Review: Shadow Hunters

A war is being waged between Shadows and their hunters with some innocent bystanders caught in the middle.  In Shadow Hunters, players are randomly given characters from one of these three teams, which they keep secret.  Each team has their own goal, Shadows win by killing all the Hunters, Hunters win by killing all the Shadows, and Neutrals each have their own goal based on which character they have.

On their turn, players roll the dice to see which area they move to.  Based on the area they land on, players may draw a green, white, or black card or hurt/heal another player.  After that, the player may attack another player in an adjacent area.

Green cards (Hermit cards) are used to try to figure out who is what.  They each have instructions like, "Shadows and Hunters take on damage", so if a player is given this card and they are a Shadow or Hunter, they must move their health token up one space.  Otherwise they say, "This has no effect."  Using a combination of these cards and who attacks whom, players can start to determine who is on their side and who isn't.

White cards are usually defensive or healing items whereas Black cards are offensive items.  Characters also have special abilities that they can use once per game (except for some Neutrals whose special abilities are automatically used at specific times).

Gameplay is fairly simple, but filled with opportunities for strategies, deception, and teamwork.  However, setting up the game is a fairly complicated procedure and takes a lot more time than it should for how simple the game plays.  The game is for 4-8 players (more is better) and takes roughly 45 minutes to play.