Batman comic book fans need to check out Batman: Everybody Lies

I’ve barely scratched the surface of Batman: Everybody Lies, the latest in the Detective series from Portal Games, and this clever little board game already has me intrigued. Although the player does not take the role of the caped crusader, the game feels like you are crawling through the pages of your favourite comic book to see what’s going on. Best of all, it rewards playing along with your friends — a feature that was not necessarily top of mind when designing the original game, which was much easier to finish solo.

Everybody Lies drops 2-4 players into the role of classic DC characters nominally aligned with the Batman — journalists Warren Spacey and Vicki Vale, detective Harvey Bullock, and Catwoman. Jim Gordon has formed a task force to investigate contemporaneous crimes that are causing problems for the Gotham City Police Department. Three such cases come bundled with the base game, for a total playtime of six to nine hours out of the box.

Mechanically, Everybody Lies is mediated by a simple unlock system that requires players to trade influence for fresh leads. It’s a welcome simplification of the original Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, which was — at least in my opinion — unnecessarily complex. Meanwhile, a similarly simple timer counts down to the end of the game with every player action. The result is a tense, but not frantic, pace that keeps everyone at the table engaged.

Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon

Part of that increased engagement is due to the game’s emphasis on comic book logic rather than realistic simulation. The original Detective openly displayed an egregious misunderstanding of American police work. While the cases and their associated clues were clever, the construct of the National Intelligence Agency made little to no sense in and of itself, let alone in relation to the FBI, the CIA, and other allied agencies featured in the game. The stress penalty, which was assessed to players who work overtime, didn’t fit with the stereotype of grizzled police officers that the game wanted.

In contrast, Everybody Lies plays well on the genre expectations. Every person at the table has their own complicated backstory. There is room for quarterbacking, which allows one person to direct all actions. However, no one is actually Batman. This game displays remarkable restraint. The Dark Knight can be summoned by players to help them move cases. He will also bring his gruff demeanor, and a variety of hi-tech investigative tools. The necessary narrative hand-waving that Detective games must perform to move the action along therefore becomes a feature, not a bug.

My biggest disappointment, however, is with the game’s required web integration. Clues and other narrative bits in Everybody Lies get pulled from several decks of cards. These cards often point you to an additional website. The website is slow and awkward, at least in the pre-release version. I am only about one in, and have yet to come across anything that could not have been made into a physical object from the box. Essentially, the web app adds nothing to the experience, and in some cases, detracts from it — but I imagine it does make the game a lot less expensive to produce.

Batman: Everybody Lies should be available at retail stores starting on May 19 for $50.00. Pre-orders are available now at the Portal Games website.

Batman: Everybody Lies was previewed using a retail copy provided by Portal Games. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.