The Resistance: Avalon is a social deception and deduction game where 5-10 people are split into two factions, good and evil, and influence the outcome of King Arthur’s quest. The game is best played with as many people as you can get, as this will add more variety and interaction throughout the game.
The Resistance: Avalon takes about 30 minutes to play through and can contain interesting moments of accusation and deception. I have found that it is best played with a group of people who all know eachother (that way you know eachother’s tendancies and won’t take offense to being called out) and are in a “fun” mood. Social deception & deduction games, from my own experience, give back as much as you put in. If you are getting into character talking a bunch you will likely have more fun then someone who isn’t.
With that in mind, The Resistance: Avalon holds up well to the other mainstays of the social deduction genres as it provides unique twists through the use of special roles, and allowing the evil team a hail marry at the end to try and win. One of the main problems with many social deduction games is that usually only a few people get special roles while the rest participate as generic people; and while The Resistance: Avalon does suffer from this slightly, I think it has enough unique roles and interaction between players that it comes off as enjoyable (almost more so because there is no pressure) when you get assigned a generic role.
The Resistance: Avalon is a great party game as it doesn’t require people to be centered around the board and maintains a highly player interaction in a casual setting. Be prepared for yelling, accusations, last ditch defense and a bunch of laughter if you decide to pick up this game.