Uncover Dark Secrets and Solve Mysteries in 3 Secrets

An undercover agent has cracked the case, but you have to get the information from him without blowing his cover! Ask your questions, narrow down your options, don’t run out of time, and see if you can keep the criminal from escaping.

3 Secrets is a unique cooperative card game with a dark twist, and a ticking clock.

Gameplay

3 Secrets is a cooperative game in which one player is the undercover agent and the other players all ask him questions about the case. Each case is presented on a large card; on one side is a picture with three elements highlighted. On the back is written the case’s story, as well as three secrets. The goal of the game is for the players to correctly guess what these three secrets are.

When answering questions, the undercover agent can respond with ‘yes’, ‘no,’ ‘not exactly’ and ‘it is irrelevant’.

Players have five minutes to guess a secret. If they get stuck, they can ask for a clue, but that will cut their remaining time in half. If you guess a secret, you have another five minutes to guess the next one. If you fail to guess a secret before the time runs out, the undercover agent reads out one of the secrets and you can still try to guess the remaining ones, but your score will be lower. The game comes with an app to help keep track of time and score how well you’ve done on each case.

Review

The gameplay of 3 Secrets is clever and fun. It’s hugely enjoyable to fire question after question at the undercover agent, as you attempt to get closer to the truth with the clock slowly clicking down. The game experience is similar to lateral thinking puzzles, which also offer the opportunity to ask yes or no questions to solve a mystery — however, 3 Secrets brings to the table a more organized experience, original artwork, and more in-depth stories to uncover.

As you go through the deck of cards, the difficulty on the cases ramps up nicely and many of the cases have some very creative stories behind them. Occasionally, the elements highlighted on the cards don’t have a lot to do with what you’re trying to guess, but it’s really neat how the stories can take shape from the various secrets. Also, most of the clues are cleverly worded to give you just enough of a hint without giving the whole thing away.

A lot of the cases have quite dark stories, with some fairly violent or grim secrets players have to guess (one of them involved people being skinned, for example) which definitely makes this something you wouldn’t want to play with kids.

3 Secrets is a game that makes it so easy to play ‘just one more round.’ It’s easy to teach, has fast rounds, and is highly enjoyable! If you don’t mind the dark stories, you’ll have a lot of fun with it.

Pros: Unique cooperative experience, clever cases

Cons: Sometimes the highlighted elements don’t connect well with the secrets, dark stories makes the game unsuitable for playing with younger players

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.