FFG's f**king with us by giving it Apparel and not Clothing, ensuring that you can't keep a gun in your hat with Hidden Pocket. I'd consider this a canon offense against Michael McGlen, who is exactly the kind of guy who'd have a gun hidden in his (visibly present!) fedora. Give me the Colt Hat Pocket, MJ. >:x
I feel like people criticize and complain about aspects of the "Doomed Chain" that are pretty tame. Yes you will have to start with another lvl 0 investigator mid-way through the campaign. Yes most of the time there isn't really anything you can do to deal with Doomed and Accursed Fate, as not drawing isn't a viable option, removing any agency from the player. But in exchange, you get a weakness that is never very dangerous or hard to deal with in gameplay.
The actual bad thing making this the worst basic weakness to me, is that when you draw The Bell Tolls, it means you don't get to play the game anymore. If you find yourself drawing it early in a scenario, you're left spending the next, depending on player count and which specific scenario, 2 to 6 hours not playing the game. That I assume you enjoy playing. Maybe some people will like that a weakness can hurt you in real life, but I feel like this is pushing it a little too far. It isn't much fun to simply not be allowed to play. It's actually even worse if you happened to get lucky and only get The Bell Tolls added for the last scenario. You're then robbed of the big final if you draw it early. Like if a coop video game decided in the last 5 hours to lock you out of playing, now you only get to watch your friends finish it.
To me the whole thing could be fixed if the effect of The Bell Tolls was something like "Revelation - The hour of your demise is arriving. In seven rounds or when this scenario ends, you are killed." Because the "Doomed Chain" can be pretty fun, at least before the very end. Being scared of finding your weakness because drawing it will have actual big repercussions, is a very different feel than playing with any other weakness. I just think the repercussions should stick to gameplay ones (killing your investigator), rather than the chance of making a specific session (or sessions, I only play in 4 players, and we usually take our time) of Arkham boring.
This review is made from the viewpoint of someone who is playing only with cards released from 2026 and onwards.
This card just usually feels great to play. Of course, I say this for those who have plenty of items and weapons they may want to find. It sucks to draw this if you only have a few targets that you have already drawn or used. For those who need plenty of tools and weapons for fighting and investigating, plus a little utility here and there? Heck yeah. Being able to thin out your deck a little bit or draw into things like Joe Diamond's weakness early so you can prep around it can be nice, but situation-dependent.
The real advantage I have found when playing it is just how versatile it is. I would say almost every scenario I have played with it has at some point put me in a weird situation. I would have some of my equipment out, usually prepped for what was on the board, but then a new twist had been thrown out that was really slowing me down. My duo partner was going to be even worse at handling the issue than I was, and I wasn't BAD, but an extra point to a skill test or an extra damage to an attack would REALLY seal it. Enter this card, cheap and handy. It is simple, but you will always be happy to see one in your opening hand and will usually find good use for it if you draw it later down the line.
Magnifying Glass, M1911, Machete, Fingerprint Kit; the list goes on.
Just a fun fact, that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: the guy on the artwork is either Danny Schaefer, lead designer for Star Wars: Unlimited; or Grubby (Manuel Schenkhuizen), a Dutch pro player; or, even worse: a triple of them, still UNAWARE of all this, whose identity is yet to be uncovered in a cosmic-horror paradox.
EDIT: Disproven (see comments)
Another philosophical one. If you are not into pointless discussions, skip it.
While it is surely not intended I wonder if RAW (rules as written) this allows Hidden Pocket to be attached to a gun. But wait, also other "non-Firearm" Upgrade events exist:
Explanation: The line "Attach to a Clothing or Armor asset you control." on Hidden Pocket is an effect of the card, not a play restriction. Without it (and ignoring the "needs to change the game state" rule) the card would simply do nothing and go straight to discard, but could still be played. RAW, Primed for Action circumvents the whiffing by specifying an attachment target.
The "if able" on Primed for Action is a bit of a vague phrase in my point of view, since it does not specify what qualifies that event to be "able" to be attached - and again, "Attach to a Clothing or Armor asset you control." is not a restriction.
To conclude: While I do not see much sense in playing this "combo", they could have simply added the word "only" to the sentence on Hidden Pocket to prevent brainfuckers like me from posting reviews like this. I dare to assume they omitted it mainly for layout reasons, as the effect would then have used up another line.