Category: Game Reviews

The game of love letter is a game that takes place during medieval times. The story of the game is that multiple princes are fighting for the princesses affection. The way to gain her love is with their letters because they can not speak to her directly. The princes’ goal is to get the letters to the princess by any means necessary. This game is played with 16 cards, 2-4 people can play at a time, and the first person to 4 points wins the affection of the princess. Each of the 16 cards have a designated ability or hindrance. The players must use the card inther hand to either eliminate or hinder a player. The last person left during a round of play gets a point, represented by a token. During the first act of play the players are learning how to play the game by playing the first round. After the first round the players catch on to how the game works. There is not too much of a learning curve when it comes to starting this game. Once you play the first round it becomes easy to catch on. Once you get a basic feel on how the game works and how the cards work then people then start to form a strategy, which moves us on to act 2. In act 2 the players start using their cards and its abilities to their advantage. Within this act players also start trying to read the expressions and gestures of the other players. Now that the players are strategizing the round takes longer to end. Act 2 is the longest of all the acts. Act 3 does not appear until multiple people are on the verge of winning. At this point it is anyone’s game and the push to victory heightens the battle. The satisfaction that comes along with winning is well deserved because of act 2 and the battles within.

Zombie Fluxx is a card game where the rules are constantly changing. Each player starts off with three cards and when it’s your turn you draw one card then play one card. There are four main cards: actions, goals, keepers, and rules. After the action card is played, you put it in the discard pile. The goal cards determine what two keeper cards you need to win the game. The goal cards can change during the game, which can make your chances of winning easier or harder . The rules cards are constantly being added to or taken away from play which can make the game confusing.

The first round was very confusing. It took us a while to figure out how to play the game and the instructions didn’t really help. Once we understood the instructions, the game was a lot easier to play. I didn’t think that it was very fun and I wouldn’t go out of my way to play it again. I spent a lot more time trying to understand how to play the game than enjoying playing the game.

Fluxx is a fairly slow paced game. The first act sees players slowly collecting and playing keepers, and setting early goals and rules. The second act is the bulk of the game. The rules will be changing, which changes how much you can do in a turn and affecting your strategy. The third act is nebulous as one player can still be trying to find their path to victory while another can be ready with a big play that will end the game. It is never clear who is closest to victory as the goalposts can move at any time. It is a game that takes some getting used to and benefits from being played multiple times.

Before last class, I had never played starfluxx before, so the first step was learning the rules. Half of my group had already played before, which sped up the game explanation. The basic rules were ‘draw one, play one’. Act 1 of us playing this game consisted of confusion, mess ups and rulebook referrals. Through this stage, we were all getting the hang of it and understanding the game basics. In act 2, we further understand the game and it got more competitive. In act 3 we knew what we were doing enough to actually try and plan how to win. We are able to figure out game strategies. The winner of the game is ultimately the only one to fully experience act 3, in this game at least. I think this game is half luck and half strategy.

When first starting the game, I was already very overwhelmed. Just by looking at the directions that was in about 5 point font, front & back, on several pages was not fun at all. Also, the directions were just a little confusing. After reading the directions and talking them over with the group we understood that there were different cards that meant different things. These cards include a Keeper (you keep it in front of you), Action (you do the action then put the card in the throw away pile), New Rule (a rule that can override the basic rule), and Goals (played by the basic rules/ kind of similar to action). After figuring out the different types of cards and what they meant, I started to understand.

When starting the game I knew you always had three cards and you would pick one up from the pile and then place one in the throw away pile. Then, I realized how confusing it was getting after laying down several New Rule cards at one time. The amount of rules that can be down at one time is just a little crazy. After talking to my group, I mentioned that I felt like order of operations made the most sense. During this time I also started to learn that when you successfully match two two goals to your keeper cards, you win automatically. So I kept looking at my opponents cards to see how close they were getting.

In the final stages of the game, I finally started to comprehend. We played about three times around total. As you know the first time was for sure the hardest but got much easier each round. I would love to play this game again because it was a brain teaser and really made me think. I guess one thing I wish this game would revise is the rule booklet that they give out. I feel like if the rules were simplified, I would have actually enjoyed the game during the first round.

Bang! is a wild west themed card game, where players take on the role of sheriff, deputy, outcast, and more to face off against other players. Each player starts off with a certain amount of health points and cards, and has to collect cards to take down their opponents’ health points.  Furthermore, each player has a role, which is secret for all but the sheriff.  The player’s role determines their win conditions. When playing Bang! gameplay fell into the pattern of the three-act structure of the story of a game.

