Spynet Review

By: IllusionInterested in covert operations and spy missions? Come join me and play "Spynet"!Spynet is a 2-4 player card game by Z Man Games and Richard Garfield.How to PlayIn Spynet players are drafting cards of different colors, representing spies of different strengths. Players are also drafting missions of different colors, worth different point values.The main objective of the game is to have the highest strength, in spy value, of a certain color. When you have the highest spy value of a certain color, you are able to play mission cards of that color in order to score points at the end of the game.The cards are placed on the table in a face down stack, and 3 cards are placed next to that stack in 3 separate piles, one card each. Players each have cardboard markers in front of them indicating columns of different colors.  On a players turn, you can either draw a card, or place a spy or mission down in front of you in its corresponding colored column.In order to draw a card, the player first looks at the stacks of single cards next to the pile, one at a time. As soon as you see a card you want to keep, you can keep it, but may no longer look at any other piles.After drawing a card, you then place, from the large draw pile, one card for each of the other three piles and put a card on top of each, this is called padding the stacks. Now, if you decide to take one of those cards, you must take the entire pile.If you decide not to draw a card, you can place a spy or a mission card in your colored columns.Players will continue doing this, trying to get as many missions played, until the original draw pile runs out. Then all players score points based on how many mission they were able to play.In 2-3 player mode, players are doing this alone, but in 4 player mode, players are on teams of 2. One interesting difference is that in this team mode, you also have the ability to pass cards to your team mate.My thoughtsThis is a really good, easy to learn game. Definitely a filler game, but one that I can see myself bringing out when waiting for our last party member to arrive, or at the end of the night if everyone is tired, but not quite done yet.This game comes in a very small package, and is very light weight in its complexity. The game plays really quickly, probably a short 30 minutes, and is a breeze to teach to new gamers.I was able to teach this game to some friends who very rarely game, and they not only understood it, but had a really fun time playing it.The quality of the box and components is nice, and the art is simplistic, but I really enjoy the colors, and the spy theme.I think the mechanic of padding the stacks and being able to take all of the cards in a stack is really interesting. I also like that once I decide I want a card, I can't look at the next piles. I found myself taking the late piles because my curiosity wouldn’t allow me to take the early stacks!There is not a lot of complexity here, and the theme is definitely abstract, but I like it that way.Play on boys and girls.