Gamely The Pretender: an Amusing Game of Subtle Deception

Loved the look of this game, and after having read that it was similar to Spyfall (which I love and is my ‘go-to’ to play with non-gamers) and Chameleon (which I want to love but just doesn’t work quite as well as Spyfall), I was very much looking forward to trying it out. I bought it as a gift for a fellow Spyfall fan and we tried it out with 4 of us playing. The gameplay is much more straightforward than Chameleon - rather than having to roll dice and refer to a grid, the choice of ‘secret word’ is decided by a player randomly calling a number out (not dissimilar to Randomise, made by the same company). The miming element adds an extra later of fun and hilarity, and leaves much more opportunity for ambiguity, making it easier as ‘the pretender’ to blag that you know what’s going on. A really fun party game that I can easily imagine introducing to all the family or groups of non-gamers, or a fun starter game for a games night. Would also recommend their other new game - Soundiculous!

Have played this game around 5 times now in different groups - mates (30somethings), parents (60somethings) and nieces and nephews (teensomethings) and everytime it has us creasing up on the floor.A very clever game that is so simple to play. So much so I’ve never actually read the rules as it’s just self explanatory. I perhaps should check on when to declare a winner as we seem to just play it all evening!!!

We played this at a recent family gathering and it was just great! One person doesn't usually like board games because they can be long and boring, but even they found the rapid pace and mixture of solo / collaborative play refreshing with The Pretender. The game is perfect for a dinner party in that it is easy to start and stop e.g. between courses and you can play as few or many rounds as you want. There is a wide variety of categories and we found we weren't too bothered about overall scoring across the rounds avoiding this becoming too competitive. We included some additional rules in the way we played the game to make it even better e.g. said you weren't allowed to copy previous charades. Don't be deterred if the instructions seem a little bit difficult to get your head around - once you've played a round everyone will get it!

With only 4 playing found it a pain to keep making sure that the pretender card was in the 4 cards handed out. In the end as colours are similar, laid the cards in separate piles with the pretender card on top, discarded the bottom 2 and shuffled the other 4.Game played better with 6.

Really enjoyed this game. And it's the sort of game you can take in your handbag, as it's no bigger than a pack of cards. Each person has to mime the same word or phrase on the card, but one person in the group doesn't have the word - but they need to pretend to. The team then has to guess which person is pretending. Fabulous fun!