Act One:

            This was the start of the game. The first few turns were tricky. It wasn’t until every player had had multiple turns that the gameplay and end aim of the game became clearer, which launched us into act two right around the third round of turns.

Act Two:

            This was the longest part of the game.  At this point, everyone was oriented with the gameplay and their goals.  Now players continually used their turn to use bang cards on the other players to try to get them a step closer to elimination, while other players fended off bang cards using missed cards.  Additionally players utilized beer cards to restore some of their health to stay in the game.  However, the game hit a turning point when a dynamite card got thrown around.  The dynamite card would take away three health points.  The player it was thrown at had only two left, and when they failed to pull the card out of the pile that would fend off the dynamite, their game was over.

Act Three:

            With the first player eliminated, the game reached the third act.  The gameplay was intensified as the players made final plays to win the game.  Victory went to those playing the roles of rogues and outcasts. They managed to whittle down the last health points of the sheriff, which ended the game.

Emily Buzzie 

Zombie Fluxx

Zombie Fluxx was all about being flexible and adapting to new rules and goals. The goal of the game was to follow the rules and complete the goals. To win, you complete the goal, sounds fairly simply however, the rules would change constantly, and so would the goals. One minute you could be seconds away from winning, another minute, you may not have anything that matches the goal. This game was broken up into 4 cards, actions, goals, keepers, and rules (play, hand limit, draw, etc.). 

Was this game fun?

At first, this game was not fun at all. Also, our group did not play with the zombies, so maybe that could affect my opinion, but without the zombies, it was not fun at first but got fun later on. Since none of us have played the game before we had to learn it and it was quite confusing. So at first, the game was stressful rather than fun. Once we understood what we had to do and what we could do, it got a bit more fun. I’m sure over time and playing the game, it would be a lot of fun.

Interactions between players?

The interactions between players was a lot and also a little. There wasn’t much communication between players, you could probably play the game without talking to each other if you wanted to or had to. Interactions were more focused on the cards that each player had. Each card that someone would have, could affect all the other players. The action cards could involve other players, an example would be, getting one card from every member in the group. The goal card would affect your goal and what you are working towards, it could also sabotage another player. If you see a player is close to completing the goal, you could put down a new goal card, causing them to no longer be close to winning. The keeper cards don’t affect or interact with other players, however, these cards can affect your strategy and how you play. Also, some action cards allow you to trade the keeper cards. The rule cards would have the biggest effect on a player. These cards affect how many cards you can pick up, how many cards you are allowed to have, how many cards you need to play, and so on. So in summary, players interact through the cards. 

How long did it take to learn?

This game took a while to learn, and even then it was so difficult, confusing, and stressful. Luckily Professor Ames explained a good bit or else we would have taken even longer to learn the game. The rules and directions don’t explain A LOT, for example, order and hierarchy of the rules are VERY important, but that isn’t mentioned anywhere in the directions. Was a lot of text that wasn’t very helpful. Just reading the directions, and never playing the game before make it a very very difficult learning experience. Unfortunately, how stressful it was to learn is one of the main things I remember about the game.

Would you play again?

Due to the stressful and difficult learning experience, I will probably not play this game again. I will definitely not buy it, or go out of my way to play it. If someone ever asks, “want to play zombie fluxx?”, I’ll just watch. Even if I ended up playing the game, I wouldn’t hesitate to mention my learning experience. All in all the game isn’t bad, for me, the learning experience outweighs the potential future games of zombie flux, i could play.

 

The Jackbox game titled “Patently Stupid” is in a few ways just that, but it is an overall entertaining game and I would say that it is fun. In this short review, I’ll discuss some of the positive and negative aspects of this game, and try to delve into how it succeeds, and where it doesn’t.

The game is relatively easy to play. One person acts as a host, and other players connect with either mobile devices or internet enabled computers. The benefit to this format is that most people have a cellular device, and if not, they probably do have a computer that they can use to fulfill the same purpose. The game is explained by a pair of narrators straight out the gate in very simple terms, yet the explanations themselves are very in depth and make sure to touch on the object of the game thoroughly. That being said, I did notice some slight confusion on my classmates’ faces at some points throughout the game. A disadvantage to this game specifically is that you are simply thrust straight in, and there is a surprisingly large amount to this game. It comes in 4 distinct steps, and each one is slightly different. The long and short of it is the creation of an invention to solve a nonsensical problem that is chosen by other players. Once you have finished your invention, the players convene and vote for their favorite. Only inventions that get a certain number of points are allowed to progress, or succeed, as the game puts it.

