I played my second game of Arkham Noir this morning. Unlike the first game, I lost this one. I think I dug through 3/4 of the draw deck before I found my first key, and I was up to three cases and regular case delays and investigator fatigue by the time I closed my first case.
I did manage to get 4 out of 5 of the unique clues I needed to win, but failed one final stress check and lost.
I feel like I played very well, although I did briefly get my delay stack confused with my hand one time when I was trying to draw a card from it, at the orders of another card I had just played.
Except for memorizing all the action symbols, and counting how many of each clue card I have in the deck, I haven’t needed to rely on the reference material much at all after the first game.