So, another psychic spy is on the scene, huh? Are you a skilled recruiter ready to comb the city for new recruits for the Mind MGMT team? Or are you more of a rogue agent looking to put a stop to the organization once and for all? Whatever role you choose, you’ll need to perform at the top of your game is you want to succeed.

What Is It?

1 VS Many – 1 player takes on the recruiter role while 1 to 4 players take on the rogue agent roles as a team.

Hidden Movement – The recruiter is secretly moving around the game board (marking movement on their hidden sheet) and the rogue agents are attempting to figure out where the recruiter is in order to use the “capture” action while in the same spot as them.

Deduction – The rogue agents can get clues throughout the game using “ask” and “reveal” actions to learn where the recruiter has been and when. They’ll need to use some deduction skills to figure out unrevealed information in order to capture them before time is up.

Who’s It For?

  • 1 to 5 Players – You need the free app to play solo, as it acts as the recruiter, and that works well. Scales well at any count as there are always 4 rogue agents in play. Count preference will likely come down to if you like controlling multiple rogue agents (lower counts) or not
  • Ages 13 & Up – Not super heavy rules, but definitely strategic in nature. I think the training game is a great teaching tool if you’re new to hidden movement games, and can ease you into the full game. More avid gamers can jump right into the full game in my opinion
  • Fans of hidden movement, 1 versus many, and deduction
  • Fans of the Mind MGMT graphic novels

Variants / Extras

Solo / Cooperative – Download the free app to play. The app acts as the recruiter and the player(s) are the rogue agents. You follow the recruiter’s actions on the physical game board – The app works well; it’s responsive, quick, and easy to use. I like it primarily for solo play. But, if no one is in the mood to be the recruiter, it makes for a simple cooperative experience too.

SHIFT System – 7 packages for recruiter and 7 packages for rogue agents. Includes various modules to change the game (i.e. new characters). After each play, the losing side opens for for the next game – Works well to add in balancing the more you play, especially if the same players are playing the same roles. Even more than the balancing, I just like that it adds more things to the game to make each play a little different whether through a module, choice of new characters, et cetera.

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Nice art; features are clear on the board
  • Components – Nice quality across the tokens (I like the dry erase mental notes), cards, and board
  • Red lens technology!
  • Fun theme – I’ve never read the graphic novels myself, but others I played with have and thought the game fits the narrative well
  • The 2 sides feel balanced
  • SHIFT System is great to add variety and give the side that lost most recently a little boost
  • Training Mission is a good intro to the game/mechanisms
  • Turns are smooth; recruiter in particular has very quick turns usually
  • Rules are well written overall
  • App lets you play solo, which is cool, and feels like a real opponent

CONS

  • No option to play as the recruiter in solo
  • The rules were hard to take in at first because of the different colored boxes for the training versus full game
  • Luck – The rogue agents can get lucky guesses early (particularly for guessing feature cards the recruiter has) which can derail the recruiter a bit
  • The recruiter’s turns are usually very quick. Sometimes, the rogue agents can have very long turns, as they are going to be discussing things and deducing, which makes sense, but can definitely lead to some downtime for the recruiter

Final Thoughts

Hidden movement games aren’t always my favorite, but I had heard good things about this one, and they weren’t lying! I thought this played really smoothly, and I felt super invested in every turn regardless of which role I was playing. Though, as I mentioned, I did feel the downtime more as the recruiter, as sometimes the rogue agents would let discussions go on for a while.

I really like the SHIFT System to keep the game fresh after multiple plays, and I like that you can pick and choose things to add in from those, if perhaps you come across something you don’t really want to play with.

The theme is fun, the roles feel balanced, and the game just works well. If you already like hidden movement type games, this one should definitely be one to check out! If you aren’t as big on them, but want to give them another try, I felt this one was a good game for that too, especially if you need to ease into it, the training game is a very light first step.

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 7/10

Designers – Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim
Artist – Matt Kindt
Publisher – Off the Page Games
MSRP – $63.00
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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