Here’s a fun fact about me: my favorite kind of pizza is the plain ol’ Margherita. I try to get adventurous, but extravagant toppings tend to leave me disappointed. Why do we keep inventing new ways to eat pizza? Cheese and tomato is a masterpiece. I don’t need anything else.
Don’t close the tab just yet – I promise I have a point.
Codenames is the Margherita of the tabletop world. The word game is simple, flavorful, and enjoyed by pretty much everybody. It’s also been iterated on, over and over again.
We’ve had two-player co-op Codenames. We’ve had picture Codenames. We’ve had NSFW Codenames, Simpsons Codenames, and (the extremely controversial) Hogwarts Codenames.
Still, CGE isn’t done inventing new ways to play Codenames. Its latest spin-off, Critical Role Codenames, is set to release at Gen Con. I got an early glimpse of the prototype at UK Games Expo this year.
This is a very different beast from regular Codenames. Like Duet, it’s a co-op experience. However, it’s a campaign co-op game. One player acts as the Dungeon/Spy Master (CGE recommends swapping roles between rounds), while everyone else goes on a guessing adventure. There are three campaigns, each with their own map of Exandria.
Said map leads you from scenario to scenario. Perhaps you’re helping lost traders through a blizzard, or maybe you’re on the hunt for a dangerous artifact. A prologue establishes how many correct guesses you need to succeed, as well as modifying conditions for your game.
This is a version of Codenames that changes each time you play it. There might be multiple assassins on the board, or there may be innocent bystanders that trigger unique abilities.
Speaking of abilities, you’ve got buckets of them. Each guesser controls a Critical Role character that they’ll place on a word they wish to guess. Usually, at least – everyone has their own different methods of deduction.
Percy de Rolo, for example, uses his gun to guess an adjacent word rather than the one he’s placed on. Jester Lavorre places risky prank tokens on words to fuel special powers, while Grog has additional healing powers that allow him to tank for the rest of the team.
Characters lose health by making incorrect guesses. They also level up over time, unlocking new deductive abilities. It’s a version of Codenames that’s about far more than finding words.
The words are still important, though, and CGE tell me they’ve thought long and hard about the clues to include. Critical Role Codenames is apparently accessible to everybody. You won’t need a second home in Exandria to give clues and guess connections.
I’m talking relevant yet broad words, from ‘Chicken’ to ‘Chain’, from ‘Memory’ to ‘Monk’. You don’t have to use an obscure reference to Campaign 3 as a clue (though you totally can if you want to).
The hardcore Critters are instead encouraged to pick up the Vox Machina expansion that’s releasing at the same time. This contains additional, more specific words, ones that’ll be tough to guess unless you’ve watched the actual campaign. It also adds an eighth playable character to the roster – Vox Machina Druid Keyleth.
I’m curious to spend some time testing this new kind of Codenames. As with pizzas, I’ve got a firm preference for the original game over its later innovations. Duet’s co-op play lacked the bite of competitive games, and I never quite got on with licensed options, that leaned a bit too much on references to make connections.
However, I’m optimistic after my preview. Critical Role Codenames seems like it’s learned lessons from the spin-offs of yesteryear. Co-op play might have felt toothless, but this version ups the stakes and adds new strategies to keep you awake. Licensed Codenames might have relied on in-jokes, but here’s one that strives to be as universal as the original.
How will it compare with the original Codenames? Only time – and more testing – will tell. All I know is this: if Critical Role Codenames can win me over, maybe it’s time to reconsider my relationship with pepperoni pizza.
Want to talk more about the latest board games? Hear more about my UKGE adventures (and my thoughts on food) in the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