The game’s positive aspects outweigh the negatives in a lot of regards. It’s simple, the narrators employ comedy to keep it lighthearted and make sure nobody is getting too bored, the UI is clean and it matches the theme of the game, and there are two rounds, so even if you lose the first, you have a second chance. One of the advantages to this second round is that it’s slightly different than the first, and this means that everyone is competing more directly to see who can solve the problem most effectively, or in the funniest way.

Overall, I think that this game is a lot of fun, but the major downside to this particular format is that it can get repetitive during the second round. Hearing the narrator introduce the same prompt eight times is a bit much, and even though the inventions were funny and they kept interest high, this takes away a little bit from the overall experience.

Additionally, interaction with the game is done solely through a device. Though this allows for people to play remotely, as in our case, it may limit the amount of interaction that players have with each other throughout gameplay. Perhaps it was just our case, but playing over a video call made it impossible to gauge the reactions that other players had to the inventions displayed. In a more personal setting, discussion may be had about why they were good or bad, and a player could use this to their advantage during the second round. This is less a criticism of the game itself and more one of the manner in which we played it.

To conclude, I think Jackbox’s “Patently Stupid,” was an entertaining game and is fun for what it is.

This is a card game played with 16 cards and they all have different abilities. The object of the games is to remove all opponents by using the cards to exclude them from the game. When you are the last person standing you win a token. The person that has 4 tokens at the end wins.

This game is based on medieval characters like a prince, princess, wizard, knight, etc. All of the cards have special abilities and rules that come into play with the game. This game allows you to use deductive reasoning and strategy to play against your opponents.

In the matter of reviewing the Acts of this game, there are multiple acts throughout. The first round is essentially one act, but you play multiple rounds in order to get your tokens to win the game. Therefore, there is a larger act being completed while playing in the smaller acts. The learning curve with this game is not very difficult, but the first round is definitely helpful to understand how the game is played. Once you learn how the game is played you are able to come up with a strategy and go into the second act. Once you are in the second act, this is a very confrontational part of the game. Anything goes, and this part of the game goes quickly. Towards the end there are the rates where you feel the alarm of victory or defeat, but you are really not sure who is going to win. It all depends on how the cards are played out. So, initial game is quick, but when you play multiple games in order to get tokens the conflict lasts longer. This is where you can really drag out act 2 because multiple people can win the small games. Once you hit act 3 towards the end there can be either a clear winner, or other people can attempt to play and get more tokens. There is some strategy to winning, but there are some curveballs in there to really give you that alarm at the end.

Describe interactions between players? – There would be more of a social interaction if we were all together instead of over meet. That would add a lot more to the game. Also having more of a connection with the players would allow for people to play with inside jokes to better “split the room”. This would allow for much more to be said if the players know each other’s barriers of what can and cannot be said.

How long did it take to learn? – It took the first round as a learning curve. But after the first round I understand this game mode fully.  I may have been slightly frustrated with the learning curve if I was trying to be more competitive at the time.

Would you play it again? – Yes this is not the first time I have played and will most likely not be the last.

I really enjoy a lot of Jackbox games. I always find myself having fun regardless if I am in the audience or not. However watching people play Zeeple dome was not enjoyable at all. It was very frustrating. A lot of the players were not able to hear the rules announced so they did not know that they were supposed to match the colors until the game was almost over. Even though the bag guys were glowing a matching color to specific players it was still hard to catch on unless you heard the rules announced through the TV. Two of the players were also very close in color which made for some more confusion. It was also not immediately clear that you could revive other players by touching them. This is a type of game that you would have to play once first to understand if you did not hear the rules. The character design is very cute and likable however when it comes to the bad guys it was a little hard to notice their colors. This game would most likely be a game that I only play a few times just to see all of the stages and then never really play again. There is a lack of satisfaction when it comes to playing this game.

I actually have never played any Jackbox games before so playing last class was very enjoyable.  I say the game that stood out to me the most was Split the Room. Again, I have not played Jackbox ever, but I feel like this game was my favorite because of the style. The style of  Split the Room is a set up as sort of a would-you-rather game but made you think a little more. I thought the game was very easy to learn and I quickly picked up that the less that the group votes for one option over the other, the more points you get.  Getting to think who would pick what answer and trying to go with the opposite was fun because it made me try and think hard and fast before time ran out. At first I was a little confused but I feel like it was a very easy to learn game.   

The game that I found least enjoyable was patiently stupid.  I know drawing is not my thing so when I went to play it, I was more anxious about not knowing how to draw rather than enjoying the game.  Maybe if they gave us a little more time to think about what to draw I would like it a little more.  Also, I did not like how all of us could not play it at the same time. Maybe they could fix the game a little more by making the time to draw a little longer and allowing more players to play at a time.