The Game

"Are you ready to play The Game, or will The Game play you?"

Designer: Steffen Benndorf

Publisher: IDW GAMES

Players: 1-5

Age: 8+

Game Time: 20 minutes

Objective of the game: "Get rid of the stack of cards by taking turns to from 1-100 and 100-1 in four different piles."

Board Game Contains:

- 102 Player Cards

- 6 "On Fire" Cards

- 1 Rulebook

Game Summary:

You and your friends will have to work together in order to survive. During the game, four rows of cards are formed in the middle of the table. Two rows are in asccending order (1-99) and two rows are in descending order (100-2). Everyone playes together in the same team and tries to lay as many cards as possible, all 98 if possible, in four rows or cards. Each player gets dealt 8 cards to start with. On your turn, you have to lay at least 2 cards from your hands to any of the four piles. You then have to pick up the same number of cards from the draw pile that you laid that round. If a player can't play a card, you lose the game and The Game played you! If however, if all players manage to draw everything from the draw pile and get rid of the cards in their hands,the players win the game!

Game Review:

I bet you never knew you'd ever come across a game that is literally The Game. I certainly didn't and that's what made me buy The Game. This is a very interesting cooperative game. Normally when you come across a co-op game, you communicate and reveal most things to your teammates; this card game however, only lets you communicate in codes. This is a game where attention to the wording of your questions and answers is key. You can't ask a question or give a hint that leads to a specific number. For example, you can't ask specific questions like "Do you have number 79?" or "The next card I play is 5 times higher than the previous one." You can see where that might get tricky.

There are also multiple challenges with this game. One, of course, it being a co-op game and not being able to communicate your needs and decisions directly. Another would be the unknown strategies each players carry out. Drawing cards from the deck constantly changes your game plan. The biggest challenge I've noticed is restricting yourself to the rules of the game. It's difficult to give hints that lead to a specific number.

On the bright side, The Game is a wonderful card game that challenges your communication skills and teamwork. It's a very satisfying game to win! Although, on a typical co-op game, the more players you have the higher your chances are of beating the game. In this particular game, my experience is that the more people play the harder it is to adhere within the communication rules of the game. Have you ever tried to solve an escape room with 5 or more players? It's pretty hard. So many voices, so many opinions. It makes it a lot harder to focus. I suggest playing this game with only 2 players that way it's easier to control how much you're allowed to say or do. With just 2 players, it also makes it more challenging.