3 Games That Wildly Exceeded Expectations

Our collection has a whole range of games, from short & sweet like Love Letter to the ridiculous 10kg artistic marvel that is Gloomhaven. For many of our favourite games, we knew we were onto a winner before we even ordered them. But for some, we had no idea just how good of a game we’d stumbled upon when it made it onto our shelves. Here are 3 of our hidden gems which wildly exceeded our expectations, and that we will never say no to cracking out at any games night:

Whitehall Mystery

S: All 3 of our top contenders have something in common, we knew they would be good already. They had a reputation, good reviews, unique ‘wow’ factors. But lord almighty I was not prepared for just. How. good. 

We have introduced this game to all manner of game-savy or newbie friends with similarly resounding success. All you have to do is catch one of your friends committing crimes across London. But unlike - almost - every other game out there your friend has no figure on the board. All of their movements are hidden. You discuss aloud where you reckon they could have gone in the last 4 turns while they sit opposite you hearing all of your theories. And before you start thinking “this is complicated” you have precisely 4 things you can do, ever. This game is delightfully simple because almost the entirety of it is played off the board in your head. You find yourself saying “They might be here!” as you count spaces from the last clue, or “They could be here, but that is too obvious, and they are just ballsy enough to take the obvious root, so yes, they might be here. Or here.”

A game that gets the newbie in the room face to light up in excitement after finding a clue to their trail is a strong start. Then to hear the groan of the criminal once getting arrested or the euphoric high of committing the 4th crime without getting caught brings this game to stratospheric heights. I’d go as far as saying no game in our collection will bring you on the roller coaster ride of emotions that this game does. You are never left in the dumps of that roller coaster for long either, after each crime you immediately find out where the criminal is. It doesn’t matter how far behind you are, you now have another 15 turns before the next crime, and the possibilities they will go next shrunk wildly.

Kings Dilemma (Spoiler Free)

R: It took us nearly a month to crack this out for the first time, because it seemed far more complex than it actually is, which put me off for a long time. It wasn't until part-way through lockdown that I caved and finally agreed to play with S and his siblings.. now our weekly game of Kings Dilemma has honestly become one of the highlights of lockdown for us. 

The gameplay is relatively simple - each player represents a house in the King’s council and over a series of rounds, dilemma’s are posed of which each person decides whether they are for or against the course of action the dilemma proposes. Each player has their own objectives - some publicly known, others secretly hidden - so it can’t be assumed that everyone wants what’s best for the kingdom.

What has made this game so incredible, is the storytelling. The reality of this game is that you could gloss over the details of each dilemma - as it’s simply the outcome which impacts the game. However, nothing will be as funny as watching S and his brother completely bankrupt themselves and fight so passionately over the king's dilemma equivalent of funding Jay Z’s new album. We weren’t particularly fussed about whether we should fix the plummeting economy, but when it came to deciding whether we need to hire something not too dissimilar to bouncers for a local park, you bet we fought harder to win this than I did to get the job I had in sixth form.

S: The ‘bouncers’ were unnecessary and I stand by that position.

The only criticism I could have for this game is that it’s a legacy style game - so once the story is finished, it’s finished. However, as decisions made have huge ramifications for how the story plays out, there are plenty of dilemma’s we’ve never faced - so it’s highly likely we’ll buy another copy one day and start a new legacy of the kingdom with R’s siblings who are also big board game fans.

Two Rooms and a Boom 

S: We are big big fans of any games surrounding bluffing, deception, and working out who the suspicious players are. Here is a game where some genius decided if you got enough people that liked that type of game, 1 room wouldn’t be enough. You need 6 people to play this at a minimum, with an upper limit defined simply as “30+” spread out across two rooms. Everyone is handed out a secret identity card that has a specific goal or a part of a team with a specific goal, and you have 3 rounds to complete that goal. However almost every single goal is dependent on you discovering the identities of others in your room, or the other room. Between each round there is a transition moment that each room leader sends predetermined ‘hostages’ from one room to the other, and that is how you mix and mingle with others. Unlike almost all ‘secret identity’ games I have played, you are encouraged to share your identity while mingling.

