But no one wants to hear me complain about editing! You clicked on this post because you saw "Gen Con," right?
Wait--what's Gen Con?
My favorite part of Gen Con are the game demos. Volunteers from around the world and gaming company employees teach you how to play the games they've brought with them. Most of the demos are free, so you can just show up to an empty table and someone will teach you how to play the game they have before them.
My fiance and I are always on the look out for good games that function really well with just two players. Party games are great, but they don't always work so well when everyone else is busy...
Games I Played and Enjoyed:
-Codenames Duet by CGE
Rating: 5/5 stars Ages: 10+ Players: 2 Time: 15-30 minutes
This game was by far one of my favorites! This two player cooperative game plays much in the same as the other Codenames games--except it was designed for two players. Your opponent is the clock, therefore the game forces you to make your codenames useful for more than one agent location. It was great to play with my future husband--we made a pretty good team! But if you don't trust my judgement on how awesome this game is, let me just tell you this: they sold out EVERY SINGLE DAY. =/
- Mino & Tauri by Amigos Rating: 5/5 stars Ages: 6+ Players: 2 Time: 3 minutes
Another two player cooperative that I absolutely LOVED. Mino & Tauri are aliens that have crash landed on Earth and lost all of their belongings. It is up to you and your partner to help them collect all of their things before the clock runs out. The catch? Mino & Tauri are trapped on opposite sides of the game board, held together by telepathic (magnetic) connections and each side of the game board is a maze with no solution and only half of the missing items. The only way to move through hedges is if your partner on the other side pulls you through. Communication required.
Rating: 4/5 Ages: 13+ Players: 2-5 Time: 120 minutes
This was by far one of the more difficult games we demo'd. There's a LOT going on. But it's also a lot of fun for anyone who enjoys science. The object of the game is to experiment with the different elements and publish your findings to the public to increase your ranking as an alchemist. The cool part is that there is an app component that allows game play to be different each time you play. There's a lot of strategy involved, as you only have 6 rounds to find out and publish as much as you can! The artwork is also very beautiful and the game is just over all fun!
Rating: 5/5 Ages: 8+ Players: 2-5 Time: 30-60 minutes
The goal of this game is to build railways to connect cities. You get extra points by completing mission cards (which connect you from one specific city to another). You build your railways by spending the corresponding railway cards necessary to build your track. The game continues until one play is completely out of train cars. This game was a lot of fun! I absolutely loved it!
Rating: 4/5 Ages: 10+ Players: 2-5 Time: 45-60 minutes
This game was really neat! It is set up just like an Escape the Room puzzle! You have to solve riddles and clues to escape the room before your time runs out! This particular Escape the Room is all tucked away into a deck of cards. You start with the beginning card. From it you will find clues that will lead you to the next card. Unfortunately, the game is a one-time play. It would be great for library programming though. It is easy enough to set up, and while the puzzles might be challenging, they are very self-explanatory. I think kids and adults alike would really like this game.
Games I Played and Did Not enjoy:
These ratings are totally based on personal preference. I am in no way, shape, or form a professional gamer nor a gaming connoisseur. If you loved the games listed below, please don't hate me. With that being said:
-Fan Hunter: Urban Warfare by DevirRating: 2/5 stars Ages: 14+ Players: 2 Time: Forever??
Starting with the game's positives, the back story was awesome: an evil dictator has outlawed fun and the Resistance is trying to steal it back! The artwork was great... I just don't think strategy games based on luck are my thing. The game was pretty complicated (for me--first time Miniature/ dice rolling game player) and relied A LOT on the luck of the dice. Turn taking wasn't consistent and was determined by drawing coins out of a bag. (This is probably what I liked least about the game.) One side could literally take all five moves before the second player could move. It also felt like it took FOREVER to play through one round (mostly because turns were inconsistent).
