Scotland Yard board game review

A couple of weekends ago my wife wanted to get more board games. Of course I was all too happy to oblige her. She was in the mood for another cooperative game so we spent quite a bit of time comparison shopping. In my search through the games I suddenly noticed a box with yellow lettering; something that shined like a beacon from my childhood. One of those games I thought lost. Hours of play and travel between friends houses had caused so many lost pieces and damage that I fear that the game was tossed by my mother. I hadn’t seen a copy for quite some time, but I discovered it had been re-released and I had a rush of childish glee.

I am talking about Scotland Yard. This is a sort of quasi-cooperative game where a team of detectives are hunting down a single player named Mr. X in London. Players catch Mr. X by landing on his space. The thing is Mr. X only places his piece on the board on a small number of turns. Most of his movements are recorded in secret on his movement board. The detectives have to deduce where Mr. X may have travelled after he was last sighted and attempt to corner him.

This game is fun for either side. The detectives have fun working as a team trying to deduce where Mr. X may be and work in a group attempting to corral and capture him with limited resources. Mr. X gets to pit his mind against the rest of the players in an attempt to outsmart them.

I really like the mechanic of Scotland Yard as it incorporates both co-operative and competitive play in an ingenious way. I find that many competitive games have times when everyone teams up against a single player who appears to be doing better and it costs that player their enjoyment. Scotland Yard embraces that problem and turns it on its head to make it part of the fun. Mr. X is supposed to be teamed up on and knows it going in.

The difficulty level in this game is altered by the number of players. More detectives make for an easier time of catching Mr. X. Players looking for a challenge should choose which side to play depending on the number of players.

To sum up I would recommend this game to any group. It is easy to learn and strategy is dependant on how deviously cunning the Mr. X player is. The more experience players gain the more of a challenge the game becomes for everyone. There is a reason this game has sold more than 4 million copies and won the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award.

This game is fantastic for all ages and it should be on your shelf

Check back again next week when I review Ticket to ride.