The game is a completely new breed of Detective Card Game that is based on realistic detective processes, characters and storylines, all set in London during the first half of 2015.

Crime scenes are real London locations and historical facts are blended with fiction. 125 different murder scenarios are waiting to be solved. The game encourages the use of "deductive and abductive reasoning" to assist in reducing the suspect list from 37 to 10 prime suspects, to ultimately identify the only possible killer. The objective of the game has two parts, concerned with discovering the identity of the culprit and having the incriminating evidence to hand!

The game has 3 play formats - OPENplay (2-6), COVERTplay (2-5) or SOLOplay - and has Career, Group and Co-Op variants that provide ample choice in the way the game is played.

The game set comes complete with; 5 Evidence Packs (labelled, ABCDE) a total of 300 cards; "How to be a Deadcert Detective Guide"; a Detective Checklist Pad (with 30 double sided sheets) and 25 Evidence Bags. Each Evidence Pack contains 3 "evidence types" - Victim; Crime Scene and Time of Death - that are used to define murder cases and provide details of the suspects. When the game set is initially opened, the Evidence Packs are each split into 3 Evidence type Packets and kept securely in their individual evidence bags. This will use 15 of 25 bags provided - more about the remaining bags later...

At the start of a game - or "murder episode" as it is referred to - one of each type of Evidence Packet is selected in order to define the murder mystery to be solved. With 5 Evidence Packs this means there are 5x5x5=125 possible episodes that can be played out. With the crime defined, the 18 suspect cards for each evidence type are shuffled together to form the 54 cards in play. 48 of the cards hold information about the suspects - why they had motive, means or the opportunity to carry out the murder. The other 6 are the Snoop cards which play a slightly different role depending on the format being played, but in essence are used to mix up the game play and enable the transfer of suspect evidence between players (or detectives if you wish to fully embrace the experience).

So what about the extra 10 evidence bags? Well 1 is a genuine spare, the other 9 however (and the extra compartment with the game set tray) enable you to safely store up to 3 expansion packs (labelled, FGH) sold separately. These Expansion Packs provide extra victims, crime scenes and times of death to the London mix and interlink with the existing packs. Not only do they increase the number of murder episodes possible, they do so exponentially. If all 3 Expansion Packs are added, 125 episodes expand to a potential 512.

The structure of the game is unique, and is the first of it's kind to provide multiple realistic crime mysteries with a pure card game format - no solution book is required, the murderer is simply the only suspect to have had motive, means and opportunity.

Unlike many card games, it does not lean heavily on the graphics. This, although potentially unpopular with many, is a deliberate move to help focus on the evidence, the textual content of the suspect cards. Font sizing, colouring and new sentences starting on new lines, has all been done to make the reading of the cards as comfortable as possible, to the widest audience as possible. Graphics play an important role in distinguishing the 3 card types, but that is their key role.

The final aspect of the game, that is only set to emerge after playing a few episodes, is the detail and integrity of all the characters that are woven together through the multiple storylines. Any information gathered about a victim or suspect may come in use in future investigations and nothing learnt will be contradicted later by another card. In short, the interwoven stories, events and relationships have as much integrity as the knowledge that you have identified the killer correctly. There are no miscarriages of justice with Deadcert.

Please note: The 15+ age advisory is for reason of content in the detail of the crimes committed, and is not associated with the difficulty of the game play.

Cheap Shot