I was glad to hear I had won a free game courtesey of my Board Game News membership (having subscribed to it for the Essen Coverage and I would say that its worth the few quid BTW).

The Free game that arrived a day or so back was Murdero the new card game by D'Avekki Studios of Milton Keynes in the UK - a company who make Murder party type games.

The quality of the Game
This is a card game. As such its a nice compact playing card box with attractive graphics and "cut out of newspaper" type lettering for the title. So that was intriguing and got me as far as opening the box. . The box contains 60 cards and a small set of rules.

The cards are standard size and material and look like they would stand up to a decent amount of play. There are two types of cards : 45 case cards (in three suits of Blue Green or Red) and 15 action cards. Each have black and white 1920's style photos and look quite atmospheric with suitable cards for weapons and suspects.

In a player turn you first take either the discard card or the draw card.. You may throw away an extra card to get to draw 2 cards.

You now have a choice of play order- play an action card first or build your case first. You can do the other action afterwards ina turn but the order might be important as you might gain something due to the action card you then can use in building your case.

Action card playing you can play a single action card which will have some influence on the game - being able to choose a card and take it from the discard pile for example or stealing someone else's card etc.

Building your case. There are three colours of cases(Red, blue and Green). A case consists of collecting a set of cards or evidence if you prefer. There are five types of card for each case. First the Crime Scene card (with a number 1 on it) through card number 2 = a murder victim card , 3 which is evidence, 4 which is the detective and finally 5 which is the weapon card. In each colour there are 5 number 1 cards, 4 number 2, 3 number 3, 2 number 2 and 1 number 1 which does lead to some choices of what cards you might discard.

When you build your case you place cards on the table in plain view. To start a case you must have a number 1 - crime scene card. Cases are built up in number order so you have to add the number 2 card next , then 3 and so on. FInally adding the number 5 completes the case.

You can add as many cards to the case in a turn as you wish providing they are all the same colour and you may have multiple cards - so this means you can have more than one number 1 (or whatever) card in your case for example. This is good to do as it not only insulates you against the other players destroying your case by removing a solitary card but also means that the hand will score more.
Over subsequent turns you can continue to build the case and add more cards. You can also start one or both of the other coloured cases. Again you need the number 1 card to do this.

So play basically come down to playing action cards to get extra cards, or some game advantage and then building and laying down cases. At the end of the player turn you discard down to 8 cards.

Eventually someone will add to their case one of the number 5 cards "murder weapon cards" (of which there is only 1 for each of the three cases. That ends the game. You score points equal to the points value of all the cards in your various cases. Number 1 card =1 point and so on. The winner of the hand gets double points. Everyone them subtracts the value of the case cards left in their hand.
their hand and that is their score.

Now here some strategy comes in. You might be able to play a 5 weapon card and finish the hand and get double points. BUT you maybe have a hand full of another colour suit but are missing the 1 card in that suit. If you finish the hand those cards count against you. So you have a dilemma of finishing the hand or hanging on for the number 1 card and hope to score higher but risking someone else finishing the hand first.

Thats it - shuffle the cards again, deal out 8 to everyone and play again. When someone reaches 100 points the game is over and they win.

Variants
Two variants are mentioned. Firstly if you buy two packs up to 8 can play giving this game party game potential. I am always on the look out for game that will stretch to 6 to 8 players not just the 4 or 5 of quite a few Eurogames.
Secondly there are rules for bridge style pairs play.

Expandability
Supposedly additional packs with new action cards in will come out enabling you to create varied packs.

How does it Play?
Well its quite light, easy to pick up quite accessible to say a 10 year old. There is a video on the www.murdero.com website which helps you grasp the game quickly.
The couple of games with 2 I played did suffer from it being too easy it seemed for the players to have early on a full case. So there is an initial fear I have that randomness of the deal will be dominant. It is less apparent with more players I find. I have not played with 5 to 8 but I plan to get a second set at Essen and try.

Overview
The game appearance and design quality is Good.
The theme is fun - everyone loves murder mystery.
the application of the theme in the game was for me disapointing intially. However when I grasped what type of game it is - basically Rummy with fun cards, more strategy and the fun action cards I enjoyed it.

I would not think it will hold a Serious gamer for hours of play. It fits better in the category of a filler game for those odd 30 minutes OR as quite a decent gateway type game for non gamers. This will get packed in suitcases for holidays.

Rating: For Family/ casual play 7.5
For serious gamers play 6.5
Overall 7