Cooperative Games Archives - The Board Game Family

Star Wars: Unlock! game review

Happy Star Wars Day!

To celebrate, we’re diving into a review of another Star Wars family board game – Star Wars: Unlock!

That’s right, the very cool Unlock! escape-room series of games now has a Star Wars themed game – with 3 distinct game adventures. As far as escape-room games go, the Unlock! series have been our favorite. So I was super excited when Asmodee published a Star Wars version.

After having played through all 3 adventures, I’m happy to report that all of them are super fun to play.

May 3, 2023 Trent 0 Comments 2-player, 3-player, 4-player, 5-player, 6-player, Asmodee, cooperative, escape room, puzzle, solo, Star Wars, strategy, theme

Board Games Cooperative Games Family Games Game Reviews

Decorum board game review

How well do you get along with the people living under your same roof? Do you know what makes them happy? And can you provide that?

Well, even if you can’t help out in that regard, you can at least try to make them happy with their decorating goals in a fun cooperative board game by Floodgate Games – Decorum!

Decorum is a cooperative, hidden information game where players try to decorate their shared home in a way that makes everyone happy. The catch is that you don’t know what’s going to make the other players happy!

You must deduce what types of things make them happy by what changes they make to the decorations in the various rooms during their turns. Hopefully you’ll all be able to figure that out and arrange things just so before the game ends or you’re not going to survive in the same house for long.

March 25, 2023April 19, 2023 Trent 0 Comments 2-player, 3-player, 4-player, cooperative, Floodgate Games, strategy, theme

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Kid Games Party Games

15 Games Played at SaltCon 2023

SaltCon Spring just keeps getting bigger and better every year!

This year over 2,000 people enjoyed playing board games, card games, dice games, party games, and more for 4 days straight as part of SaltCon Spring 2023.

And with that many people, there’s a broad range of gaming interests. That’s why there are also areas in the convention center set aside for RPGs, miniatures painting, dexterity games, play-to-win games, competitions, and an Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator.

But even as the event itself keeps getting bigger, this year the game playing for me was much more intimate.

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 Trent 0 Comments SaltCon

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Kid Games Party Games Top 10 Lists

15 Stocking Stuffer Games for 2022

Time is ticking down and there are only a few more shopping days left until Christmas Day.

If that puts you in a frantic rush for finding game gifts for your friends and family this year, we can help with that!

For starters, jump over to our 2022 Board Game Gift Guide and you’ll find a bunch of great games to choose from as gifts.

If you already have what you need with those game gifts and just need a few smaller games to pack a Christmas stocking with game goodies, then this list of 15 recommended games is for you.

December 21, 2022 Trent 2 Comments card, dice, luck, party, top 10

Board Games Cooperative Games Family Games Game Reviews

Exit: The Game + Puzzle – The Sacred Temple game review

We’ve played a lot of “escape room” board games and card games over the years. They’re full of riddles and puzzles to solve as you cooperatively try to get out of whatever predicament the story has you caught up in.

But rarely do these types of games include actual puzzles to put together!

However, that’s exactly the case with Exit: The Game + Puzzle – The Sacred Temple.

In this EXIT game by Kosmos, in addition to the riddles and challenges along the way, you’ll put together 4 actual puzzles!

Then you’ll look for more riddles/puzzles within those puzzles to progress further on your journey.

If you like puzzles within your puzzles, then read on…

December 15, 2022 Trent 0 Comments 2-player, 3-player, 4-player, cooperative, escape room, Kosmos, puzzle, solo

Board Games Cooperative Games Family Games Game Reviews Party Games

So Clover! game review

A true mark of a fantastic game is when your teenagers pull it out to play over and over.

And you know it’s an even bigger hit when they want to play it during dinner night after night.

Such has been the case with So Clover!

That’s also why it was such an easy decision to include it in our 2022 Board Game Gift Guide.

Repos Production has struck gold again with this super easy to play and fun cooperative party game.

December 9, 2022 Trent 0 Comments 3-player, 4-player, 5-player, 6-player, cooperative, family, party, Repos Production

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Kid Games Party Games Top 10 Lists

Board Game Gift Guide 2022!

As the holidays approach, it’s super common for people to look for the best family board games to give as gifts to family members and friends.

This is our 12th year publishing a Board Game Gift Guide to help you find fantastic board games, dice games, card games, party games, and more for those you love.

And this year we’ve got 36 new board games to recommend!

Since there’s a wide range of people to consider for game gifts, we break down this board game gift guide into various categories with a handful of game ideas in each.

November 7, 2022January 4, 2023 Trent 0 Comments board game gifts, game gift guide

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game - expansions

Board Games Cooperative Games Game Reviews

Horizon Zero Dawn Expansions review

Last week we shared our review of the base game of Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game from Steamforged Games.

Since the video game is such a massive, open-world experience, it was clear to see from the outset that there would need to be game expansions to create more hunting encounters for players to go up against even more menacing machines.

That why this week we’re sharing our thoughts on 3 of the game expansions.

July 7, 2022July 7, 2022 Trent 0 Comments 2 players, 3-players, 4 players, deck-building, luck, miniatures, Steamforged Games

Board Games Cooperative Games Game Reviews

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game review

In 2017, Guerrilla Games developed and Sony published a Playstation 4 video game that’s set in a world overrun by machines. As of February 2022, the video game has sold over 20 million copies–making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games.

Because of its huge success, Steamforged Games brought the game to life in board game form in 2020.

In Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game, players band together to form a hunting party to take down the rampant machines.

Over the course of multiple encounters, players will level up their hunters with new skills and upgrade their equipment to become even stronger before they face the final encounter against the Sawtooth.

June 28, 2022July 7, 2022 Trent 0 Comments 2-player, 3-player, 4-player, miniatures, Steamforged Games, strategy, theme

Card Games Cooperative Games Family Games Game Reviews

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea game review

Two years ago we took off on a quest in space and now we’re searching the depths of the sea.

In fact, it was exactly 2 years ago, in March 2020, when we reviewed The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine by Kosmos. We played it a TON leading up to doing our review. And then we played it even more in the months after that while we were all shut inside as the Covid pandemic broke out around the world.

Needless to say, we absolutely loved the cooperative, trick-taking, mission-based card game. We could hardly get enough of it, even making up our own challenging mission scenarios.

Since then, Kosmos has gone ahead and outdone themselves with the follow-up game The Crew: Mission Deep Sea!

Yes, that’s right – they found a way to make a fantastic game even better. And I don’t think we’ll ever play the original again.