Welcome to our review of Unexpected Games‘ Voices in My Head. This game is an exciting strategy game with the players taking on one of two roles. Either the role of the Prosecutor trying “Guy,” a bank robber, for his crime and trying to get a conviction, or playing as one of “Guy’s Personas” in his brain trying to influence and make decisions throughout the game. This game is even more fun because of the 3-dimensional board, where you have to balance your control markers literally. Ok, enough with this intro, let’s get into how you play this fascinating game!

Game Overview – Voices in My Head

Voices in My Head mixes strategy with the ability to slide a good token marker! 

This game can have multiple winners at the end of the eight rounds. In each round, the Prosecutor chooses a trial card for the round. She reveals just the top of the card to the other players by slipping it under the Prosecutor’s screen, which shields the other trial cards from view. Each player has eight tokens called control markers. The players choose a marker (which has the numbers 1,2 or 3 on them) and “deploy” them to a region of Guy’s brain using a “deployment stick. ” Each region of the brain controls a different function for Guy. The regions are Motor Skills, Instinct, Speech, Observation, and Planning. The goal is to gain control of one or more brain regions by having the most points from control markers. Whoever is in control makes any decisions presented on the rest of the trial card for that region. Some decisions allow a player to place guilty/innocent or influence (hidden until the end of the game) tokens on the various jurors to sway the jury in the direction of the player’s hidden role card, which shows how they specifically win the game.

These winning conditions are hidden until the end of the game, so you never know what your fellow players are trying to achieve. Not understanding the other’s motivations was a really neat aspect of this game. The Prosecutor’s role is to guide the story of the trial. She selects a trial card for each round from the trial deck. She also participates in the control marker sliding; however, her markers don’t have points and serve to knock off other players’ control points. They are essentially influencing who has control over a region of Guy’s brain.

After each player has a turn adding a marker to the board, the Prosecutor reads the trial card. If the card mentions one of the five regions, whoever leads that region in points responds to that part card. Either outright getting to do something or having to answer a question as though they are Guy. These trial cards add influence, guilty or innocent tokens to various juror types on the board. The first four rounds are the Prosecutorial phase. After round four, the Prosecutor swaps her trial card deck for “Part II,” which is the defense section where Guy is on the stand.

Game Components

The game components are pretty impressive. We love the illustrative style of Guy and the other courtroom characters. This style is present on the board, the cards, and even the control markers, which are all unique. The most interesting component has to be the raised platforms that sit into holes on the board. Together with the “brain” board piece, these sit about an inch off the board. We especially like that each has a little plastic bar across the top on a small platform with room to slide a control marker under it. The bar forces you to slide the control market onto the platform instead of trying to flick it on.

Game Setup

The initial setup of Voices in My Head does take about 15 minutes as you set up the platforms and organize the decks of cards and the like. From a game-to-game perspective, It is one of those games that makes setup a breeze if everyone helps out. Each player gets a role card that determines their win condition, control markers, and a deployment stick. Then each player draws two strategy cards (more on these in a moment) into their hand. Finally, the Prosecutor randomly chooses a “Start of Trial” card and reads it. These add flavor text and determine who goes first. 

Overall this was an easy setup. The instructions were clear, and dare I say it, it was fun to set up. In too many games, we get bogged down in setting up so much that it becomes a chore in itself (Mansions of Madness First Edition ). In this case, it wasn’t too bad, though!

Game Play

During the game, you are working towards your secret goal. That goal might mean influencing the jury to acquit/find guilty or having the most control marker points in a specific region of the brain or both. 

That’s where the fun comes in. You are trying to slide your control markers onto the platforms and, in some cases trying to knock off your opponents. Having the most points in a brain region gives you control when the trial card gets read. To help you, you have two strategy cards that you can play to help adjust the control markers, influence the jury or look at some of the hidden influence markers. 

The “Planning” region is a special region you can control. Having control of this region allows a player to draw two additional strategy cards from the deck. 

You’ll add guilty and innocent tokens to each juror and hidden influence tokens throughout the game. At the end of the game, you’ll determine the jury’s verdict. To do so, you’ll flip over the influence tokens and add them to either the innocent or guilty pile for those jurors. Then you figure out each juror’s verdict by removing guilty and innocent tokens (one of each) from a juror until you have no more of one or the other. This process determines if those jurors find Guy guilty or innocent or neither. 

Overall Impressions

We enjoyed this game overall. We did find that it plays better with more players than fewer. We played a two-player game with the rules created for that. It was fun, but the suspense of trial card selection was lost as a two-player game uses an automated prosecutor. It was also not as challenging to figure out the other person’s motivations.

That said, in a larger group, these issues go away! We enjoyed pushing the control markers. The idea that you are trying to have the highest score to control a brain region is innovative!

If you enjoyed this article, and want to pick up your own copy, we actually have Voices in My Head in our store!