Review #27: Ultimate Werewolf: Deluxe Edition

# of Players: 5-75
Playtime: 30-60 Minutes

Core Mechanic: Deduction

Theme: Werewolf
Type: Party

Weight: Light

Year: 2014

Rating: 7.5*

This was the first social deduction game that I played and the most memorable social deduction moments may have come from playing this game - and I may never play it again. I'll elaborate on that more in a bit, but it in no way reflects on the quality of the game, which is very, very good. This game opened up the entire genre to me which is now a party staple and most deduction games can probably trace a big part of their game back to Werewolf. I might have played Mafia a couple times with a deck of regular playing cards, which is very similar to Werewolf, but the fact that I'm not certain just shows how much of an impact Werewolf had by comparison.

There are two teams in this game - Werewolves and Villagers. The goal for the villagers is to eliminate the werewolves while the goal for the werewolves is to outnumber the villagers. At the start of the game, each player is given a secret role. The two main types are plain old villagers, who have no special powers and whose sole goal is to figure out who is not on the Villagers team, and simple werewolves, who want to hide among the villagers and each night decide who they want to eat (and eliminate from the game). Then there are the special roles which really make the game shine and unique as there are so many of them that it helps make the game different every time - more on these in a bit.

The game takes place over several rounds, or nights. A moderator is required to guide the rest of the group through these rounds and essentially sits out of the game to perform the administrative task of keeping track of the game. At the start of each night, the moderator will instruct all players to close their eyes. Then, the werewolves will select someone who will be eliminated from the game and the other special roles will activate as well. Everyone will then open their eyes and the moderator will let the players know if someone was eliminated and give the entire village a few minutes to discuss what has happened before a vote occurs. During this vote, the village chooses one person to eliminate from the game. Another night and day cycle begins until one team reaches their goal.

As mentioned previously, the special roles are what mixes the game up and helps it take off. Seers are able to look at the role cards of other players and help the village team gain knowledge, but of course a werewolf could easily pretend to be a seer as well! Cursed players start off as villagers, but if they are eaten during the night they become werewolves. Bodyguards on the village team can protect one player each night from being eliminate by the werewolves. This is just a fraction of the many roles available in the game and I could probably put together a whole post on my thoughts on each of them.

So why would I never play this again? Well, there are a couple big reasons. First, One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a much better game. It gets rid of player elimination and the need for a moderator in addition to playing a much quicker game. Sure, it does not allow for some of the more bizzare roles that the full game can accommodate with a large number of players, and also the player count is limited at 10, but these are smaller issues considering how tight the One Night experience is. The second reason I wouldn't go back to Ultimate Werewolf is that if I were able to find a group large enough that One Night Ultimate Werewolf wouldn't be able to handle the player count, I would likely want to try Ultimate Werewolf Legacy instead.

As mentioned in the introduction, some of my most memorable moments in gaming come from playing this game. However, the situation that these moments stem from is unique. I was with a group of ten friends from my girlfriend's graduating class in Mexico and because of the heavy rain we were forced to stay indoors for much of the trip. Luckily, I had brought a few games, Ultimate Werewolf being one of them. Because we had played the game repeatedly over a few nights, the in-jokes and metagame that developed really contributed to the game experience. For this same reason, I think the Legacy implementation would work well because you would be playing with the same group over several games.

I like the game and I find some of the roles fascinating, such as the Masons who are on the same team but must not be discovered. However, some of these specialty roles only work well in very large groups, something I doubt I would be able to try outside of a convention. So although I have rated the game rather high because it is a good game, the existence of the alternatives I had mentioned means that I cannot recommend this game as part of any collection. The exception of course is if you need a party game that accommodates more than ten players, then maybe this fits the bill. Otherwise, the market is flooded with so many of these games and though I appreciate that this may be the original one that really kicked the genre into the next gear, this is one case where being a classic is not enough.