Christmas is an excellent time of year to catch up with old friends, spend quality time with the family, chill out and relax. But after all the opening of presents, cleaned up, pigged out on the Christmas dinner and exhausted all topics of conversation, what do you do for the rest of time? Some people will just chill out in front of the television, some will go for a walk, but we, as a family, love to play games (board games, card games and tabletop games – something where we can sit around the table together, interact with each other and have some competitive fun) – they are always fun and encourage conversation. But for this review we didn’t play a board game but a Pictionary-type game, a drawing and guessing game with a twist. We have been playing Partners in Crime from Lucky Egg Games, a mysterious drawing game that puts your powers of deduction to the test!
Partners in Crime is a drawing and guessing game for 3 to 8 players, aged 14+ with a playing time of around 30 minutes. A party game of deduction and cunning that is easy to learn, easy to play and can be hilarious fun. You don’t even need to be able to draw!
In the box:
- 128 Word Cards
- 8 Scoring Boards
- 8 Drawing Boards
- 8 Washable Marker Pens
- Timer
- Instructions
Partners in Crime is not a game of committing crimes. It is a drawing and guessing game where you need to think in sync with other players and put your powers of deduction to the test. Word cards are in pairs, so two players could end up with matching word cards and you have to deduce who is partnered up or working alone.
To play, each player is given a drawing board, scoring board and pen. Each player writes their name on their drawing board.
If you are playing with an equal number of players, make a facedown pile with a number of cards equal to the number of players and add two more cards on top. If playing with an odd number of players, just add 1 extra card to the pile. We play with four players so we have a pile of 6 cards to start play. Shuffle the cards and deal a card to each player – players might end up with the same word card as another player, so don’t let anyone else see what is on your card. Get rid of the remaining cards. Now you are ready to play,
Players secretly look at their word card and draw or write a clue on their drawing board, making sure not to let other players see it yet. The first player to finish drawing flips over the timer and the other players now have 30 seconds to finish drawing/writing their clues. This is achieved by drawing an obscure picture to illustrate the word on the card, or write a hint if you are no good are drawing, to create clues to try and identify your partner in crime if you have one (the player with the word game that matches yours) and try to figure out who else are partners or if they are working alone. The drawings and hints must be obscure enough that it means nothing to other players, except to any player that might have a matching word card. Once the timer is finished all players look at each other’s drawing board and have to try and deduce who has been working alone and who has a partner. Write down your conclusions on your scoring board (without other players seeing what you are writing).
There are two ways to score: guess you partner or guess who else are partners.
Guessing your partner or if you are alone:
If you guess your partner and your partner guesses you, without any other player guessing that you two are partners, you and your partner you get 3 points each. If you and your partner correctly guess each other but so does another player, you and your partner get two points each. If all players guess who you and you partner are, then you and your partner get zero points. If you guess who your partner is but they don’t guess you, you and your partner get zero points each. If neither of you guess each other, you get zero points each.
If you are working alone and you correctly guess that you are working alone, you get three points. If you guess that you are working alone and another player also guesses that you are working alone, you get two points. If everybody guesses that you are working alone, you get zero points.
Guessing other partners or if they are alone:
If you correctly guess if two other players are working together, you get 1 point. If you correctly guess a player is working alone, you get 1 point.
The first player to reach 17 points wins the game.
Overall, Partners in Crime is an addictive game that is hilarious fun. We have really enjoyed playing it. It takes a few reads of the instructions to grasp exactly how it works and is scored but really doesn’t take too long to learn, the scoring can be confusing on the first few plays but once grasped it is easy enough.
It has a playing time of around 30 minutes and the time just flies past. Definitely a game where you will play more than once.
If you have ever played Pictionary and enjoyed it, you will love Partners in Crime. You are not trying to guess what has been drawn but trying to deduce from the drawings who might be working together, or not! The concept of guessing if players are working together or alone is excellent and trying to draw or hint at the answer without actually giving it away so that a possible partner is the only one that will know is brilliant.
Using erasable whiteboards to draw on rather than using up lots of paper is fantastic.
It is simple to play and has hours of playability. You don’t have to be able to draw, you can write down word hints if that suits you better, so it is perfect for all abilities. The perfect party game for this coming Christmas season and it would make a perfect gift for teenagers and fun-loving adults. We played it with 2 adults, a 10 and 13 year old and all loved it and found it easy to play, even for the youngest player.
A criminally funny party game.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £24.99
For more information, visit luckyegg.co. Available to buy from Amazon here.
