This game is chaos. Delightful, wretched, unhinged, beautiful, magical, maddening chaos.

As a Deception game, One Night Werewolf is one of the best in class, and you’d have a hard time finding one with so much replayability. With a rapid setup and a huge amount of forgiveness for new players – I won’t mince words – this is one of the best Party games out there.

One Night centers around a group of villagers who have discovered that werewolves live among them. They vow to destroy the creatures but foolishly decide to wait until morning. During The Night, shenanigans ensue, and every scrap of trust they once had is abruptly called into question.

Before the fateful Night, each player draws an identity card and secretly looks at it. Most identities have an action while others sleep, though some merely wait until dawn. This is where the wheels hurtle off the proverbial cart and everything goes straight to hell. In a good way, of course. During The Night, everyone closes their eyes and, one by one, wake up, take their action, then go back to sleep. Some identities look at others’ cards, some switch cards, some trade their card for another – like I said, chaos. When the Night is done, nobody can be truly certain they still are who they were the night before. (Okay, yes, the Insomniac can, but nobody will believe them.)

In the Morning, the villagers open their eyes and have 5 minutes to argue, threaten, and plead with each other to decide who among them to collectively murder. Everyone casts their vote, the axe comes down, and you learn if you’ve slaughtered a werewolf in disguise or if you have innocent blood on your hands and the werewolves get to devour the remaining townsfolk. Mmmmm, delicious townsfolk.

Such a simple concept allows for exceptional variation during play. No two games will be the same, and even if they were, you wouldn’t believe it until after the nooses have tightened. To wrap it all in a lovely bow, the game has a free app (Apple or Droid) which does all the heavy lifting for you. Nobody has to narrate or remind people what their roles are when it’s their turn.  All you have to do is take a card, close your eyes, and murder all of your friends.

5 out of 5

Get it and eat some people.

Designers: Ted Alspach, Akihisa Okui

Art by: Gus Batts

Published by: Bezier Games