Review: Arkham Noir Case 2

There is a creeping death that has been stalking the locals up in the Catskills. Randolph Carter, a man who is deep in old money has come and asked you to head out and check out the situation as the last investigator has not been seen or heard from. On your way out Randolph tells you to bring an umbrella because there are an awful lot of storms there. This is the setting for the second title in the Arkham Noir series Case #2 Called Forth by Thunder designed by Yves Tourigny.

The Arkham Noir series are single player games that are heavily steeped in the Arkham Mythos. The art for the cards is very cool, scary and unsettling resembling etchings from a time long ago. The objective of Case #2 is to score 5 clue cards before your stability penalties reach five or there are no more victim cards left.

Case #2 is very similar to the first case. It has a very similar setup. There are 5 lead cards setup in the middle and the draw pile to the right of them with reference cards flanking that whole set. below the row of lead cards you have your two open investigations into 2 victims. This is where the game unfolds in these two rows. Things that are added in this version of the game are Storm cards and a Formula card. The Formula card will help you track down clues and the Storm cards can really throw a wrench into your investigation.

When Playing Arkham Noir you will have a starting hand of 3 cards. At the start of each turn you pick up the first lead card in the row and there are five actions you can take. You can take it directly into your hand however, if your hand ever exceeds 3 cards you must discard down imitatively. The second move you can take is to play the card directly into an investigation. To do this the symbol(s) on the left center of the card have to match a symbol on the right of the card that you are going to play it next to. This will create a row of lead cards next to the victim card. If you should happen to have seven cards in an investigation you will need to preform a stability check due to the strain of how long your investigation has been going. Stability checks you just turn over the first card in the draw pile and if the card contains the investigator logo then you put it in the stability penalty area. Also when you play a card there may be a symbol (red or black) at the bottom of the card. This is an additional action that happens (optionally if its red).

...if you have no more victim cards you lose the game.

There are a few other actions you can take with when you draw the first lead card. You can discard the first lead card and play a card from your hand to open a new case. Additionally you can discard the first lead card to close an open case. To close a case you need to have 5 different symbols(top of the card) in the case. To advance the game towards winning you need to score the lead cards with the puzzle piece logo. The puzzle piece card shouldn't be one of the 5 different symbols if it is you cannot score it. Finally the last thing you can do is simply to discard the lead card you drew. If it has a hourglass on it then you will take a time penalty. If you have 5 cards in the time penalty zone draw a new victim card and add it below the others if you have no more victim cards you lose the game.

A new addition to Case #2 is the Storm cards. The storm cards add some complications to your case not only by adding cards to them but by adding harmful additional actions. The storm cards are drawn and placed into a case when you have 3 cards in a case with the hourglass symbol. There are also lead cards that cannot be played into a case before a storm card is played into the case. These help balance out the storm cards.

Finally the last addition to the game is the Formula card. The formula card is put to the side with the Professional contact card. These can help you out in a jam. While the Professional contact card can be played at anytime as a free action the Formula card has to either have 2 parts of the formula played in a case or have two parts in the big picture or closed cases pile.

Arkham Noir Case #2 Called Fourth By Thunder brings all the mechanics of case #1 and adds in some really interesting mechanics with the formula card and the Storm cards. The game plays fast and has a real puzzle vibe to it and an excellent 1 player card game that highlights some really interesting and creepy artwork to help set the mood. So light some candles and crack open Case #2 to solve the mystery that is called fourth by thunder.

Players: 1

Year Published: 2018

Recommended Ages: 14+

Time to Play: 30