This week, we were given an overview of various types of board game mechanics and then given free reign to choose one of the many different games scattered about the room to play. Initially I gravitated towards Vagrant Song for its very unique art, but a glance at the rules revealed that it would take quite a while to learn. Instead, I ended up playing The Crew with 2 other students.

The Crew is a co-operative trick-taking game which has some campaign elements to it. I was very interested to see how it was possible to make a co-op trick taking game as the concept initially did not seem feasible! I mean, how is it possible to have a game mechanic built on beating all of your opponents mesh nicely into a co-op experience? Well, after playing The Crew, I have to say that they did a pretty phenomenal job.

The Crew solves the issue by giving the players various goals that they either must complete or avoid completing, such as winning a trick using a specific card or not winning any cards of a specific suit. From here, it is up to the players to work together to play their cards in such a specific sequence as to complete all of the goals assigned to them. Winning each individual trick has little purpose; it’s all about those GOALS!

One player is assigned the role of Captain and gets to choose the first goal as well as play the first hand of the game. The Captain typically ends up setting the pace for the round by nature of choosing that first goal, as every other player must then work around that choice. The game prevents most forms of communication so a lot of the time you are working off gut feelings and card counting. In my opinion, a smart captain will choose a goal that will be difficult for the other members of the team to complete rather than a goal that is easiest for them to complete.

Overall I would say that the game isn’t for many people. While I enjoyed the mechanics presented, it felt like a novelty after a few rounds. The limited communication aspects really soured the experience for me, as I wanted to coordinate more with my team than I actually could. Without being able to talk, sometimes it felt like some goals were completely unachievable.