One Key Family Game Review(age 8+) By Libellud, Sent by Asmodee

This month Asmodee have sent us One Key from Libellud to review for the Blogger Boardgame Club. A co-operative game for 2-6 players aged 8+, players work together to find the Key Card by eliminating wrong answers. Once only the Key is left, you win the game.

There are lots of exciting box contents and you'll need 5 minutes to press out tokens before first play. No batteries to find or excess plastic, Christmas morning-friendly.

Libellud games are notable for their artwork, One Key is no exception. It's gorgeous and very different. There are 84 specially shaped illustrated clue cards with random scenes full of detail.

The Leader takes 11 Clue Cards from the top of the deck and then secretly chooses one to be the Key Card. They place all 11 of them on the table face up.

The other players, the Villagers, have to discover the Key Card by finding out which Clue Cards have similarities, and which don't. This is a guessing game and there is a simple screen to assemble for the player taking the role of Leader, so they can't be seen while they assess how useful Clue Cards might be.

There are 4 rounds, and in each the Leader takes 3 Clue Cards from the top of the pile and secretly ranks them helpful, mediocre or not helpful. Then they turn the screen round to face the Villagers.

The Villagers can pick 1, and the Leader then reveals whether they feel it has similarities to the Key Card or not. Taking this clue, Villagers choose which of the the 11 cards should be discarded. After 4 rounds you will have discarded 10 of those cards and have only 1 left, which is hopefully the Key Card.

If at any time the Key Card is discarded, the Villagers lose and the game ends.

When players are deciding which Clue Cards to discard, they have a strict 3 minute time limit. It's perfectly possible to play One Key using any 3 minute timer, but there is a free app. you can download which works very well, keeping track of rounds too - and giving you the answer at the end, in red for when you got it wrong, green if you were right.

One Key is recommended for 2-6 players aged around 8+. My 9 and 11 year old boys really enjoy it and so do I. It seems tricky and it takes a round or two before younger players get the idea, but once you understand it's all about gut feeling and semi-intelligent guessing, it's really quick and easy. An entire game takes 3 of us less than 20 minutes.

There's lots of variation because where one person sees a card with a green field, another sees lots of bugs, or a card may have a globe theme, but another player sees the Leprechaun at the front. It can really throw you off the scent or if you happen to be looking at the same feature, you might just guess the correct Key Card instantly.

One Key is published by Libellud and distributed by Asmodee. Available now proced around £30 from good independent games stockists in store and online, including Amazon (affiliate link below).

We were sent our copy of One Key for review by the Asmodee Blogger Board Game Club. Amazon links are affiliate, which earns me a few pence thank you if you order through my link, but never costs you a penny more.