This week during my game night, someone brought a new delightful game for us to play. It was titled Obscurio and was made and designed by the team L’Atelier and Xavier Collette. This dynamic duo is also responsible for one of my all-time favorite games Mysterium.
The game was delightful; it had a whimsical theme, excellent mechanics, and could easily make its way up into my top ten. Despite my friends and I having different tastes in games, we all had individual reasons for loving this one.
OBSCURIO
Obscurio was amazing. I have played it four times now since my first encounter with it, and each time was as fun as the first. What makes it so fun, I theorize, is that it has so many different mechanics, which somehow manage to come together to make this excellent and intriguing game. The story and theme also make it so easy to get whisked away into this magical world.
The theme of this fantastic game is that a group of magicians have broken into the library of a powerful wizard. The wizard, in turn, tries to trap them in the library forever, but the Grimoire is attempting to help the magicians escape. To ensure they’ll never get out the wizard has turned one of the magicians against the rest. To escape the magicians will not only have to derive clues from strange visions to pick the correct doors out, but they will also have to find the traitor amongst their ranks.
The mechanics of this game are so unusual. It has elements from all my favorite types of games. Much like Mysterium, it has a mechanic of using surreal and strange art to convey messages from one party to another, but the fun doesn’t stop there. Obscurio mixes a competitive and cooperative style in a fun new way. The game has three roles. There is the Grimoire, a fun role as a magical book aiding in the magicians’ escape. Then you have the magicians, this group determines the strange visions given by the grimoire to find their way out. Finally, there is a traitor. The traitor masquerades as a magician and tries to sow seeds of doubt and mistrust, keeping the others trapped forever.
So, not only do you have a cooperative game; there’s also competition, hidden roles, and clue determination all in one. To top that all off it also has something I have never seen before. That even when the traitor is found out, they are not out of the game, everyone gets to participate till the very end.
THE GIST
Obscurio has found its way onto my radar and now it will probably become a game night favorite for me and my friends. It has just the right concoction to be a spectacular game. It mixes so many fantastic elements from other games, while also bringing a new twist of long-time favorite mechanics. There is no doubt in my mind this game will succeed in a big way, and the creators will keep making waves in the board game community.