Rating: 3/5 stars Ages: 13+ Players: 1-5 Time: 30 minutes
I think with this one, if we had stuck around to play it more, I probably would have liked it better. (This by the way, was the ONLY demo game I WON...) It felt very complicated to me to start off, but once I got the hang of it things went much smoother (obviously, you won, Larkynn...). The goal of this game was to build your pyramid. You do so by matching symbols across the top with symbols in the bottom two corners of the cards. Depending on what symbols you have exposed (not covered up by other cards) at the top of your cards, you have a certain amount of actions you can do. There is one action per level of your pyramid that you have a card placed on. The trick becomes adding (hiring) when you do not have a hire symbol uncovered or have covered all of the upper symbols in any of you pyramid levels. If you don't save up barter coins in advance, you could end up missing out on any number of turns. (If anything, I found playing with strangers a bit intimidating and anxiety inducing. At home, with friends after I was more comfortable playing the game, it would probably get a 4/5 or higher.)
-NMBR9 by 999 GamesRating: 3/5 stars Ages: 8+ Time: 20 minutes
This probably would have been a fun game if it hadn't given me a panic attack (I think it was mostly the idea of playing with strangers, knowing every move was being scrutinized. Oh, and the fact that I suck with spacial computation and have an irrational fear of looking like an idiot.) The goal is to build levels of numbers, one on top of the other. Pieces touching the table give you ZERO points. Every other layer multiplies the number by the level for your score. The tiles are number shaped. You have to overlap two different number tiles to stack them and they cannot have pieces of upper tiles that are not supported by a tile underneath. Each player is building their own number tower--this is a game that can be played either by yourself (my ideal version of the game, honestly) or with 2+ players. The more players you have, the less points each individual will score as the game is over when you run out of any number tile. The number tile placement is determined by drawing a card from the top of the deck. Among friends, this game would probably get a 4/5 or higher. This would also probably be a good library program game.
My Personal Spoils:
- Mino & Tauri (HAD TO HAVE IT!)
- Catan: Cities and Knights (Haven't played it yet, but we have the base game and finally learned through a few demos how to actually play it... looking forward to this one for sure!)
- AttrAction (This one we didn't play until we got home. There are 23 super magnets that you set on a flat surface and play marbles with. That's right, you take one magnet and shoot it into the other magnets, and whatever sticks together are the magnets you get to keep and use as a scoreboard. Whoever has the most magnets when the table clears is the winner! I am not so great at this, but it is a lot of fun. Also, it can be played by just two people! YAY!)
- High Noon Saloon (Haven't played this one yet. It was only $4 and the box says 2-4 players... Has anyone played this one yet?)
- RACK-O (An oldie, but a goodie ;) We won this one for free at one of the demo booths. Never turn down free games--especially if you like them!)
- Killer Bunnies (We've played this one with a few different groups of friends. This is a fairly simple deck building game. You can play it with just two people, but as with most games, the more the merrier, you know?)
- Holmes: Sherlock and Mycroft (Another 2 player game. This one was one of the more complicated ones. And it made me sad that it doesn't involve you actually solving a mystery, but it is quite fun. A bit like playing Go-Fish and 7 Wonders at the same time, but with only 2 people.)
- You Must Be an Idiot (Clearly a party game. We haven't tested this one yet... but we are looking forward to it!)
- Attack on Titan (This was a future hubby pick. He loves the anime and it plays a bit like King of Tokyo. Haven't actually played this one, but we watched a demo. Can't wait to play it!)
Wait! Larkynn, you're missing Codenames Duet! You said you loved it, but didn't BUY it?? --Uhh yeah. It was sold out, remember? ;) But the good news is that it will be in regular gaming stores by Friiiiiiiday! (Guess where I'll be!)
--Larkynn
P.S. All game information, such as Ages, Players, and Time were borrowed from boardgamegeeks.com and all of my images were borrowed from Google searches. Most of them are from places like Amazon or Boardgamegeeks--just so you're aware. All rating is totally my opinion though!
