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A good party game can be the stand out moment of a game night. Scores rarely matter as the laughter and stories eclipse notions of loss and victory. Often those stories involve wild accusations along the lines of ‘how did you connect those things together?’. Secret Identity revels in this with great components and clever restrictions. You will be equally frustrated with your own inability to communicate as you will with the crazy connections others make.
I Got The Key
Secret Identity tasks you with communicating your secret identity to other players via the gift of up to three simple picture cards. Players get points for guessing other players identity correctly and having other players guess their identity correctly.
Eight cards with names of famous real and fictional people are laid out in eight number slots around the score board. Each player is given a player ‘safe’ board and 8 numbers keys of their colour. They are also given 10 picture cards which are a bit domino like. They have four simple pictures on, two on each side. You will not be given any other picture cards during the game - this is your lot.
Each player is then given a key from the centre the number on this key will dictate which famous person they are. They slide this key behind a clever flap in their ‘safe’ board that hides the number and the numbers of the other players guesses until the end of the round. Once you have your identity you can start choosing up to three pictures to represent it.
I Got The Secret
Secret Identity is played over four rounds and you have 10 picture cards. You don’t get them back after they have been used, so the mathematicians among you will have realised that you cannot use three cards each round or in the last round you will be left with four pictures to choose from on one card.
Each ‘safe’ board has a six slots for picture cards three green and three red. This means you can put pictures that don’t represent the identity behind the red spaces, and ones that go with the identity behind the green ones.
As mentioned you need to be clever in how you use your pictures, at least in theory. The pressure will soon put pay to this. If you don’t have any good choices using more in creative ways can help, at the cost of future choices…
Identity Theft
Once everyone has locked in their pictures you pass your boards around and the other players try and work out who’s who. When you have decided you slip your key with the matching key number into the top of the board hiding your guess from the other players. You will score a point if you are correct and another point for each of the other players who guess your identity correctly. Once the four rounds are over the winner is the one with the most points.
Of course points in Secret Identity are not the most important part. Rarely do I remember who won the game, but I do remember the clever ways people linked images to their secret identity. The times someone risked it all on a one image chancer and it came off beautifully.
There may be times of frustration when you seem stuck for links, but everyone will be in the same boat and it all evens out. There will also be the moments when you think your clues are brilliant but you are the only one who does. Things that seem obvious to you seem less obvious to everyone else…
Component wise the game is strong, although I do worry the magnetic flaps might wear over time. The game will wrap up in 45-60 minutes and is easy enough to jump straight into even with new players. I’ve had great success playing this with gamers of all types and look forward to busting it out many many more times!
