Clever Game Review

Mechanics: guess and write

Game difficulty: medium

Game duration: 40 min

Number of players: 1-4

Best number of players : 2-4

Language: Language independent

We all use social media, we all know that it constantly feeds our dopamine levels with little treats. If only I could say that there's an entire genre of games designed specifically to provide as much enjoyment as looking at a Facebook wall. It's a type of "snap-and-write" games, and today's review is about the queen of this genre - the game "Clever" ("Ganz schön Clever", "That's Pretty Clever!") .

Subject matter

Translated as the name of the game, it means "quite tricky". The game doesn't hide behind a theme, in fact, it doesn't have a theme at all. The entire playing field is five areas where numbers can be entered. I'm grateful for that because this game is all about making combinations and I think it would be redundant if we were trying to collect sheep there for example. Sometimes the themes of the games are so confusing that I think it's better to have no theme at all.

Components

The game has a very modest number of components. It contains 6 wooden dice in different colors. 4 markers. A quick comment about the tags. For all of these games, they are absolutely crap, they dry out quickly, and I can pretty safely say that it is impossible to play all 100 cards with the tokens. But any pen or pencil works for the game, so I don't see it as a big problem.

My most important comment will be about the 100 disposable sheets that make the game playable only 25-50 times (if you play solo, just use the application). Someone will probably comment that the game has a limited lifespan and will have to be thrown away after a certain period of time. My copy currently has 7 leaves left and I'm ready to stop playing the game when the last leaves are gone. The game has fulfilled itself, played a lot of times, and it's time to move on. The craziest fans should be told that the sheets can be printed out or bought separately.

Mechanics

In his turn, the player rolls all 6 dice and keeps one. Generally, the higher the number on the die, the more valuable action the die can take, but any dice lower than that number must be set aside for the other players to choose. In his turn, the player performs the action 3 times, each time keeping fewer and fewer dice and options.

So what can you do with dice? Their value is entered in one of the five fields. For example, in the yellow field, rows and columns must be collected, purple numbers must be written in ascending order, and specific spaces are left in the blue field.

But all the salt lies in the combinations, because by filling, for example, two blue squares, you get a free fill in orange. Combinations are left and right, and usually certain places have criteria for placing a die there. To play the game well, you have to evaluate a lot and look at the possible combinations between fields, you have to decide which are the most effective moves.

And it is these combinations that make the game so enjoyable. Often you get a move in which you mark one number, then it allows you to mark another instead, after which you can already mark the 3rd number. A thorough cocktail of combinations!

Multiplayer

I already mentioned that after over 30 games I'm down to 7 out of 100 cards. I still really like this game. Yes, I think it will soon be completely played out and thus leave my collection, but these were great batches. In addition, I am currently ready for the second and third parts - "Dopplet so Clever" , "Clever Hoch Drei" .

Rating

A couple of years ago, I started the "pick up and play" genre directly with the game "Clever", and now that I have played many other games with this mechanic, I still have to admit that "Clever" is mechanically superior to the others and, in my opinion, this genre a game that should be in everyone's collection . Rating: 9 out of 10.

Author: Kristaps Auzāns

Buy the game here .