Psycho Killer the game - A review.

 

I recently found a card game that is perfect for anyone who loves slasher/horror films (you don't have to be a horror fan to love this game though), it is called Psycho Killer by Escape Tabletop Games and it is a fast paced, easy to play, card game that will have you laughing and smirking the entire time. As a family we love playing board games and card games together, but we aren't always in the mood for a long drawn out game so it is nice having games that can be played in ten to twenty minutes if we want to squeeze a game in before other plans. This can be a two player game or you can have up to six people playing at once.

What is Psycho Killer about? It is about trying to avoid getting attacked by Psychos while trying to throw other players under the bus and into the psychos way instead of yourself, it is survival of the most cunning. This card game consists of a deck of cards that fit into six categories;

1. Predicament cards - These are the cards you want to avoid drawing on your turn, they include dreadful fates such as having to take hit points, or losing some of your cards. However, depending on how the game plays out one or two of the cards can be used in your favor. For example the card "Car Troubles" requires you to keep only one card from your hand, shuffle the rest back into the deck and draw four new cards. If you one good card and a bunch of crappy cards, you can use this opportunity to get rid of those cards which is nice, not so nice though when you have nothing but good cards in your hand. 

2. Weapon Cards - This is also a category you want to avoid getting in your hand, they can turn out to be a psycho killer who will wound you or weapons that can be played against you. 

3. Survival Cards - These can help you avoid getting caught by a Psycho killer and can help you get rid of cards you don't want in your hand.

4. Selfish Cards - Just like the category says, these cards are played to sabotage your friends/family while playing. Some of the cards like "Hitch-Hike" aren't too bad for the other players as it just allows you to steal one card from another player, however cards like "Betrayal" can be deadly as it forces all players to put any weapons from their hand into their injury pile. 

5. Power Cards - These can prevent you from getting attacked, and help you get rid of bad cards.

6. Healing Cards - This is self explanatory. 

To set up a game you'll need to remove all the black cards and shuffle the remaining cards together, then deal out seven cards to each player. After the cards are dealt you can shuffle the black cards back in and put the deck out in the middle of the table and select who will go first (we usually play rock paper scissors). Your turn will consist of playing as many cards as you can/want to play during that turn, some cards will end your turn after completing a goal so be sure to pay attention if you want to play a different card first. Once you've played how ever many cards you can, you end your turn by drawing one new card from the deck. 

You can use certain cards to avoid Psycho killers and unwanted predicaments if you are lucky enough to have them in your hand, for example you can "Slam the door" in the psychos face and leave them for the next person in line to be fated with them. If you draw a psycho it immediately gets played in front of you this is called a Injury pile, if you hit ten or more points in your injury pile you are "left for dead" meaning you can still play the game, but you no longer have to play predicament cards drawn right away. 

There are five psychos in total, once all five have been revealed the game is over and the person with the least amount of injury points is the winner. Some games will move pretty quickly, while others might take a little longer, but every game is completely different because you don't know how the cards are going to play out in your favor. 

We've had games where a psycho killer comes up, but someone uses a card to try and pass it to the next person and we all end up being lucky having cards to avoid it so it bounces around until the first person runs out of ways to prevent themselves from being attacked. Sometimes we take pity on each other and play a litter nicer while other times a ton of cards get piled onto just one person, it is funny to see how the kids usually target one person instead of trying to spread the injury pile count to increase their own chances of winning.

The game is easy to understand, easy to learn and a lot of fun to play. Perfect for any friends or family who don't like overly complicated games. We've played this game quite a bit since we received it to check out for a review and it is one we will go back to play time and time again, as an added bonus they have two expansion packs for this game which I will talk about in another post. 

What kind of games do you enjoy playing? Board games or card games?

Disclaimer- Escape Tabletop Games provided a box for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.