Games review: Clues in Twos and The Pretender

We recently reached out to various board games companies with questions about games design skills, which we discussed in this episode (take a listen, it was a really fun one!). We had thoughtful and insightful answers from a range of organisations, and some also gifted us some games for review.

One of those lovely companies was Gamely, who make fun party games which are also sustainable - no plastic! They sent us two games to play: The Pretender and Clues in Twos.

The Pretender

I expect you've played charades at some point, well The Pretender is essentially a game about mini charades. It's a short, fun game for 4-6 players and the trick is making your tiny charades as subtle as you can because (and here's the twist) all of you know what you're acting out apart from one person - they're the Pretender! They have to fool you and try and guess what you were acting out, and you all get scored depending how that goes. 

Each round you pick a category from the card deck, then shuffle the cards out - one of you will get the pretender card - someone shouts out a number (1-10) or letter (A-J) at random to pick the exact word for that round. Then you take turns to act out a mini-charade that relates in some way to the word.

After you've gone round you can discuss your suspicious (without sharing the word!) before you all point at who you think is the Pretender. If you're wrong the Pretender scores, if you guess them correctly you all score UNLESS the Pretender can guess the secret word in one guess (which is why it's best to be as subtle as you can). Scoring isn't compulsory, but if you do then the highest score after 10 rounds wins. 

We found this super fun to play - we laughed a lot during the turn taking and during the discussions after. The recommended age is 12+ but we found it was fine with a 9yo too. Getting started is easy, there's a QR code in the instructions to a "how to play" video which we found helpful.The categories are broad, just remember if you're playing with less than 6 players you need to make sure you take out enough "regular" cards from each category so that there's definitely a pretender card dealt out. The 10 round limit is only a guide - our kids kids didn't want to stop until we'd covered all 18 categories! They've also been asking to play it again most weekends so that's a good sign. 

Clues in Twos

This is a fast paced describing/guessing game for 2 or more players - we played with 4 - that takes place over 3 rounds. Each round you get dealt a card and have to pick one of the categories that you want to guess for - you write this category on your answer sheet and then pass the sheet and card to another player. Everyone then has 90 seconds to turn over the card and write as many 2 word clues for the 10 answers on the card. Obviously you can't use the actual answer in the clue, and there are a few other rules like not repeating the same word twice. 

In the final part of the round you get your original answer sheet back and you have to guess what you think the answers are. What's extra fun is that when everyone's ready you all read out the clues and your guesses, and for each correct guess both the clue writer and clue guesser get a point. After 3 rounds the person with the most points wins.

We really enjoyed playing Clues in Twos. It's also recommended for 12+ and since we had younger players we extended the clue writing time to 2mins rather than 90seconds. We also filtered the categories a little (making sure our 9yo didn't get 1990s bands as a category!). The clue writing time goes quickly and it can be hard to think of clues for all ten answers, but that's ok as it all evens out over 3 rounds. We like that both the clue writer and clue guesser get rewarded for correct guesses. Again, there's a QR code in the instructions to a "how to play" video which is helpful to get started. Like The Pretender this is another game the kids have been asking to play again as we laughed a lot discussing the clues and the answers.

Summary

Huge thanks to the Gamely team for not only passing on their wisdom for the show but also gifting us these two games to play. Gamely say they make games "that help people spend more quality time laughing with the people they love", and it's definitely mission accomplished on that front for these two games. Do please check out their games and let us know which ones you enjoy!