Block and Key

3D Tetris With A Twist

Block and Key, by Inside Up Games, is a 2D game occupying a 3D space. It utilises abstract strategy for 1 to 4 players with game play averaging around 40 minutes, where each block placed could help or hinder your progress. As soon as I saw this game advertised on Kickstarter, I knew I had to have it. The block placement, coupled with the ability to really mess up someone else’s play reminded me of a simple game night favourite, Blockus.

However, the 3D element to this game makes it a pure joy to play and the unique perspective view you have of your own play area means gameplay doesn’t have to be quite as aggressive as the aforementioned Blockus so it’s a little ‘friendlier’ too. The difference in cards and blocks drawn makes this a really replayable game that will likely bring hours of entertainment to your board game table.

Game Components

Now this isn’t the first board game to come along and utilise its box and packaging within the game, for example, the playing area for Ice Cool is made up from the outer and inner game boxes. However, it’s still really cool, despite being somewhat faffy! The play area is cleverly created by combining the top and bottom of the box with pillars to create a lower level, called the excavation site and an upper level called the temple floor. There is also iconography along the box to remind you of the rules, which I must admit did take me a while to sort of notice as they do kind of get swallowed up by the overall ‘busy’, ruinous feel of the artwork.

And here’s the thing, during one Saturday board game night, because, well that’s how I roll ladies, gentlemen and youngsters on a Saturday night, my husband’s bestie said: “Why don’t we just play it on the top of the board and put the blocks at the side instead of setting the whole thing up?” I considered this for a moment and, aside from the extreme laziness of his statement because I mean, seriously, it takes like 2 minutes to set up, I pondered why have that top layer at all?

I mean, sure it saves table space; we can literally play this game on one of those cheap fold up tables making it really, really portable, if, of course, you ignored the weight of the game. Sure, the box looks really pretty. Seriously the artwork in Block and Key is wonderful, it really has an ancient temple sort of feel to it and I love the sleeve art of the adventures. But that isn’t the reason I think this game has to be built up to be played well.

Eye-level is key to your perspective! The first time I played this game I really struggled because I was sat higher up than my opponents. I was above eye-level. This made it harder for me to abstract the 3D play space to focus on my own 2D perspective. And in this game, perspective is EVERYTHING! You may still need to close an eye or move your head a bit to get a good focus on the 2D shape in front of you but placing blocks at your eye-level really does make it easier to see the blocks and strategise which will be the key to your success!

Block and Key is a dexterity game that involves picking up and placing clay blocks within the game area. These blocks are heavy to hold and look and feel good quality. The colour of the blocks is fairly representative of the colour on the key cards too making it easy for you to see how to make matches and score points.

Which brings me nicely to the cards which are used to score points in the game. These have a similar shape and feel to a nice set of playing cards; you know I’m not talking about those decks of cards from shops like Poundland, no, I mean more like a pack of Bicycle cards. Within the deck of cards you have 4 enigma cards which holds your secret goal. These cards all look identical with the exception of the block colour.

At the beginning of the game you are randomly given one of these cards, then at the end of the game you will score extra points based on how many blocks, in multiples of three, you have in that card’s colour. You also have key cards which have different symbols on the back to represent difficulty in achieving the pattern shown on the face of the card. So my “sun and stars” are the easy and medium, respectively, patterns to make. Easy scores the lowest points when completed, with medium offering slightly higher points. Whilst “the moon of my life” cards reveal the most difficult combinations to create but score the highest.

Okay, okay, I realise you will only get my reference there if you also know that “Winter is Coming”. Which, by the way, at the time of writing this review, it is!

How To Play

To set up the game first draw blocks from the draw bag to fill the excavation 3×3 grid. In turns, each player picks up 3 blocks from any straight row or column, replacing these from the draw bag ready for the next player. Each player is given two star cards, and one sun, moon and enigma card. Finally a single 2×2 block, called the keystone, is laid in the centre of the temple floor. The starting position of the keystone is determined by how many players are participating in the game. All subsequent blocks will be built from this one central keystone.

Where you sit around the board is also determined by the number of players, and the positions are marked on the temple floor. You can play a solo mode, or a 2, 3 or 4 player game.

