I must admit, my affinity towards Jekyll & Hyde has been… Tenuous at best, if not nearly non-existence. My initial foray into this morbid story wasn’t through the pages of Robert Louis Stevenson’s book. Instead, it was on the creaky, makeshift stage of my high school’s auditorium. My involvement in this live rendition was an effort from my English teacher to endear us to classic literature. Bless his artistic heart. Because it wasn’t a total fiasco. Though the plot has been slipping through my fingers like the sand of time, the shadowy duel of identities lingered, resurfacing years later while recognising Mandoo Games’ trick-taking card game in 2022.
Mandoo Games delves once more into the macabre with their latest offering. Unveiled at SPIEL Messe 2023, this trick-taking game recreates the duality of Jekyll & Hyde. It comes with a twist, though. Still confined to the internal struggle of one man, the friendly neighbourhood doctor must now join forces with his feral alter ego as fugitives. Together, they now try to outwit the relentless pursuit of Scotland Yard.
A short disclaimer before you read my board game analysis
As an avid euro gamer and hardcore Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) LCG player, my reviews may reflect a preference for these styles, and I may not cover solo games/variants extensively. Please note that my personal remarks are based on my gaming experiences, and I aim to provide honest insights within the scope of my preferences.
Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard is a spin-off, if not a sequel, to the earlier competitive trick-taking games. It shares the same name and, largely, the mechanics of its predecessor. Yet, the shift from competitive to a cooperative affair makes all the difference.
Geonil, along with Gaëtan and Olivier, retains the core mechanics that defined their previous game in this instalment. Three-colour suits, bolstered by the enigmatic Potion cards. The familiar structure and rules of common trick-taking remains intact, with the suits’ ranks determined by the order in which players win the first three tricks. And those potent Potion cards? They still trigger the suits’ unique effects, a mandatory step that may alter the course of the game, be it in your favour or dooming you to fail. Yet, the clever twist lies in shifting the game towards its cooperative nature.
Fleeing from the Scotland Yard
The game unfolds across several chapters, with the first three serving as tutorials to ease us into the mechanics. Each successive chapter layers on additional rules. Escalating the complexity gradually. It’s from the fourth chapter onward that the real excitement begins—the true chase. These later chapters impose stricter conditions and more complicated challenges, intensifying the struggle to elude Scotland Yard. It’s a clever way to ratchet up the tension. The game transforms each chapter into a puzzle to be deciphered, with our cards as the keys.
Mandoo Games includes brief flavour texts for each chapter. A nice touch, but sadly falls short of its potential. There’s a missed opportunity here to weave a richer narrative, one that could have deepened the immersion into the gameplay.
Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard pits two players against an AI opponent, standing in the form of the Scotland Yard deck. This AI is rather a passive participant. Players draw a card, resolve the trick, with each outcome influences the board state. While Jekyll and Hyde inch closer to their finish line, the British polices doggedly pursue. The number of steps taken by us is dictated by the amount of fewer tricks won by either player. A bidding for delicate balance. Both players ensure winning their share of tricks to maximize their chance to escape, staying one step, or more, ahead of the relentless police.
We talked about balancing the trick-winning, and it is really essential in order to not get caught by the polices. When Jekyll & Hyde reach the finish line after taking steps from the tricks we won in the round, and there is an excess of trick-winning, it will be transferred to advance Scotland Yard’s pawn. At the end of the day, the finish line is not the only goal. Winning the just-about-right amount of trick is.
Achieving this balance is yet no simple feat. The game forbids communication. It practically shapes the rounds into a silent dance of intuition and strategy. Well, it’s still more the latter than the former, fortunately. And many paths lead to Rome, they say. However, in Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard, aligning ones’ visions to get the same path toward victory is proven a Herculean task! I might think a trick should be won. Perhaps, my partner sees something else, and believes it should be sacrificed. Add to this the random draw from the AI, Scotland Yard’s deck. We can see how the game can quickly tilt out of our favour.
Still, no hand is truly unfortunate. Some may be more within reach to victory. And some others may be challenging to navigate, yes, but with careful planning, a bit of card counting from Scotland Yard’s deck, and (hopefully) if both players can silently sync their strategies, the chapter will close in triumph. I lost count how many times we got arrested by the detectives. Especially in the later chapters, where the restrictions and rules narrow down the chance to win the game. And a few times we survived the chase. It’s a testament to the game design that, the worse your hand could get, the more profound the satisfaction when we can actually solve the puzzle.
Finding SOLACE in the criminal chase
Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard is not the first trick-taking game to venture into the cooperative field. Consider The Crew, for instance. Yet, this game carves out its own unique space in this segment. Thanks to its gameplay and game design, we can get a new and refreshing take that stands apart. If you have not tried Jekyll vs Hyde, you will experience a sense of novelty and the fresh mechanics in this instalment. It’s a small unfortunate event that we did not have a deeper narrative in the chapters.
Mandoo Games has once again delivered a potential must-have for the two-player market. Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard demands strategic planning in every session, where every hand offers a different puzzle to solve, yet manages to keep each round under thirty minutes… Or even less. Maybe twenty? Alas, it’s the kind of game you can pause and resume at will, too.
The gradual introduction of more rules and restrictions ensures a smooth level-up in complexity. Thus, it does not overwhelm the players. And it keeps us engaged in the gameplay, in every chapter. There will be trial-and-error, for sure, before one chapter closes in victory. But that’s just the way it should be played. And it’s designed to shine with just two players, the bare minimum of player count if you try to distance yourself from solo-gaming.
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I am a full-time food technologist during weekdays. However, when the calendar hits weekends, I transform into an avid board gamer. I am a hardcore Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) LCG player from Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). Current hobby: buying board games. My shelf of shame’s list is getting longer, thanks to you, Kickstarter.
