Codenames

This app is a wonderful digital adaptation of an excellent game. The many little variants they came up with add some fun variety and new interesting decision-making. You should absolutely buy it and play it! So why 2 stars? Because after months of playing on this app and loving it, I suddenly unlocked a feature that I can't turn off and is wrecking my experience; I basically need to stop playing until they hopefully remove this (and then I will happily replace this with a 5-star review; 6+ if I could!). Specifically: you 'collect words' from different categories, and when you collect enough you get a figurine from that category and games related to that category start showing up in your selection of game variants. Since these new variants displace some old options and the app developers recognize that not everyone likes them as much, they sensibly let you 'disable' figurines that you don't want active. I disable them all, so far so good. But then once you unlock your 9th, with no warning suddenly you can't disable them all anymore! So I can no longer reliably play the games I loved anymore :( Note that as a new player you can avoid this problem by just not earning more than 8 figurines, so you should still buy and play this game; just don't make the mistake I did unless you like the collectors missions and want them appearing in your queue forever.

I love the board game, and somehow this works so well as an app. There’s the obvious slight annoyance of having to wait for the other players to take their turn, but you can have lots of games going. You can either play with random players, play with other players that you’ve chosen, or do a pass and play with people in the room with you. There are daily scenarios, and the clues that players create for these scenarios are given to other players as daily cases to solve. There are VIP games with themed words, and lots of options for different gameplay in the games you play with friends with gadgets, different sized boards and other switchups to keep it interesting - but if you're a purist and just want to play it the original way, you totally can. It's satisfying to collect the words and achievements. It seems like the potential problems have been considered and addressed very thoroughly. If your clue isn't in the dictionary, it's submitted to a jury of other players. I don't understand how it works but you can rate your spymaster/operative when the game is over, with the implication that if you rate them unfavorably you won't get matched with them again. And if a player doesn't finish a game, they drop in a new player and call it a rescue mission (I just think the theme is fun). 🙂 One thing that might be helpful (and maybe it's there and I just don't see it) is info about how many games you've played with each one of your friends, and when it was and maybe even how often you've won. I've wondered that when I'm starting a game with friends. But that's really the only suggestion I can think of. It's a very well-thought out app iteration of the Codenames board game!

Folks, CGE knows how to do mobile gaming. I’d say they’re kind of the masters of it now, given their outstanding previous releases. It’s not just about the highly polished and intuitive interface and functionality of the app, which is impressive in it’s own right. The most noteworthy aspect of the Codenames app is how they’ve ingeniously expanded the appeal and variety of the game. They didn’t just take the Codenames game and put it online. Instead, they looked at how they could actually evolve the game through the opportunities an online platform offers. The result is a highly satisfying and enjoyable experience that doesn’t get old thanks to its variety. And variety doesn’t just mean the many unlockables and achievements that it also sports - variety means the 10+ different twists on the core game. In short, it’s a steal at $5 and one of the best mobile games I’ve played, and I highly recommend it to everyone I know. But be warned - dangerously addictive!