R: ..except for when you're not sure if you can trust the people in your room, and you end up asking to be the hostage to get away from S's brother who was so pestistant when trying to discover my identity, so I panicked and ran away..

I’ve never encountered a game before that gets so many people so effortlessly wrapped up into its workings. Even some of the best games of charades still has that one person in the corner not hugely paying attention, but with Two Rooms and a Boom everyone is engaged from the word go. Even if ‘engaged’ in the room full of introverts often starts with “...so… anyone want to share cards?”. 

My single fondest memory of this game was a particularly strange combination which we hadn’t read the rules for. The ‘Sniper’ card is looking for the ‘target’, if they correctly work out the target and shoot them they have won their goal. If the target does not get shot they fulfill their goal. And then there is the decoy - who wants to be shot by the sniper. At the point we had to swap hostages I walked in a room full of laughter and someone lying down on the floor. 

As it turns out the sniper and the target showed each other their cards so he immediately shot him - we didn’t realise you were supposed to wait until the end of the game. Needless to say, the decoy lost that game.

Bonus Picks

We also both have a particular game choice each that we feel wildly exceeded our expectation, but it's not as mutually felt as the above 3. So we decided to throw in a bonus pick each!

S's Bonus Pick: Santorini

S: I have talked about Santorini before, but why it has made this list is a bit different. Santorini is an utterly unassuming game. It fills the place in my shelf of “I could introduce this to my sister” - who plays Kings Dilemma with us - “or my Dad” - who gets confused at Sushi Go despite winning frequently. The goal is next level basic, get some blocks 3 levels high and then stand on it on a small 5x5 grid. You use 2 small ‘workers’ to move and build on the board. How could this game be anything other than rudimentary? 

Until me and a friend of mine played it online, and I didn’t spot that last turn I haphazardly moved one of my workers a single space in the wrong direction. On her turn she built a tower 3 high - if I cannot block it on my turn right now I will lose. That otherwise pointless move lost me the game, I had moved exactly 1 space out of reach from her tower. We played again and despite our laughter you could feel the tension in the discord server spike - we knew how to play the game now. We knew every move mattered. We realised we had to plan our moves as much as we were watching for each other, if she moved away would I still be able to block her? Can I subtly start building for a plan later that she won’t be able to reach? 

I’ve found few 2 player games that are like chess in the regard you can both see exactly what they are doing, but aren’t as complex or as intimidating. Santorini fits the vibe perfectly of a game that you can enjoy placing building blocks very satisfyingly together, or think about every single turn and its repercussions. And this is ignoring the God’s you are playing as and their unique abilities, where you have to adapt a whole new strategy to beat them. 

I didn’t expect big things from this game, just ok things, the “light hearted I will probably play this 3 times” things. What we ended up opening was a “woah thiiiiiis is a good game” thing. A “Let’s play again but I want to try a new God” over and over and over, thing.

This is a good thing.

R's Bonus Pick: Bananagrams

R: Whilst I genuinely love every game on this list (well apart from Santorini, but that's more because I've lost every game and i'm not at all bitter about it..), Bananagrams has been the game which has made the biggest leap between expectation and reality for me.

Being perfectly honest, I didn't expect very much from a little banana-shaped bag with just a bunch of letter tiles inside. After having such epic games as Gloomhaven and Spirit Island amongst our collection, it's a game I would have never thought twice about buying. Thank goodness for friends who take a risk and buy a game off-list every once in a while.

This game is ridiculously simple - each player makes an individual 'scrabble' board. Once there are no longer enough tiles remaining for one per player, it's a race for whoever can use all their tiles to make interlinking words on their board first to win.

I absolutely LOVE this game. I honestly don't quite know why, my range of vocabulary isn't overly vast and i'm definitely one of those players who will have a few "to"s dotted around the board, rather than S who prefers to make ridiculously long words. That's probably why he nearly always loses. Maybe it's the regular winning, maybe it's the simplicity of it.. but for some reason, if i'm ever not sure what I want to play, you can bet this will be the game I suggest.

S: For the record I still firmly believe getting ‘quantifiable’ and ‘jettisons’ in one round still makes me a winner.