The very first review I did for the Blogger Board Game Club in July last year was Codenames so it seems only fitting that I am finishing my time in the Blogger Board Game Club with Codenames Pictures.
We really enjoy playing Codenames as a family but sometimes the girls struggle a little bit when we think outside of the box a little bit so I wondered if Codenames Pictures would be any different.
Inside the box, you will find 14 agent cards in two colours, 1 double agent card, 4 innocent bystander cards, 1 assassin card, 60 key cards, 1 rulebook, 1 card stand and 140 double-sided picture cards. The game is played in a very similar way apart from the picture cards are laid out in four rows of five instead of five rows of five.
Spymasters give one-word clues that relate to the pictures that would allow their team player to find their agents. The idea is to think of a word that links multiple cards of your colour but that does not link any of the cards of another colour and which definitely does not relate to the assassin card.
The game ends when one team uncovers all of their agents or if a team lands on the assassin card. The game can be played fairly quickly and you can even set up the second game by just turning over the picture cards which helps to save time.
If you own Codenames like we do then you can also combine the two games to give an extra dimension to the gameplay. This really makes you think about your clues and makes it a bit harder I think.
We really enjoyed playing Codenames Pictures. I think it is easier for the younger players to have visual clues instead of words as it meant that there were fewer cards that we had to explain. It also enabled the spymasters to become more descriptive and use shapes as a clue. We definitely recommend Codenames and Codenames Pictures to families who like to use a little brain power when they play together.