to fall out of the grid and this card is placed in the newly opened area. Collapsing is when you unclutter the board of dead bodies by removing a deceased character from every column or row and then reform the grid.
The murderer may also kill or change their disguise on their turn. Changing their disguise means that you will switch into your secret identity in order to confound the inspector. The murderer may also kill which turns an adjacent suspect card over to their deceased side. If this is the inspector or the tenth victim then the murderer wins. If one of these victims are exonerated when killed then the inspector must inform the other player that they are adjacent to this victim.
As the inspector, you can shift and collapse, but you can also accuse, exonerate and solve. Accuse is used when you believe you are adjacent to the killer you can accuse a suspect of being the killer, if you are correct you win. This action reveals the potential location of your detective so use this cleverly. Exonerate is when you play an evidence card on top of the matching suspect card, the killer has to announce if they are adjacent to this card. Afterwards the detective redraws an evidence card. This is the main way the inspector will deduce the killer's location. The last action is solve, this is your Hail Mary; you can guess the player's secret identity and disguise. If you are correct you win, if you are wrong though you will lose.
Final Thoughts:
Pros:
- Quick and compact deduction game.
- Many ways to mislead and trick your opponent.
- Easy to learn and play.
- One of those games that you will play over and over in a row.
-Different rules for the different player counts.
Automata Noir is a fun game of intrigue where you are trying to deduce where the other player is to either kill them or arrest them. There are many ways for players to hide, trick and hunt down the other players in such a simple ruleset. This is a great deduction game that is easy and quick to play but has hidden strategies that you can enjoy on repeat for hours. This game has earned a Silver Seal of Approval and will be getting many more plays for the ease to play and depth of decision ratio.
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