Upcoming

Gamescom 2016 - Codenames is like a James Bond card game (so it's awesome)

Code games

Gamescom 2016 - Codenames is like a James Bond card game (so it's awesome)
|
| Codenames

Codenames is possibly the most interesting game I saw at gamescom this year.

It's a spy-themed word association puzzler based on the board game of the same name - and it's from Czech Games Edition, the developer behind the awesome Galaxy Trucker.

You work in teams of two across multiple asynchronous matches against other pairs of human players.

One person plays the Spymaster, and the other the Operative. The goal is to uncover all the face down cards on the board that are associated with your codeword (given to you by your Spymaster).

However, the opposing team is trying to do the same, with their own cards and own codeword.

So there'll be 25 cards on the table, some of which will be your team's (all themed around one topic, like 'War' for example), and some of which will be your enemy's (which might be based on, say, 'Egypt').

As an added layer of strategy, when you log back in after your enemy's turn, you'll be able to see which cards they turn over (regardless of whether they're correct), so you can try and figure out their own codeword, in order to hijack the pool of common cards on the table.

It's really less complicated than it sounds - and it's awesome. Make sure you check Codenames when it launches in November on iOS and Android for £3.99 / $4.99.

yt
Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on

Oscar Dayus
Oscar Dayus
Oscar grew up playing games in the 90s, and as such can't help but jump on any sort of moving platform. He hasn't yet perfected the art of double-jumping in real life, though, so has now turned to writing instead.