Price: $34.99
(as of Dec 13, 2024 12:21:10 UTC - Details)

Mantis Falls is a "sometimes cooperative" hidden traitor strategy game for 2-3 players. It mixes hand-building and tactical card play with deduction and tenuous cooperation.

On the dark film-noir roads of mob-ruled Mantis Falls in the 1940s, you are witnesses hunted for your information. You now must survive the night and escape town alive. Working together, you will need to frequently cooperate and trust one another to navigate the night, but things may not all be as they seem. Each game may be entirely witnesses - meaning players can only win by all surviving together - or there could secretly be an assassin hidden among you, subtly manipulating the situation and waiting for the right moment to strike.

You'll make concealed moves and develop hidden plans, but also need to have thorough conversations throughout as you discuss tactics, defend choices and bluff to protect carefully guarded secrets. In your slow walk, you will seek allies, acquire tools and become encumbered by grave afflictions. The steps forward present secret "unseen" events and double-edged action cards, which stir confusion and degrade confidence. As the night wears, witnesses and assassins alike will need to tread the line between the value of teamwork and a preparation to kill.

Mantis Falls creates a unique and tense game experience, meant to draw you into the characters' horrifying night and make you feel the profound power, and danger, that can come from our ability to trust. Like life, Mantis Falls is a cooperative game that is only really cooperative sometimes.
Like life... a cooperative game that's only really cooperative sometimes.
HIDDEN TRAITOR GAME FOR 2-3 PLAYERS: Mantis Falls is a strategic hidden traitor game designed for a uniquely low player count. The result is a heart-pounding, intimate game of trust and betrayal.
HIGH PLAYER INTERACTION: The "sometimes cooperative" format and the necessity of collaboration yield a game with nuanced conversation and detailed player interaction.
PERFECT FOR COUPLES AND SMALL GROUPS: The low player count, high interactivity and thematic setting create a deep journey for couples and friends to experience together. Bring it out on smaller game nights or after you tuck the kids in for the night!
A STRATEGY CARD GAME: Mantis Falls utilizes more strategic decision-making than most "social deduction party games". Suit-based action cards, detailed hand-management choices and diverse combo effects make this a great game for tactical thinkers.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fantastic--I've never played another game like it.
Review: Clever, skill-based card mechanics combine with the tension of social deduction to create an incredibly fun, never-the-same-twice experience. The setting and presentation (callout to the especially evocative card art) perfectly compliment the mechanics to immerse you in the role of witness or assassin, and the game length is just right to create memorable sessions without becoming overwrought. Being able to play with two players makes this the perfect game for you and the friend or partner that you thought you knew but will never trust again.A few of my favorite elements:- Action cards in Mantis Falls offer multiple ways to achieve the same goal, often via radically different means, and players will find themselves weighing their options short and long term. Heal off part of the incoming damage from an event or redirect all of it to your fellow player? Work with the other player to defeat the event opposition or play a condition (a persistent ability/status effect) that will yield more benefit in future rounds? End of round hand replenishment rewards playing and chaining together as many same-suited action cards as possible, while the last gasp mechanic encourages finding and holding key cards in reserve to avoid being caught flat-footed when an event resolves. There is a delicious tension between hand-building and progressing your board position, and the sheer variety and novelty of action card effects will have both players continuously discovering ways to turn apparent drawbacks to their advantage through clever combos or tactical opportunism.- Cooperation is the only way to reach the End of the Road. Mantis Falls is an unforgiving journey that makes juggling events, ambushes, existing wounds, and forward progress impossible for a single player alone but manageable when coordinating plays and sharing the pain with a partner. Two witnesses that selflessly pool their resources for the good of the group can make even the toughest roads tractable. That said...- The potential presence of an assassin completely changes the dynamic of action plays. Every card has to be evaluated not only for its utility in dealing with the environment, but also for its ability to thwart and kill the other player. A Grenade can defeat a high damage event opposition, but it also represents two wounds that can be directed at a player. A witness playing the Badger can use it to help their partner across the Broken Road, while an assassin can use that same card to force a move into an ambush or away from a phone booth. Similarly, because every action benefiting the other player could be strengthening the assassin, witnesses learn to play more reserved and less overtly helpful--exactly like an assassin might play.- As an assassin, setting up the perfect environment for your coup de grâce takes time, and a wary witness will be closely following your actions. Immediate aggression on the part of the assassin will likely be answered by the midnight-suited Call in a Hit card, a copy of which begins the game in each player’s hand and allows true witnesses within one road of a phone booth to deal nine wounds to (and inflict card loss on) the other player. Call in a Hit is the witness’s offset to the assassin’s perfect information, and a key part of the assassin’s gameplay is nullifying this advantage. Force it to be discarded, ask for it to be traded, destroy the phone booths/move the witness out of their range, or convince the witness to use the card’s secondary effect to deal six wounds to event opposition. Then watch, wait, and, when the time is right... assassinate (your friendship).

