James.Ramey

Mr. Jack is a two player deduction game in which one player is Jack the Ripper disguised as one of the 8 characters on the board, and the other player must try to deduce which of the 8 characters is Jack. The game clocks in at 20-45 minutes.

On each turn, the players draw 4 character cards, and each control two of them. All of the 8 characters have special abilities ranging from drawing an Alibi card (which proves a characters innocence), to moving additional characters around. At the end of the turn, if Mr. Jack is near a light (or otherwise illuminated), all of the characters that are not illuminated are flipped over to their “innocent” side, and if Mr. Jack is in the dark, all characters illuminated are innocent. This continues until either Jack is caught, escapes, or lasts 8 turns. Through the game, 4 of the 6 lamp posts will be turned off, making it easier for Jack to evade.

This game plays so quick that you can easily fit two games in; one where you play Mr. Jack, and one where your co-player plays Jack. The two sides play different, and are fresh enough to make you want to continue playing.

Mr. Jack is a light game, so don’t come into this expecting a deeply strategic brain burner. Half the fun of the game is taking a risk and accusing someone, even when you don’t have it entirely pinned down.

If you’re a fan of light games made for two players, you will probably enjoy this. If you don’t like having to deduce information out of limited clues, you may want to give this a pass.

Dixit is a party/social game where players place cards face down that best fit the first player’s phrase. The phrase can be anything as long as it’s tied to something real. It plays 3 to 6 players, and is better with more players, and weighs in right around 30 minutes a game.

Dixit reminds me of Apples to Apples, except I love Dixit and cannot stand Apples to Apples. Dixit rewards creativity, and still manages to be funny and entertaining. The game comes with 84 large cards, all of which have spectacular surrealist artwork. The short playing time, high quality art and ease of play makes this a great light game to start off a night with, or make a night out of!

Dixit does have some flaws, however. It is prone to runaway winners, at least in my experience. And, even though it’s a party game, it tends to reward couples or close friends, and punish the members of the game that are new to the circle.

There isn’t much left to say about the game. If you’re a fan of party games, give this a try. If you’re a fan of creative games that keep your brain working, give this a try. But if you have a group made up of acquaintances or not-so-close friends, you might want to give this a pass.

Dominion is a deck-building game that plays in 20-45 minutes. It is centered around the purchasing of cards available to everyone; some of which are cards that give you more actions or money, and some of which are victory point cards. Whoever has the most victory points when one of the game ending conditions is met, wins.

In Dominion, all players start with the same deck: 3 estates (which are worth 1 VP), and 7 copper (worth 1 currency). Each turn you draw 5 cards, and with the drawn cards you will do actions that will hopefully allow you to buy cards. Each card has a certain value, and initially, some cards will be out of reach of your measly 5 copper hand (at best). But thats where the action cards come into play; some cards you can buy will give you either additional actions, additional money, additional cards to draw, or other benefits — and often a mixture of the above. When you need to draw cards and your deck is empty, you shuffle your discard pile and start all over again.

The fun comes from finding the balance between buying up action cards (which will hopefully help you get victory points), and buying up victory point cards (which offer you nothing during the game, and in fact hinder you often, but may get you the win in the end). Each card you add to your deck changes the balance of the deck, so finding the perfect balance is difficult, but incredibly satisfying.

The game does have problems, however. You shuffle your cards constantly throughout the game, which both slows the game down marginally and wears out the cards a little faster than normal. This can be addressed with sleeving the cards, however. But what there isn’t a simple fix for is that the game often feels like you’re playing a solitaire game with friends. Most of the cards don’t affect the others, and the ones that do can be fixed by other cards that don’t make you interact. For instance, the Witch gives minus VP’s to players; This adds interaction, but you can mitigate that with any of the cards that allow you to trash (remove from your deck) cards.

If you enjoy quick, deep games with plenty of replay, then you should try Dominion. If you are looking for a highly interactive game, then maybe Dominion isn’t for you.

Carcassonne is a quick and easy game that offers something for everyone. It is incredibly easy to teach, but it offers a challenge that even a seasoned player will experience.

On your turn, you draw a tile from one of the face down stacks of tiles. The tile you drew will depict one of a few things; a road, a part of a castle, a Kloister, or a mixture of those. You then must place that tile somewhere on the board, comprised of tiles placed on previous turn. As you might expect, the tile must be placed logically, meaning that a road must connect to a road, a castle continues or ends a castle, et cetera. You then are allowed to place one of your wooden pieces (affectionately known as Meeples) on the tile just placed. If you finish a road, you gain points for the road if you have a Meeple on it, if you finish a castle, you gain points there, and so on. After all the tiles have been placed, you compare scores (with a few end game points thrown in), and whoever has the most wins.

Carcassonne is not my favorite game, nor is it in my top 10. But it is a game that I enjoy playing, and play frequently. If you enjoy a light- to medium-game that is quick and easy but has depth, try Carcassonne

I’ve always been a fan of horror themed anything. Give me a terrible horror movie and I’ll almost certainly enjoy it more than a romance or action film. With that in the open, take my review with a grain of salt.

Mansions of Madness is a game set in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu universe. You and your friends play a group of investigators, with one player playing the Keeper, who runs the Mansion. The game plays like many thematic/Ameri-trash games, so I will avoid giving an overview of the basic game play.

What makes me love this game more than almost any other game I own is the amount of story in it; each of the investigator’s has an interesting story, and each of the scenarios (there are 5 in the base game) is engrossing and slightly variable.

The combat is innovative, and fun. Instead of having a dice-based combat system, depending on what type of enemy you are attacking, you will draw different cards, and the cards themselves are then split in to types of attack. The cards often have an encounter on them, a la Arkham Horror, and the player must try to pass the encounter.

There are puzzles that the player can (and sometimes must) overcome in order to uncover the secrets of the Mansion and escape alive. This mechanic alone makes this game very interesting and exciting to play.

All in all, this is a game that is dripping with theme. If you’re looking for a heavy euro game, then you already know you won’t like this game. But if you and your are into games for the experience of playing them, then this is the game for you. It’s a staple of my collection, and I firmly believe everyone should try it.