The game is my own copy, and thoughts on the game are not swayed by any outside influences.
Main Game
Rules & Setup:
Set up of Letters From Whitechapel is fairly easy and not too long, with just a few components going onto the board during the initial set up phase, with more being added / swapped out once both ‘sides’ have decided where they are deploying.
Rules again are fairly simple, with clear and concise descriptions and plenty of picture examples in the rulebook.
There are also quite a number of how to play / play through videos online for people to watch and better understand the round sequence / structure.
Theme and Mechanics:
The theme, as you may have guessed, is based around the gruesome Jack the Ripper murders carried out in Victorian London 1888. Mechanics are hidden movement for the ‘jack’ player, whilst the Police are kept on the board all game during the ‘Hunt for Jack’.
Gameplay:
Each of the four ‘nights’ begin with putting out markers for the possible victims of Jack, and once he decides to carry out another murder he begins to move from that location, trying to get back to his hideout before being caught by the hunting Policemen. Movement for Jack and placement of the potential victims is on numbered circles, whilst the Police move around on black squares along the same dotted lines as the numbered circles, of which there are around 195.
Jack pre-selects one of the numbers as his hideout for the game and this remains the same for each night, so the Police can try to work out where he resides by process of elimination, unless of course Jack fools them by doing a series of sneaky moves by foot, coach or using the back alleys of Whitechapel to move around and hide himself from their detection.
Letters From Whitechapel has a real ‘cat & mouse’ feel to it, with each night becoming more and more difficult to get back to the hideout as the murder sites are widespread across a large board and you potentially start further and further away from the hideout after each event has happened, meaning more turns for the police to check for clues or instigate an arrest.
All of Jacks movements are recorded on a hidden pad, and if the Police guess for a clue on a numbered circle Jack has been on that particular night (they are cleared at the end of each night) then a clue marker is placed at that site so they know he has passed that way, or he could even be there, but he is only caught if an arrest is called rather than asking for a clue. Jack then starts his movement again from this point.
Jack is also caught / loses the game if he doesn’t successfully return to his hideout before a certain number of moves have been made by him, or if the Police stop him by blocking his movement as he cannot move through them on foot.
Jack only gets a certain number of coach and alley tokens each night, and these decrease as each night comes and goes, meaning the last night is mostly a foot slog for him to get back to his hideout.
Artwork and Components:
The board, cards and pieces are of a nice quality, with a mix of cardboard, plastic and wood. With the ‘Dear Boss’ expansion the police, victims and Jack are all supplied as nice plastic miniatures, and these certainly look better on the board.
The rulebook is well laid out, and has plenty of colour pictures to aid in learning the game.
The Good:
Letters From Whitechapel is an excellent co-op game, with plenty of cat & mouse style tension to keep players engaged, and the theme certainly comes across with how the board has been designed, and the expansion adds in some extra things for both sides to utilise in their endeavours, and can be added to one or both sides depending on the difficulty level you want to have.
The Other:
To be honest, there isn’t really anything negative to say about Letters From Whitechapel. Our group had a great time playing this (I was Jack and managed to avoid being caught all 4 nights), and my friends playing as the Police were all thoroughly engaged in the search for Jack, and where his hideout could be was the centre of quite a few discussions during each nights hunt.
Final Thoughts:
If you’re looking for a hidden movement, cat & mouse co-op game you should definitely check out Letters From Whitechapel, as it does this genre exceptionally well, and is definitely a game we will be returning too again in the not too distant future.
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