Heated

Designer: Marijus Lapinskas, Justina Lapinskiene

Artist: Morta Žukauskaite

Published: 2024
Players: 3-6
Playing Time: 10 Mins
BGG Rating: 7.8

Publisher: Explosive Fox Games

Mechanisms: Hand Management, Take That, Team-Up

Sleeves: EUR 59x92mm

Game Description:

In Heated, players aim to reach a specific score to win, with temperature-themed cards ranging from +1 to +5 and from -1 to -5. Each turn involves drawing a card to either aid or sabotage the player, playing a card from hand to increase or decrease temperature score, and drawing a new card from deck.

Players must avoid reaching a freezing negative score or burning from an excessively high one. Action cards add a twist to gameplay.

Quick play overview:

On your turn you draw a card from the deck and place it in front of you (it could be good or bad), then you play one card from your hand in front of you or other players and refill your hand up to 5 cards.

A bit boring, right? It would be but there are special cards that protect you from opponents, cards that make players lose a turn, cards that let you play multiple cards in the same turn…

Whoever manages to get just the right combination of cards to hit exactly +13 points wins the game. Of course, you can also eliminate all your opponents by freezing them (-13) or overheat them (+16).

Final thoughts:

We were gifted this game by the designer, so we played it just to test it out without many expectations. The game surprised us.. we now use Heated as a warm up before we start with the serious stuff. It’s quick and fun enough to bring out the competitiveness of the players. 

We also let our kids join us one evening … and this is now our go-to family game whenever we have a few minutes to spare. We have to carry it to the hiking trips as well.

FINAL SCORE:

Gameplay & how often I want to play it: 8/10

It’s quick and it’s a bit cutthroat-y. It always manages to bring out laughter and backstabbing in 10 minutes.

Art & Graphic Design:

Simple and clear graphics. You see everything across the table at a glance.

Rules & Complexity:

It’s one of the simplest games out there both rules and play wise. The choice is only if you want to push your score and risk that others burn you out if you fly to close to the sun, or rather stop/burn some other player that is taking the risk.

Theme & Mechanism fit:

Mechanisms fit the non-existing theme :)

Fun & Replayability & Exploration:

We use it as a warm up game and as such it’s fun and replayable. O7 course there is nothing new to learn from play to play, except who of your friends is a #$!**#”$!