Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsApproachable, Replayable, Strategic
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2022
Easy to learn for most people who have a base familiarity with board or word games but, as with most genuinely good games, while the rules are simple there is no shortage of depth and strategy. Creativity, planning ahead, keeping track of information and the ability to take strategic risks at the right time are all asked of the player.
The combinations of words and boards are nearly endless and for 25 dollars or less the bang for your buck and replayability are top tier. You could play thousands of games and they’d each be different.
My one caution would be the level of difficulty, as it’s the kind of game that either clicks with someone or it doesn’t. My wife and I are highly experienced gamers and nerdy intellectual types and as such we win the overwhelming majority of the time, as in 90% or more, with very little difficulty. However, we believe our coworkers and their spouses, our parents, our friends, etc would have a much harder time and a much lower win rate, as it’s the kind of game where a single strategic mistake ends the day. If you hit an “assassin” tile you just lose and there’s no opportunity for redemption, so avoiding giving clues that could by any stretch of the imagination lead to your partner guessing one of the forbidden words is absolutely mission critical. Basically, I think this game is probably feast or famine with its difficulty and most average people will lose a lot, and you have to be okay with that if you’re going to purchase this. To the game’s credit, however, it does have a few built-in ways, specifically addressed in its rule book, to make it easier if you need to. Still, given that a certain level of vocabulary is necessary and then within that creativity and abstract thinking is required, this game is almost certainly NOT suitable for younger children.
Games are fast and setup/cleanup don’t take long either, and the game itself is small and easy to store. In my mind the pros vastly outweigh the cons for us and we’re very satisfied with our purchase. Like I mentioned earlier, for just 25 dollars or less if you’re even vaguely interested in this kind of game it’s hard to go too far wrong here.
