The Resistance - Board Game Review

Are you looking for an excuse to play a board game while in a non-game-related social activity without seeming like an standoffish geek?

No?

Oh. That must just be me, then. Either way, you should definitely check out The Resistance, a party game that is as shrewd as it is entertaining.

It can accommodate anywhere from five to ten players and normally takes around half an hour to play. The rules are quite simple to understand and can be taught in only a couple of minutes.

There are two teams: the good, heroic members of the Resistance, and the deceptive, two-faced spies. Players are dealt a character card at the beginning of the game to signify which side they’ll be on.

After everyone looks at their cards, they then close their eyes, and the spies look to identify each other. Everyone opens their eyes, and the game begins! There will be five missions, and each will have a certain amount of people sent on them. A team leader will decide who gets to go, and everyone will vote on the proposed mission. If a majority approves, the mission is a go.

Everyone on the mission will get dealt a Succeed and Fail card. Players on the side of the Resistance must select the Succeed card, but the spies may choose either to make the mission succeed or fail. When everyone has put in a card, the team leader shuffles them up and reveals the results. If all cards are Succeeds, the mission is a success, but if even one Fail card gets in there, the spies win. This continues for five missions, or until either team has acquired three wins.

If you’d like to see the rules in action, I’d recommend watching TableTop’s playthrough online. It’ll get you familiar with the gameplay and it’s quite entertaining in itself.

The game gets fantastically tense towards the end, as both sides become more and more desperate. The spies have to work at seeming innocent in order to get on a mission, and the Resistance has to figure out who is to be trusted and who is not. Simple logic won’t do - remember that the spies can choose to make a mission succeed in order to throw people off their trail.

Honestly, this is what makes The Resistance such a remarkable game - it’s open-ended enough to provide nearly limitless strategic opportunities. Because of the game’s asymmetry, it’s a different experience every time you play. Also, it can be just as complicated a game as it needs to be - It’s possible to finish in fifteen minutes, but I’ve heard of plays that have lasted up to an hour and a half. The simplicity of the game mechanics conform to whatever group is playing.

In case it isn’t clear by now, I really love this game. I’d recommend it nearly everybody, and it deserves a spot within anyone’s collection. It’s also really cheap - you can pick it up on Amazon for around fifteen bucks. So really there’s no reason to not own this game! Go give it a try.