Spectral Review

March 5, 2025

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A review copy of Spectral was kindly provided by Bitewing Games. Thoughts & opinions are my own.

Deduction and logic are fun, right? If you agree, stick around while I tell you all about Spectral, an amazing little deduction that’s apparently about paranormal investigation, treasure hunting, or some such thing. It doesn’t matter, the theme is irrelevant here. What does matter is that Ryan Courtney (Pipeline, Trailblazers) has put together a cracking deduction game which, despite only taking half an hour to play, delivers a fully-fledged brain-burning experience

Block party

Spectral is set in a spooooooky haunted manor. If you want to know how spooky – it’s made of perfectly square rooms in a 4×4 layout. Zoiks! If that’s not freaky I don’t know what is. The game puts you in the role of teams of treasure hunters who have come to said spooky manor to find the rumoured treasures while avoiding the ghosts and curses. But how??

an example game layout for spectral — This is how the manor looks towards the end of the game when the cards have been flipped.

The rooms are cards that have a clever method for laying them out, involving putting shuffled cards in cardboard sleeves and then shuffling those sleeves, so you’ve no idea which card is in which space when the game begins. On your turn, you stake out a hallway by putting down one or more of your investigator pieces in the gap between two cards, then you sneak a peek at either of the room cards adjacent to the investigators you just placed.

When you look at the room card, you learn some really important information, and by accumulating and combining this information, you can work out where the treasures are. Or more importantly, where the curses are. There are glyphs on the cards that tell you how far away a treasure or curse is. For example, it might have the symbols which tell you a treasure is two squares away diagonally, or that a curse is two squares away clockwise, or maybe there’s a treasure in the room opposite to where you’re looking.

You chart all of this information in your player book to keep track of what is where, and to employ even more deduction. There are four sets of cards – A, B, C, and D – and each set is in a random row. You don’t know which, but when you look at a card you can use the reference guide on your to identify which set it belongs to. Once you know three of the rows, you know what the fourth is, etc.

player book from spectral — Once you learn the notation, tracking cards in your player books is easy. (image credit: Dan Thurot)

Curses! My treasure!

When everyone has taken their turns for the game, it’s time for the big reveal. This is where you learn which rooms hold treasures and which have curses. If you have any investigators next to a curse then it’s bad news. They’re removed from the game in a Shaggyesque act of cowardice as they run away. Ruh-roh!. At least, that’s what happens in my head.

Any that are left are awarded a share of the treasure from the rooms they’re adjacent to, and this is where the cleverest part of the game comes in. You see, your investigator pieces can be singles, doubles, or even quads. You can choose to bump someone else’s investigators from a corridor if you really want to claim it, but only if you use enough pieces to at least double the number already there. Choosing which pieces you want to use, and when, is key. You can even bluff. If you throw a double piece in early, others may think you know it’s a safe corridor adjacent to two treasures. Someone comes along and uses four of their pieces to oust you, but that double piece of yours comes back to you to use again later, you cunning fox, you.

With the beginner and standard game modes there’s only one curse in each row, so good corridor spots are at a premium as there can be a lot of gems on offer, and I love the competition the game encourages by making you decide if it’s worth bumping someone out, and deciding when you feel sure enough in your deductive reasoning to make the play.

Final thoughts

Deduction games around here are like buses. Nothing for ages, then two show up together. Much like Kronologic, which I reviewed recently, Spectral packs a punch, a punch right to your grey matter. It’s a clean, streamlined game that combines deduction with an almost auction-like bidding game, where deciding where you want to place your investigators, and how many you want to place, becomes key.

the player books from spectral — The all-important player books where you’ll make your deductions. Pretty, aren’t they?

I find it interesting that despite both of these games being logical deduction games, they seem to make your brain work in very different ways. I took both games to a local convention a couple of months ago and played both with the same group of people. One of the group found Kronologic very straightforward to deduce, but found Spectral much harder to work out. If anything, I’m the opposite. I find Spectral easier to figure out. The reason I mention this is to highlight the fact that owning one deduction game doesn’t mean you shouldn’t own another.

Spectral is a part of Bitewing Games’ Deep Clean series of games. Games built around a simple set of rules, but offering a deep level of gameplay. Cascadero is another game in the same range which I absolutely love, and also love introducing to new groups. Spectral is in the same bracket for me now. It’s compact, it’s really nicely made, it has beginner, standard and an advanced mode to play, and it’s fun. There’s a lovely feeling of satisfaction when the cards are flipped and they match your deductions, time after time. Kip knows the feeling.

A logic challenge with a lot of character, really nicely made and packaged, and well worth your time and less than 40 quid, if you love this sort of game. Otherwise it’s not going to convince you. Deduction fans will have a blast though.