Lost in the Dark with Arkham Noir: Infinite Gulfs of Darkness
Collect macabre clues and follow a chilling investigation across the case files in Arkham Noir: Infinite Gulfs of Darkness.
Part of my birthday gift last year was Arkham Noir: Infinite Gulfs of Darkness. Although I’m not too interested in the horror genre at my solo table, I often watch plenty of related movies! So this solo-only game looked like it might be right up my alley, so long as it wasn’t too scary. Carefully, I shuffled the cards and hoped I could survive the case!
Game Overview
Game Name: Arkham Noir: Infinite Gulfs of Darkness
Publication Year: 2021
Designer: Yves Tourigny
Artist: Yves Tourigny
Publisher: Ludonova
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
With all sorts of clue to uncover, case files may be closed to advance the investigation. Time and sanity are limited, though, so it can be quite the challenge to manage the progression. Danger lurks in every flip of the cards, while matching icons requires some good luck, indeed!
First Play
January 24, 2023
Complexity
2
Latest Play
January 24, 2023
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
20 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
28" x 18"
Low Score
N/A
Beginning the Madness
It all began with the rulebook… Which was a practically infinitely folded booklet with some of the tiniest text out there. Reading from top to bottom in columns, too. Hmm.
After getting through all of this dense information, it didn’t seem like there was an overly complex game.
Ironically, I sometimes find that lengthy rules for simple games add more questions and ambiguities. Doing more with a small rulebook is often more effective!
The imagery wasn’t necessarily too frightening, yet I was already feeling a little disconcerted by some of the faces.
Encroaching Fear
Although the artwork evoked a lot of thematic presence, all of the important information existed in the tiny icons.
Maybe I needed to understand more about the original stories, but gameplay quickly turned into matching symbols after the first couple of turns.
I tried to come up with little stories to tie clues together, yet that distracted me from the iconography definitions.
There were a few case cards that didn’t seem to make logical sense in the way they were used. I felt confused, and didn’t want to suffer this same sort of disintegration!
Icons of Arkham Origin
Goodness. This is a photo zoomed in on the reference cards for the icons. I had trouble figuring out which ones I was looking at, due to the similarities. Not easy to see.
There were decisions to make with the clue row, while I had a few to hold onto. Yet for the most part, it was the card order that determined how the cases went.
It was certainly challenging to find the best time to use some cards, but their clue types were more important.
Having to look up each icon didn’t help to speed things along, nor keep the immersion. At least I wasn’t scared!
Case Clues and Lines
Although the play area felt unnecessarily large, it allowed some cards to align to provide some rules reminders. That was kind of neat to see, as it was quite helpful!
Here are examples of some open cases with the clue types lined up on the left and right sides of the cards. But what I really needed was to score puzzle pieces, which were rare.
Rather than finding a neat, thematic way to connect clues, it was simply a matching game with the new cards.
Perhaps it might work well for some, yet I felt lost and outside the game world pretty quickly.
Losing a Theme in Muddled Mechanics
I didn’t expect to find an epic horror tale in this game based on what I knew about it. Yet the thematic artwork and different sorts of clues felt like it wanted to tell a story. But that’s where the gameplay got in the way… I was lost in looking at icons every turn and trying to do what I could entirely with the clue symbols on the cards.
Some cards needed a specific order, like the way keys and locks worked. For the most part, though, I ignored all of the artwork and almost surprised myself when I looked at the full tableau. In the above example, investigating the death of Crawford Tillinghast should have felt unsettling as I figured out what horrors resulted in his untimely demise.
Instead, my focus was on the small clue symbols on the left and right sides of the cards. A few other icons helped along the way, allowing me to pick up other clue cards, but that was entirely mechanical. I never felt like the coroner helped me on my way… I just had the option to pick up a card. Sadly, the mechanics killed the theme for me in so many ways.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 and 2
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Play Details: Easy Difficulty Level
Outcome: 2 Losses
I never came close to scoring more than a couple of puzzle pieces during both plays, mainly due to the way the cards were shuffled. The keys and locks also hampered my progress in a way that felt… Mechanical. There was a lack of agency I noticed from the start. Despite the intriguing ideas behind the design, it didn’t work out for me and this copy will be off to find a new home eventually.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
5
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
5
Originality
Design & Theme
3
Quality
Components & Rules
4
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
4
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- There is a very unique style to the artwork that brings about the horror elements in a rather thematic way.
- After a few rounds, it’s easy to spot the location of the important icons to see where those will appear on cards.
- Clue cards come out in a row, so there are some opportunities to plan ahead with how to use the next few clues.
- Advancing the investigation brings out new case files to work on closing, and some cards can make this quicker.
- Even at the easy difficulty level, there is a great challenge to figure out how to manage limited time and sanity.
- Some cards align in columns to provide reminders, but the play area is still rather large for such a small game.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Gameplay boils down to matching symbols and getting lucky with the shuffled order of the clue cards.
- The iconography feels excessive with a lot of icons that are a little too similar to tell apart from far away.
- Summary cards help with some elements, but the rulebook is difficult to navigate and features very small text.
- All of the thematic elements disappear amidst some confusing rules and the constant need to check icons.
Victory Conditions
Score 5 Puzzle Piece Cards
- Overall Goal Progress 0%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played Arkham Noir: Infinite Gulfs of Darkness? What do you like about the game? I though the horror element was what might turn me away from it, but the simple symbol matching turned out to be its downfall. There are solo players out there who will enjoy this sort of challenge, yet I’ll be putting this infinite darkness behind me!
This looks as though it really needs a defined icon language, perhaps a series of simpler elements that could be combined as needed (e.g. “draw deck”, “search”, then “shuffle”).
Yeah, I think the similar iconography was one of the biggest issues I had. Making that easier to understand and read would make a big difference. I know it’s not an easy thing to do, but unfortunately, this set just didn’t quite make sense to me. If the series continues, I hope the iconography gets easier to read!