18th September 2022 We're on Board Game Arena for some gaming goodness. Use your deductive reasoning to... Break the code, a puzzle-like game of logic and elimination. Caveat: We've only ever played Break the Code digitally. What's in a game?
There's little to no art in the game and to be honest, the game is a fairly abstract almost puzzle-like game that doesn't really need it. Presentation wise, it's clear and easy to understand. Break the Code also has no iconography unless you count numbers. There's nothing here that would prove an obstacle to players. How's it play? Setup The setup for Break the Code differs some what between a 2 player count and a 3-4 player count. The setup here is for 3 players.
On to play The objective in Break the Code is to deduce the value and colours of the 5 tiles in the central area before anyone else. This will be done by asking other players questions (Using the questions on the question cards.) about their own tiles and then by matter of elimination discovering which tiles are in the central area. Break the Code uses a traditional turn order with the active player resolving their turn before play progresses to their left. On their turn, the active player can choose 1 of 2 actions.
Player count There are a couple of differences in setup and player according to player count.
Endgame If all question cards have been used and no one has made a correct guess, all players lose! Additionally, if all player make incorrect guesses, then again, all players lose. When a player makes a correct guess, the end of the current round is played out, the game ends and they are the winner. There is a chance however, that other players may also make a correct guess with their last action. In which case, all players who guessed correctly are declared winners. Overall
There's not much to say about the mechanics of Break the Code, it's a very straightforward game that is essentially a multiplayer puzzle; ask questions and eliminate extraneous numbers until you are left with only the correct numbers. Since questions are solely based on the available cards it means there can be a need for a bit of lateral thinking and trying to gleam information from awkward questions. I suspect that if players got to ask the questions they wanted, it would end a game quickly or break it! It's also vital to listen to answers given to other players' questions. Players first eliminate their own tiles which leaves them with about 10-12 more tiles to eliminate. They must cross-reference multiple answers to get the information they need. E.g., They may learn a player's first tile is a black number, then they may learn it's a odd number, then they may finally learn it's a 1 and so on. Conversely, players will sometimes get a lot of information quickly, e.g., learning the tile in the E column is green means it must be a 5 and that it is also the highest number a player has behind their screen. It's this kind of reasoning that drives Break the Code and if that sort of fairly heavy puzzle orientated game play doesn't appeal to you, then this is one to avoid. Myself; I quite like puzzles but I'm not so sure about a multiplayer one, it's not something I feel lends itself well to multiplayer. I will add that we did play it online and over voice chat which could make it feel somewhat disjointed compared to face-to-face.. Having said that, I did enjoy Break the Code but found once I had 'broken' the code, there was very little motivation to go back to it another time.
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