Android

This game is packed with components, so be prepared to spend about an hour pressing out bits and sorting out the parts (ziplock bags ftw!).
It is buetifully put together with amazing artwork, and now what is basically the high standard of all FFG products.
The rules are pretty straight forward, but it is by no means a quick game, be prepared for 4-5 hours for your first game.

So what do you do?
It's not so much a murder mystery, more a fit-up.
Each player takes one of the 5 characters, and they get too hunch cards, one tells you who is innocent, the other who is guilty.
Your job is to ensure that the evidence is placed such that your hunches are correct.
Simple...
Ah but the other players have there thoughts, and they will invariably try and blow your chances, particulalry if they have the opposite of you.

How to play?
There are 5 murder scenarios each with their own special rules.
Each player moves around a board (using a vehicle ruler measuring card) going to locations that provide evidence. Once they have this evidence they then place it on the suspects in one of 3 places, strong evidence, normal evidence and weak evidence. You have a set amount of time points to use in your turn, so each go can involve moving to several locations.
Ther game is played over 2 weeks of 6 days each (no sunday it seems), and each new day introduces new events that effect places on the board.
The aim is to have the most "Guilt Points" on the guy you have a guilty hunch on and as little as possible on your Innocent guy. You can choose to play these guilt points hidden or showing (a whole malkavian deviousness can exist with massive mind games an who and how you play these points makes this itself a complete game on it's own).
So your innocent hunch guy is looking super guilty, this is no problem, you can call a hit, eliminating the suspect. A dead suspect cannot be guilty.
Secondly as you are zooming round, your private life interferes with you, with each character having a sub plot they need to resolve.
Finally there is also a conspiracy to unfold, to not only pinpoint the murderer, but which orgainsation is behind the death.
You have your own unique cards that help you get through the game (light cards and specials), and other characters get bad cards to play on you (Dark Cards).
Card play is based on a scale the players have, a light and dark scale, and it costs Dark points to use the light cards and Light points to use the dark cards on your opponents. Getting this balance right is a challenge in itself.
However all is not lost as each character gets a cheat sheet to advise on the best way to play the character, as well as hints on who and how to effect the other characters.

How to Win?
The aim is to collect Victory Points, achieved through piecing the conspiracy together, getting through your private suplots and of course "solving" the murder.

After 2 weeks, you reveal all the guilt points, and the highest is the murderer, the lowest guilt is innocent. Having this right gives you victory points.
The player with the most victory points wins.

Overview
All in all I would say this was more of a roleplaying game in a box, rather then a traditional board game, and has a good sci-fi feel, makes me think of bladerunner personally).
The game is extremely strategic, and with all the variants, a game with excellent replayability.

Android
In the dystopian future Androids and Clones are a commodity, murder and corruption a way of life. Players take the role of a hard bitten, flawed detective working the latest body to fall in the neon lit streets of New Angeles. Each player chooses from an array of five detectives, ranging from a grizzled female bounty hunter, an Android trying to be human, a Clone psychic, Corrupt Detective trying to redeem himself and a P.I .War vet, just trying to stay sane.
Each character comes equipped with a speeder template, indicating how far they can move, a Light and Dark deck, indicating their flaws and qualities. The light deck is draw by the controlling player, the Dark deck goes on the board, so other players can draw from it to produce nasty effects. Each character also has a Story deck which shows the events taking place in their life, while they are trying to solve the murder.
The game is all about points. At the start of the game each character is given a Guilty and an Innocent hunch, being right about these gives a hefty bonus at the end of the game. Completing Personal story cards is another way to gain points, resolving the characters story positively can often be more beneficial than solving the murder.
Top left of the board-I kid you not- is a small jigsaw. This is the conspiracy. By collecting pieces of the conspiracy and fitting them in here you can increase the points awarded by your favours at the end of the game, as well as gaining points for completing lines and connecting different parts of the conspiracy.
Each detective has a time track to use on their turn. Time is expended by moving, following up leads, playing beneficial cards or getting a jump on the case.
Movement is done using a car range ruler (some detectives have better wheels than others). As well as New Angeles, Detectives can ride the Beanstalk, a space elevator, all the way to the moon, to track down leads there. Locations play a special part in the game, as they have different attributes that can confer bonuses or penalties and earn favours.
Following leads and collecting pieces of the conspiracy makes up the majority of the game. Evidence comes in three varieties Physical, Document and Testimony. When a lead is followed up, an evidence token is draw from the pool and placed face down on any of the suspects. Evidence can be positive or negative, so there is no way to know which suspect is going home in bracelets. This is where a bit of bluff comes in, do you stack evidence on one of your suspects to try and get a conviction, or do you stack it on your opponent’s to set them up for a hit. Hits can be placed on suspects, if they get three, they are eliminated and no one scores any points for them.
Android is a long game. With three players it can go on for four hours and the more players you have, the longer it takes. That being said, the Dark cards give each player something to do when it is not their turn. You have to be wide awake otherwise a good card playing opportunity may be missed. The story cards are another way of messing with the other players. Story cards accumulate baggage tokens. Good baggage is earned by the player for playing certain cards or acting in a certain manner. Bad baggage can be stacked by the other players, using the special rules on the current story card. If one player is in the lead, simply pile on the bad baggage to knock down their score. Stories are resolved at the end of each week with different pathways midweek, so there is always a way to give the other players a good kick in the teeth. As well as giving a negative score at the end of the game, badly resolved stories can give the character negative effects.
The investigation takes place over a two week period, with random events drawn at various intervals, that modify the way the murder plays out. The events and the character’s story cards have a real pulp feel. The designer has gone to a lot of trouble to actually make the game tell a story rather than just play out.
Android has been beautifully done. Component wise there are ton of bits, and the board is a work of art. The different story cards, events and murders, ensure that each game is unique and the characters all play in different ways. The murder itself can seem a bit like a frame job, rather than an actual attempt at solving a crime and the fact that you can put hits on the suspects does go against the theme of the game. The conspiracy works well, but can become the focus to score early points, rather than solving the murder.
Overall Android is a wonderful story telling game, that runs a little long and whilst always involving can be quite complex.
Definitely worth selling the electric sheep for.