Decrypto board game review

It’s hard to believe it’s been over a month since we posted our last review. There have only a few periods of time over the past decade where we haven’t posted a board game review at least once a week. But we all know the past couple of months have been anything but normal.

But today we’re going to remedy that! (Not the world back to normal, but us back to posting a fun family game review.)

And to jump right back into things we’re reviewing a game we received from our BoardGameGeek.com Secret Santa for last Christmas. It’s also one of our most-played games since then – DECRYPTO!

Decrypto is a team game for up to 8 players of codebreaking and it’s addicting.

 

How to play Decrypto

The goal in Decrypto is to transmit codes to your teammates without letting your opposing team intercept them. At the same time, you’re trying to intercept the other team’s codes. The team that does the best wins!

To set up, each team takes 4 Keyword cards and places them in their team’s decoder Screen. Each team also takes the Code card deck that matches their color screen (white or black) and a Note Sheet.

Then the fun begins!

During each round, one person from each team is the clue-giver. That person draws a Code card and secretly looks at it. It will contain 3 numbers in a random order. Those numbers match a number slot in their Screen. Their job is to write down 3 clues on their Note Sheet that will help their team guess their Code for the round.

For example, if their secret code is 4.1.2. they must give clues corresponding to their secret words in the 4, 1, and 2 spaces of their screen in that order.

Both team clue-givers write their clues at the same time. As soon as one team’s clue-giver is done writing their clues, they flip over the sand timer as a countdown for the other team’s clue-giver to finish.

For the first round, the White team goes first in saying their clues. The clue-giver reads their clues in order and their teammates then must say their answer for the code.

Then the Black team does the same thing.

From the second round onward, after a clue-giver reads their clues, the opposing team gets a chance to guess the code prior to the active team making their guess.

For example, the Black team clue-giver reads their clues. Then the white team guesses the code. Then the Black teammates guess the code. Then the Black team clue-giver reveals the correct code.

If the opposing team guessed the code correctly, they get an Intercept token. If the active team guesses incorrectly, they get a Miscommunication token.

Play continues from round to round in this manner until one team either gets 2 Intercept tokens or 2 Miscommunication tokens.

If a team gets 2 Intercept tokens, they win the game. And if a team gets 2 Miscommunication tokens, the opposing team wins the game. (There are also tiebreaker rules should both occur in the same round.)

 

Can the whole family enjoy Decrypto?

As we said at the outset, Decrypto is an awesome game!

It sounds really simple, but it’s quite thought-provoking. And it’s very addicting!

The recommended age on the box is 12+. But since it’s a team game, you could really play with a mix of ages. Although the game will definitely be challenging for young players.

And that’s mainly because it’s a fun challenge for all ages.

People of all ages will be scratching their heads trying to come up with clues. Which is exactly why we love the game!

As the clue-giver, you obviously want to give clues that your teammates will understand which secret Keyword you’re referring to so they can guess the right numbers and the order for your code. Yet at the same time, you want to be obscure in your clues so the other team can’t figure it out.

The main differentiator is that your teammates can see the Keyword in front of them on your team’s Screen. So they’ll have an advantage in figuring out which you’re trying to get them to answer.

But over the course of the game, your opponents will be getting a more clear picture of what your Keywords might be so they can break your code. Thus, you’ll have to be even more creative in your clue giving in later rounds or you’ll give it away.

And it often depends on what other Keywords are showing on your Screen with how cryptic you can be in your clue giving.

The beauty with breaking an opponent’s code however isn’t that you have to guess their Keywords, you just have to guess the numbers and order of their codes. The more clues you get throughout the course of the game, the better you’ll be able to infer which number a certain clue may refer to.

Although after each game ends, we still like to attempt guessing what the other team’s Keywords are just for fun.

We also love how many Keywords there are. Each card is double-sided and there are 2 Keywords on each side – making 440 total words in the game!

Plus, the decoder screens are awesome too. You really can’t see the words on the cards by just looking at them. But slip them in the screen and they come to life.

Decrypto really is an awesome game.

 

How does Decrypto score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Decrypto scores super high on our “let’s play again” game meter. Seldom is the time when we’ve only played one game of Decrypto. We typically play about 4 games back to back.

It’s so easy to do because there isn’t really any setup time at all. Just pull out the Keyword cards and flip them around to get a new word.

You also don’t need to have the same number of players on each team. We’ve often played with 5 players (a team of 3 and a team of 2) and it still works great.

With our family of 6, two teams of 3 makes a perfect family game night with Decrypto.

The game can also really shine with 4 players for a double-date night – couple vs. couple.

We’ll be printing our own note sheets pretty soon because we’re almost through the 50 note sheets provided with the game. And that’s just fine with us. Because Decrypto has a permanent home in our game closet and we’ll be playing it regularly for decades to come.

Grab a copy of Decrypto for your family!