One Key Review

Day 16 – One Key

• Designer: L’Atelier
• Publisher: Libellud
• Players: 2-6 Players
• Age: 8+
• Time to play: About 20 minutes

Hey folks! Back again with another quick review. This time we’re locked out and lost our key. Now, it’s not a normal looking key. It’s a special one of a kind key. I think I left it over there on that other pile of things.  So, I’ll walk you through so you can find it.

One Key is a cooperative game where there is one leader and the rest of the players travelers.

Components

This game comes with 84 illustration cards, 9 clue tokens, 3 clue area tiles, 1 bonus ticket token, the leader screen and base, the turn tracker and token and rules.

 

Set up

Set the leader screen. Place the turn tracker next to the screen. Place the illustrations cards behind the turn tracker. Place the three clue areas off to the side. Then put the 9 clue tokens behind the leader screen.

Game Play

• The game is played over 4 turns.
• The first turn, the leader will draw 11 illustration cards and pick one as the key.
  • The illustration cards have numbers on the back, so remember the number.
• Shuffle the 11 cards up and place them face up in front of the leader screen.
• Turn 1
  • Leader Draws 1 clue card
  • Leader judges it and places it in the clue area. Green shares a strong link. Yellow the leader is uncertain about the clue. Red shares a weak link.
  • Travelers talk about the clues and pick one.
  • Leader is getting turn 2 ready. They draw 3 clues and place them in the screen. They then use the clue tokens to show what area the clue goes to. (Green, Yellow, Red). Make sure to have these flipped over.
  • Travelers pick 1 card to remove from the area.

• Turn 2
  • Leader flips the screen around.
  • Travelers pick one card for the leader to reveal what area it goes to.
  • Travelers discuss options to remove, and removes 2 cards.
  • Leader gets 3 cards ready for turn 3 during the discussion.

• Turn 3
  • Leader flips the screen around.
  • Travelers pick one card for the leader to reveal what area it goes to.
  • Travelers discuss options to remove, and removes 3 cards.
  • Leader gets 3 cards ready for turn 3 during the discussion.
• Turn 4
  • Leader flips the screen around.
  • Travelers pick one card for the leader to reveal what area it goes to.
  • Travelers discuss options to remove, and removes 4 cards.

During turns 2-4, the travelers can turn in the bonus token to have the leader reveal an extra card for a clue.

The game goes on until one of two things happen.

• The key card is chosen to be removes. Game is lost.
• The key card is the last card left. Game is won.

There is also an app that you can download and walks you through the game. The leader enters in the number of the key. Then each round once the travelers clear the board the leader will note if the key is still on the board.

Final Thoughts

That’s the game. It’s quick and mimics some of the other familiar games from Libellud such as Mysterium and Obscurio. It’s all done with visual clues leading the players to pick the correct answer.  I would say this is an intro game to that idea.

Components wise, this game is well done. The cardboard bits are nice and thick. The clues are all visually stunning and keeps your attention. While not the same art style as Mysterium and Obscurio, this one is geared more towards kid and family friendly.  The insert is a great and functional. Everything has it’s place and the leader screen is a nice touch.

Gameplay this is a fast game. I really enjoyed the ease of play and how interactive my kids were during the game. You could really see the wheels turning and the deductive reasoning as they picked apart each clue. The ranged from “Not the same colors” to “Not the same shape.”  It was really cool to watch them work through the clues.  It’s also nice to have a cooperative game where we aren’t fighting each other to win the game. It’s important to teach sportsman ship while playing a game, but it’s nice to have a game everyone can win or lose together.

I recommend this game if you have kids and want an alternative to Mysterium that you can play with them. My kids are 5 and 7 and they were able to play this game with some guidance. This game says 2-6 players, but you could easily have more people join the travelers. I’ll be keeping this one in my collection for some time due to how easy I can play it with my kids.