The difference in how many players there are can really affect the game. For example, in a player versus player, 2 player scenario you sit adjacent to each other so the temple floor can end up with quite a bit of space on the non-playing sides. Whereas, a 3 player game can be really interesting because there will always be two people sat each other with the third person on the side. This can really change how quickly, or maybe even slowly, the two players opposite each other can have their perspectives changed. And in a 4 player game… well, that temple floor is going to get filled up pretty quickly.

The main aim of Block and Key is to make two-dimensional outlines of your key cards to claim the card and score points. If you are playing solo, the game ends after 11 turns but if you are playing with 2-4 people then the game ends when a certain amount of key cards are fulfilled. In a 2 player game the first person who gains 12 key cards ends the game. With 3 players it is the first to 8 or the first to 7 when playing with 4 players.

At the end of the game you add up the scores on all your key cards along with the score gained from your enigma card. To score from your enigma card you count up all the coloured blocks you can see from your perspective and divide by 3. Round down and that is the extra number of points you get, for example, if you have a white enigma card and you can see 6 white tiles from your perspective on the temple floor you would gain an additional 2 points. If you can only see 4 or 5 white tiles you would only score 1 additional point and if you can see 7 or 8 you would still only score 2 additional points. So the more blocks you can see with your enigma colour the higher your secret goal score will be at the end of the game and this could really help you sneak in with a win.

So, now we know how to start the game and what ends the game what about the actual gameplay itself. Ok. Confession time! That very first game I played, you know, the one where you have to read the rules and learn how to play the game. As my husband first started reading out all the rules I honestly thought I might have a snooze fest and was instantly put off thinking it would be really complex and heavy. But, guess what! Turns out if you persevere with the rule book (or just read my nice condensed version) the game is actually really easy to play and the rules actually aren’t that daunting at all.

Essentially on your turn of Block and Key, you can do one of two action options. You can choose to excavate blocks, drawing three blocks from a row or column (refilling the excavation area from the draw bag before the next player’s turn). Or you can place one block from your hand onto the temple floor. An important thing to note here is that you have a hand limit of 7 blocks so if you have 5 blocks and you draw 3 on your turn you will have to discard the excess, so place 1 block back in the draw bag.

There are two main rules to remember when placing blocks, and don’t forget there is a helpful graphic displayed on the outside of the box top to remind you as you play. You can place any block kitty-corner (diagonally opposite another block to us non-north Americans) on the board, however, if you want to place a block face-to-face with another block you can only do this if one cube within your Tetris like block is higher than the cubes on any faces it’s touching.

As I’ve already mentioned you need to match the placement and colours of blocks on your key cards to score points. When you have made the match you can declare that you’ve matched a key card and move it to a scoring pile. Another player can check your card and 2D area if they wish (you know in case they are untrusting of you, boo. Having said that, when you’re playing my husband and his bestie it’s usually a good shout to check on those two scoundrels).

The last block you placed must contribute to the objective of the key card for you to claim it. Key cards can be rotated when determining if you’ve completed them or not so you can play a line of 5 cubes horizontally or vertically to score. Empty spaces on the card can be filled by any colour, meaning they don’t actually have to be empty, useful for making vertical matches for key cards with a gap because well… a floating cube would require some sort of Mayan sorcery and this just isn’t that kind of game.

As soon as you have claimed a key card you replace it with a new one from the deck choosing whether you want a sun or moon.

There are a couple of other teeny tiny rules to be aware of when playing, so, the maximum height you can stack the blocks is 6 and you can make bridges but not ledges. A bridge is where you place a block on top of one block and another block in a straight line with a gap underneath. This is a perfectly legal move as long as your block doesn’t hang over the edge, if it does it’s created a ledge and this is a big uh-uh.

Final Thoughts

Remember the vantage point will be different for each player and you are only concerned with your own vantage point when scoring. You also have that final secret enigma card hidden up your sleeve so in my humble opinion it’s a really difficult game to play to strategically try and screw over the other players you’re competing against. Whilst I’ve found it much more fortuitous to almost treat this game as a solo, trying to win as many of my own high scoring key cards as I can, you must always be aware that every placement someone else makes has a chance to disrupt your developing solution. This means you may want to try and win key cards as quickly as possible instead of playing the ‘long game’.

I really, really enjoyed playing this game and if you like strategy I think you will too.