Killer’s Journey: Dice Game – Review, Criticism and Quiz

Sebastian Fitzkes Killer Cruz (by Marco Teubner at moses.Verlag) Originally a cooperative deduction game with eye-catching 3D features. In the current dice version (same author and publisher) 2-4 players still play together and try to find the psychopath on the ship – as long as nobody tries to do it alone. However, you have to do without the opponent and lush multi-tiered shipbuilding in the game chest.

How to play Killer Cruise – The Dice Game

To do this, each player now has a small game board with a square grid in front of them (the deck board), which symbolizes the ship. It is divided into the upper and lower deck as well as the stern, midship and bow. There are also twelve ship rooms distributed on the board, such as a store, a laundry or a cinema, divided into blue and red, and this division is important later to determine where the psychopath resides.

Everyone shares an additional game board on which progress is noted. As it is easy to guess, there are still dice. But that only describes half of the mechanics of the game, because the dice game is actually roll and write.

The active player rolls two black and two white dice; Then the team chooses the black or white pair of dice. With this, everyone draws the path they will take through the ship on their playing board. If his path leads him through the tokens distributed on the board, he collects them: they are crossed out in a predetermined block on the common game board. If all the tokens of this block are crossed out, then the first obstacle has already been taken and the team receives an idea where there are no psychopaths (a certain part of the ship or rooms of one color). He also gets more time to search for the killer. This is in the form of additional fields that must be crossed out with each transaction. If a team runs out of these fields, it loses immediately. Therefore, players should not mess around with collecting tokens.

Passengers as grateful helpers

Players can use passengers, which players also collect as tokens and thus save from Psycho, to better move around the ship. You can either use it to affect the number of dice or you can enter a field you’ve already entered, which is usually forbidden.

After the first key, another die comes into play, making it more difficult for the players. It is thrown with the other four and, if a certain token is rolled, “kills” one of the occupants. After the other two hints, the dice is replaced with one that often bears the killer’s symbol.

After the fourth clue, players know where the psychopath is not – and therefore also where it is by exclusion. Then they just have to get together there and if they can do that, they win.

noun non omen est

You can partially identify the original board game in Killer Cruise – The Dice Game. The idea has similarities, but the simplification is so strong that only the name and subject matter remind us of it.

It doesn’t matter anyway. Killer Cruise – The dice game works well even without comparison. The theme is only due to the idea of ​​marketing, and it looks rather artificial and poorly chosen. Stripping away from the game’s mechanics, however, remains a co-op and write roll, where players have to coordinate well in order not to fail prematurely. In some blocks the team has to collect (purely mathematically) two tokens for each player, in others three. But the bottleneck is always in the number of moves you have left. In two movements from two to three – required! – Collecting tokens does not always seem possible for every player right away. That is why you plan together who can get what, preferably in advance, where you will be after the train and what you can get next.

With teamwork against psycho

It’s more fun in a good team. It’s a bit of a puzzle, as ladders quickly take you from one end of the game board to the other, greatly increasing your draw options. If you plan smartly, with a little help from the dice, you can make amazing moves and thus save the situation where you thought you were stuck. The time factor is well implemented: the fields to be crossed out in the timeline create a bit of stress. Otherwise, it will be unattractive.

Short rules of the game advance the game quickly and safely. The blocks (in four levels of difficulty) and the dice are of good quality. Using smaller pencils for the players could have improved the material collection.

As the game’s subtitle suggests, it’s great for on the go due to its small size, but it’s just as good as candy on your game night menu. The game already works in the single version or with two players. However, what I see as the most attractive thing, the agreements between the players, is lost in the process. In this regard, Killer Cruise – The Dice Game for three or four players is more recommended. Since luck with dice also plays an important role, the games are very variable, which sometimes makes it more difficult, sometimes easier, but also makes it fun to play again.