Giles Corey woke up from a silent rest, to an angry mob of people at his door. His trusted friend and neighbor, Thomas Danforth, was claiming that Giles is the person who killed Samuel Parris, another town member. This of course was not true, but nobody had any proof otherwise. They sent him up to plead his case, and Giles had nothing to say. They voted him guilty, and he still said nothing. Some more sinister members caught on, and Abstained from voting. Right before he was hung, he smiled. He was a Jester, whose goal is to get lynched! Thomas tried to plead to Giles to not kill him, but Giles haunted him the next night. Thomas was the real killer! This is the Town of Salem, where you can never be safe. Everyone lying, deceiving and even offending each other to win and be the last survivors. Can you triumph through this?

Town of Salem was made by BlankMediaGames in December of 2014, inspired by the games Mafia and Werewolf. The goal of this game is to kill off the opposing players either by lynching or if the role permits, kill during the night. This creates a Battle Royal scenario, where people must figure out who within the town is bad. This chaos can be very overwhelming, and can seem impossible in some cases to overcome. The games has a maximum of 15 players, so there is usually time to figure out who is guilty. My favorite part of the game has to be the Custom Matches. In this format, people randomly become host and choose what roles will be in the game. This really allows for creativity to blossom from players. On the other hand, this also allows for terrible matches where nobody is happy. Thankfully you can repick the host with enough votes.
In this game, there are 3 main factions, the Town, the Mafia, and the Neutrals. The Town are the “good guys”, because they want to end the Mafia and most Neutrals. The most important of Townies is the Jailor, who jails one person each night and decides to execute them or not whilst they interrogate. Mafia members can see who else is in the Mafia, and can talk during the night. The Godfather is the leader. They are immune to attacks and kill one person each night, or can tell a mafioso to kill instead. The Neutrals are my favorite. Most are loners that do their own thing, like Werewolves or Arsonists. Then there is the more neutral of Neutrals, like the Amnesiac and Survivor. These roles really have a way of balancing each other, by making sure most rolls have a weakness made by another role. Like how an Escort can roleblock a Serial Killer, but will die in the process, or that Investigators can find out who other players are… from a selection of possible roles. It’s an important part of the game to have weaknesses.

Even though the roles are balanced, players are not. One of the biggest problems with Town of Salem are the players themselves. Many spam the chat with swears, insults, or wierd symbols. Teaming is also a big problem. People can use Skype to know each other's roles, and can create parties with other players. This means some games are bound to lose, especially in Custom Mode. These problems put a dent in an otherwise amazing game. BlankMediaGames has tried to stop it though. They have implemented a report icon in the game. If a person is reported enough times for the same reason, they will be banned. Another option is to enable the Chat Filter that makes swears into words like “child born out of wedlock”, and “flummery”. I believe these to be helpful, but don’t really stop the problems themselves.

As a game, it seems like a multiplayer battle royal that makes use of the Salem Witch Trials for selling reasons, but there is more to it. Players need to have a good grasp of lying through problems, and be deceiving. They must also understand what they must do what the roles says to do, and be able to withstand the other players. I have played this game a lot, and can say that this is a overall great game. I rate the game 7/10, because of the sometimes aggressive players and large learning curve, Yet I still highly recommend it for the fun, replayable, multiplayer experience. You can always get enjoyment from a game like this.