I would need this, this and that pile next round. I don't care what you do, but leave these piles for me!
The Game: Extreme
Designer: Steffen Benndorf, Reinhard Staupe
Artist: Oliver Freudenreich
Published: 2016
Players: 1-5
Playing Time: 20-30 Mins
BGG Rating: 6.9
BGG Ranking: 2723
Publisher: NSV
Mechanisms: Cooperative Game, Hand Management
Sleeves: EUR 59x91mm
Game Description:
Players in The Game try to discard all 98 cards in the deck onto four discard piles in order to win, but they need to do so in the right ways.
Quick play overview:
Players are trying to run through the deck of 98 cards numbered from 2 to 99. Each turn a player has to play at least 2 cards from their hand to the 4 piles on the table.
Two piles go in ascending order while the other two piles only go in the descending order. With a special rule that you can go against the flow of the pile ONLY if you place a card that is exactly lower/higher by 10 than the top card of the pile.
Players will have 8 cards in their, they must follow turn order and shouldn't talk too much with their friends… and all this makes this pure matematical game a very fun group exercise.
Extreme edition adds a few extra rules that will destroy those few groups that played this game too much and actually managed to win more than 33% of their plays.
Final thoughts:
Each turn you will have some perfect cards to place… with the caveat that it's not your turn and there is a big chance that your »friends« will ruin the piles by the time it's your turn again. It's anger inducing, but it's also fun.
The rules say that players cannot talk about the actual cards in their hands but you are allowed to say »leave this pile alone« or »you should put more cards on this pile as I will totally destroy it once my turn is over« etc.
FINAL SCORE:
Gameplay & How often I want to play it: 8/10
It's a quick game that will make you curse other players and also high five them when somebody will save a pile.
As it is quick and not very tiring on the brain, we always play a few games in a row, searching for that epic moment that happens quite often.
Art & Graphic Design:
Graphic design is clear and… well, as there is no story, nothing was expected from the art department.
Rules & Complexity:
Rules set is as simple as it can get. You can teach the game in 2 minutes and start playing.
It's a mathy game at it's core and that makes it complex for some players.
The extreme version adds that bit more meat that will make the game interesting also for the numbers-loving-don't-care-for-art-and-story gamers.
Theme & Mechanism fit:
Theme & mechawhat?
Fun & Replayability:
I enjoy playing this game very much. It just has to hit the table once every 2-3 months. The numbers game with pushing the limits of what can be said. Saving the game after you or somebody else made a bad move… it's just fun.
There is no exploration or learning curve to this game. You see everything there is in one single play (2 if you want to try the extreme variant). But this game is one of the best at getting emotions out of people.