Last
Message

Last Message (2021) is a crime-solving communication battle between Detectives and a Criminal, fought through the exchange of drawn clues. The Victim draws clues about the Criminal's identity, but the Criminal can tamper with the drawing before the Detectives see it. It is like a game of Where's Wally? but here you have to work out who Wally is, instead of finding him.

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Your aim as the Detective is to identify who the Criminal is in a cartoon crime scene picture. The only information you have is drawn by the Victim who can't speak but can draw on a wipe-clean 9-by-9 grid. However, five of the squares are erased by the Criminal player before the Detective sees the information. So it is down to the Victim to use their time and space creatively so that the Detectives still have enough clues to locate the Criminal.

As you play each of the four rounds, the Detectives gain more clues, making their job easier. Still, if the Criminal chooses what they erase carefully, they can stop critical information from giving them away. Alternatively, a clever Victim can hide information in their picture that they don't notice, or duplicate aspects of their drawing to make erasure more difficult. If the Criminal avoids detection after four rounds, then they are the winner.

In each of the six different cartoon locations you can play (western, prehistoric, fantasy, superheroes, aliens and zombies), it's a game that becomes a battle between creative communication and clever deception, where the Criminal strives to remain hidden in the crowd by erasing the truth.

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Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Last Message 21 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 14 months ago.