I played One Night Ultimate Werewolf created by Bezier Games for iOS. The game is a deception game similar to Mafia and Werewolf but occurs in one night instead of multiple nights and introduces an entirely new cast of characters! The target audience is around 9+.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf takes 3-10 players where each player is assigned a character with special roles. An example of a role is a “sear”, who can peak at somebody else’s card. During “one night”, people take turns waking up and performing their role, whether that be checking somebody’s card, swapping people’s cards or doing nothing. After the night is over, everybody discusses who the werewolf’s are, and there is usually lots of lying involved. In general, the types of fun that are involved are fellowship, challenge, and fantasy. The aspect of assigning roles and having players figure out who the werewolves are lends to these types of fun!!
Overall, I believe this game works. As a mod of the original Werewolf, it is significantly better. In the original, sometimes decisions are not based on enough information (I feel like I’m guessing blindly half the time) — but in One Night Ultimate Werewolf, there was a lot more information, a lot more complicated loops to untangle, and much more incentive to bluff. Thus, the complexity of the game is heightened, yet is possible to untangle with good sense and deduction skills.
Vulnerability in its traditional definition isn’t largely present in this game, yet I believe it is there in the form of lying. Many people found, myself included, that it’s scary to lie!! You could be called out, you could do it badly. Therefore, the emotional aspect of vulnerability is heavily intact in this game and increases the fun of the game!
Overall, I believe One Night Ultimate Werewolf is one of the best in its genre (beat out by perhaps only Avalon). There is real lying, deduction, and perception skills that are needed — skills that are really fun to base a game off-of.
