Alliance Games Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition

This is probably the best game in its category for deception and logical deduction! My family and I have been playing mafia for years. Sometimes we would play with 20 people and it just got too much and too random. We were looking for more. Then we came upon Resistance. Another GREAT game, but it takes a maximum of 10 players and after playing it for a while, we still lacked something. I guess what we lacked was some logic in all the random lies and deceptions. I looked on Amazon for "people who bought this also bought" and I used "Resistance" as a marker as we liked Resistance better than mafia. Also, I looked for a game where more people could play. When I came to Ultimate Werewolf, it had only 5 reviews (all 5 star) but I thought I would take my chances as this game states we can play with upto 68 people! WOW.BEST decision I have made, game wise was to purchase this game. I realized when I read the instructions that even an avid Mafia playing family such as mine would be confused by the number of characters this game offered. I was right about that. I took my family several tries to use different characters and then discuss the logic behind them after the game but I will say one thing. The first night we played this game, we couldn't STOP playing. We were looking for excuses to play despite it being 3am and we had to wake up early etc. etc. and really needed to stop. The second time my family got together we were all waiting for dinner to be over so we could start playing. We have played several days of Ultimate Werewolf and will probably play several more and we keep looking forward to playing this game and adding more characters.Is this a game to be purchased? Depends on the category and number of people who are playing this game. If you LOVE mafia and Resistance, purchasing this game is a no brainer! It's got more characters other than just the mafia, villager, doctor and cop. Every person who plays can be someone important. It's fun with more people.The drawbacks: There are 2 drawbacks and despite that I'll still give this game 5 stars. Drawback 1: It's a tough job to be a narrator! If you thought being narrator for Mafia is tough - that is a piece of cake compared to this game. You literally have a sheet of paper to be a narrator and keep the story straight. Drawback 2: The cards that come with the package are not very hardy. So, be gentle with the cards or marks can easily show up on the cards.Other than that, I'm signing off from this review. I'm sure you'll love this game as much as myself and my family does.

My group and I really enjoy this game but there are some fundamentals about the game that require that I give it 4 out of 5 instead of 5 out of 5.So really quickly the game is played my having one moderator who hands out role cards of which you're either a werewolf, villager or a seer.Everyone introduces themselves and then the sun sets and everyone goes to sleep "everyone closes their eyes".The Seer wakes up and points to a player and the moderator tells them if they're either a villager or werewolf by making either a V or W with their hands.The werewolves then wake up and discreetly let the moderator know who they want to kill that night.The day then effectively starts, the moderator reveals who was killed and the players have 3-5 minutes (decided by the moderator) to accuse someone of being a werewolf to which a "trial" happens where people either vote for them to live or die.Rinse and repeat until either all werewolves are killed or equal number of werewolfs and villagers remain.A few issues I have with the game is that it says 5-68 players but realistically I'd say it's an 8-15 player game which more being better as the more players the more rounds. Which leads into my second issue, there is no real strategy to this game it's basically blindly picking someone based on no real evidence and if you're playing with a smaller amount of players then you have sometimes only 2-3 rounds to guess right. The Resistance is another hidden role game which is similar yet it has several phases that allow you to make educated guesses on peoples intentions based on how they vote, how many losing missions they've been on, how much they accuse others, etc. With werewolf there's no meta game so it's basically a blind guess.With all that being said, I really enjoy this game and it's great to play with big groups of people, it's easy to pick up for people and it fun to see people accuse and defend themselves...it's just not as fun on the lower end of players, lower end being anything less than 7 players

This is an extremely fun game. Kids and adults can play however the game is better played with players with similar "Werewolf" experience. In other words, my 10 and 12 yr old can play with adults because they understand the game and play it well. Other kids may not do so well with adults (inexperience, shy, etc.). The sweet spot with this game for us is about 15 players. It is a great game for adults, especially if you have a gathering where the people don't quite know each other. By the end of your party, everyone will be conversing and talking about their strategies and you will find that most personalities will come through. It helps to have a good moderator that understands the game wel...this may be the only draw back but after a couple of games it really is easy to get the hang of it. Top party game in our household. Def recommend.An update...if you want to protect your cards because they are not that durable, I use these.  Pro-Mold Snap-Tite Regular Snap (20pt) (PC12) Card Holder for Baseball and other Trading Cards  They are great for protecting your cards from scratches or bends in the cards that would otherwise compromise your identity. Enjoy!

Just started playing this with a couple families. Keeping the games simple and slowly starting to add in more complex characters.Everyone is having fun playing it.

Exactly what I was looking for. A great game for small and large groups!