Review Details

Mr. Jack in New York

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on December 21, 2009):

I loved the original Mr. Jack. However, after many many plays, games became fairly regimented and the expansion did not improve the game the way that I wanted it to. Mr. Jack in New York, however, reveals a more balanced game that also has several interesting mechanics in place that guarantees replayability.

This is strictly a two player game. You can team up and communicate with friends to make decisions, but that's about it. You cannot play it solo either, except to experiment with strategies. In this fashion, it is very much like Chess.

One player is Jack and the other is the inspector. Jack's goal is to escape or to remain uncaught by the end of the 8th round. The inspector's goal is to catch Jack by deducing which character is Jack and using a token to "catch" him. If the inspector guesses wrong, then Jack also wins.

There are eight different characters, each has their own unique ability. At the start of the game, Jack is randomly assigned to be one of the characters and it is up to the inspector to figure out who he is. This is done by order of elimination: at the end of each round, there will be call for witnesses and Jack will reveal if he was witness or not. If he was witnessed, then all the characters not witnessed are eliminated from suspicious and vice versa. This is noted by turning over the tokens to their black and white side. Eventually, the inspector hopes to eliminate all but one of the suspects, which will be Jack and hopefully he'll be able to catch him before the end of the game.

While this elimination is occurring, however, Jack is also on the look out for escape opportunities. There is a permanent land exit on the right side of the board as well as two boats that can be docked at several locations. If Jack was not witnessed on a previous round, then he is able to escape if he can use his character and reach an exit.

Every turn sees the movement of four characters. On odd numbered turns, four random character cards are turned over, revealing the characters that will be moving this turn. The inspector chooses one of the characters to use, and then Jack moves two of the characters and, finally, the inspector uses the last one. On even numbered turns, the remaining four character cards are turned over and this time Jack chooses first and last, with the inspector taking two characters in a row inbetween.

Aside from eliminating suspects and preventing escape, the inspector can also try to reach the informant token that wanders around the board. The player to use a character to reach the informant can draw one of the remaining clue cards (one of which Jack took at the beginning of the game to determine his secret character). For the inspector, this removes one of the suspects while, for Jack, it gives him someone that he could frame. Once the informant is used in a round, the player that reached him can place him anywhere on the board and turn him over to the mute side, signifying that he cannot be used again this round. At the start of the next round, he will be turned over and can be used again.

The abilities of the characters are also often in demand. Some characters move objects, like the boats or police cordons that block access to areas or usage of special tiles like the subway station or ferries to Ellis Island. Other characters can change the board by adding special tiles: subway stations, streetlamps that puts people as "witnessed". Cloud rider can place construction sites that she can use in conjunction with her ability to travel across the board while Emma Grant can take any of the special tiles and change them into parks, which every character can now travel through or stop onto to hide from witnesses. Finally, there are abilities that allows a player to move other characters. All of these are useful but the player must often choose the one most useful to them at the moment and allow the other player to use the others.

Mr. Jack in New York is a heavy game, with a lot of strategic and tactical thinking involved. However, after a game or two, most people will be able to play a strong game of it. The theme is very good and the overall game is incredibly fun. I highly recommend it.