Reviewer: Oded Helman
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Amazing Social Deduction Game for Couples or 3 People
Review: Before I even star talking about the game, I have to say the production value and Packaging of this game. I've never been more impressed by a game board in terms of the care that was put into everything, the included card sleeves, the playing mat, the bags. The couple who created this game really went above and beyond and created a whole experience around it with 2 original soundtracks they created for background music and the quality of the cards and pieces just makes it feel like a premium product which is a joy when you open it for the first time.The game itself is amazing, you and your partner(s) go on this paranoia filled journey together , are you no the same side, or is the other player a traitor, the game itself is hard enough to beat as a co-op but the extra paranoia of the social deduction element of it just takes it to a whole other level Big love from me, highly recommended in general and especially for people who like to play Co-Op and Social deduction games like Avalon, Werewolf etc.. but sometimes just wanna have a game night with a friend or 2

Reviewer: william Dawes Urquhart III
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A card laying game
Review: I wasn't sure what to expect when I purchased this game but I am a fan of mobster movies and games and this ones theme intrigued me. You play as a civilian who witnessed a crime committed by the mob and must escape town. The game is played over a series of turns of the players laying down various cards. The theme is set as the characters walking down a dark street meeting up with other players who could also be witnesses or someone sent to help you escape, but they could also be an assassin sent to silence you! Once you understand the rules the game is very fluid and easy to play and teach to other new players. The play time is about 30 minutes to an hour depending on how many people are playing with you. The game is a mix of strategy and a little luck. The cloth playing board is unique and I get a sense of the old noir black and white Mafia movies while playing. The games difficulty is easy to change if you want more of a challenge. I love the paranoid feeling you get when playing with others. Are your friends going to help you or try to kill you? You just won't know until they strike. This is a fun game that makes its way to my table a couple times a month.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fun/High-quality
Review: A unique "board" game style 2 player game. Each piece has its own place and the small box packs easy. The game itself is fun and mysterious. Highly recommend.

Reviewer: Ann
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Game for Two Players!
Review: I was one of the backers for this game on Kickstarter and I liked it so much that I ended up getting a copy for a friend. It's very involving and intense. Every moment is spent analyzing, strategizing, bluffing or convincing the other player you're not bluffing. There is an amazing amount of suspense as you try to escape town together or kill one another - never knowing for sure which it is. I love that after the game is over we cannot help but replay it in our minds and discuss what we could have done differently, rethinking the strategic choices, as we look forward to the next game. The production quality is also beautiful and it's an impressive value for the price.

Reviewer: Dustin Austin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Crazy fun!
Review: Me and the wife has been stuck playing this with our friends, and it's super fun! I could play every night!

Reviewer: Sam
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fun game, beautiful
Review: This game is fun and trisky. Learning time was a 30 minute watch of a how to on YouTube. The lying and sussing out lies takes more practice with the cards as you learn for likely certain excuses might be. Gameplay is definitely fast, with cards to completely destroy the other player, for better or worse, available like the button for atomic bombs are provided to each player every game.The game itself is gorgeous, especially for the price. I do wish they would have provided more bags to keep cards separated. "Actions" and "all the rest" just annoys me considering how many varieties of cards there are. But that is a nitpick.

Reviewer: Garion
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Mantis Falls is a great game for anyone who loves strategy. My girlfriend and I can’t get enough of thinking games and this one shot to the top of our list. However, I will say it Mantis Falls had one of the hardest learning curves when we first played. Maybe it was just us but any video we watched seemed to confuse us more. But with a little more insight and some learning it was easy once we caught on. Highly recommend