76 February 2019
PLAYED
opportunities to butt heads without
the feeling that everyone is continually
treading on each other’s toes. In the
same way, only half of the police hexes- landing on three loses the round for
that team – are common between the
hidden map cards used in team-colour
pairs by the intelligence o cers, so it’s
not just a simple case of avoiding the
spaces where the other team gets caught.
e artwork, themed around
Amsterdam and its animal citizens,
pops with character and colour. As with
Mysterium and Dixit, the images are busy
enough for a variety of clues to make
sense – even with a bit of a leap at points - while being clear enough for elements
to stand out and give a sense of the setting.
Having sets of the pictures locked
into the seven preset districts helps
speed up setup and makes it easy to
change the board between rounds by
ipping them over, but can lead to the
same images becoming overly familiar
game after game. A few more districts or
enough intel cards to create completely
randomised layouts would’ve been
welcome. at said, the large number
of potential map arrangements behind
the screens and limited number of
clues available for each move mean
that Shadows doesn’t wear out its
gameplay too quickly. e only part of
the box that truly feels unnecessary is
the small tracker marker used to follow
the detectives’ movement on the map
cards – more ddly than it’s worth given
how easy it is to see where they are on
the main board, but at least speci ed as
optional in the rules.
Shadows: Amsterdam isn’t quite
as evergreen as Codenames or Dixit,
but it’s a game that oers something
fresh and dierent in a familiar mould.
e switch to real-time deduction sets
it apart, with the head-to-head race
making it a standout party game. All
the evidence points to a game that
belongs in your collection.
MATT JARVIS
S
hadows: Amsterdam could
be described as the visual
deduction of Dixit combined
with the co-operative minesweeper of
Codenames. It could be described that
way, but you’d be doing it a disservice.
Yes, there are echoes of those other
games in the way that it sees two
opposing teams racing around a hex
grid, one clue-giving ‘intelligence
o cer’ on each side hoping to steer
their detectives toward three hidden
pieces of evidence and the client
they must deliver them to by silently
handing them sets of deliberately
ambiguous picture cards. Are they
giving you this image of a tree because
they want you to go to the park, the
ower shop or just because it’s mainly
green, like the helicopter pad?
What makes Shadows dierent to
the careful consider-every-possibility
mulling of Codenames, though, is that
it’s played completely in real time,
neither team having to wait for their
rivals to select a clue or make their
move before they scoot their moped
miniature and its anthropomorphic
rider to their next destination. What’s
more, both intelligence o cers share
the same grid of ten available intel cards
to give as clues, so nabbing the perfecthint comes down to a bit of luck, speed
and the faith that your team will know
exactly what you're thinking.
With the pressure of identifying a
wealth of visual similarities against
the clock having the potential to
overwhelm and frustrate, Shadows
smartly limits things. e detectives’
mopeds only move one or two
adjacent hexes at a time, determined
by how many clue cards they’re given.
It’s a small but meaningful detail that
means you never have to consider the
entire board and can instead focus
on where you are, stopping detectives
from spending precious seconds
frozen with indecision – or making
desperate guesses to try and outpace
their rivals. Impassable obstacles
around the centre of the modular
layout, constructed from six of seven
double-sided ‘districts’ and a handful
of intel cards each round, further break
up the map to keep things moving.
A combination of evidence exclusive
to either team and hexes that can be
claimed by either side, depending on
who gets there rst, sets up enoughA little bit Dixit, a little bit Codenames,
but a game all of its own
SHADOWS:
AMSTERDAM
Designer: Mathieu Aubert | Artist: Libellud, Studio m81 30m 2-8 10+ £23WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ Seven double-
sided districts
◗ Starting tile
◗ Three obstacle tiles
◗ 84 intel cards
◗ Six evidence tokens
plus bases
◗ Two police tracks
◗ Five police tokens
◗ Two screens
◗ 40 map cards
◗ Two tracking markers
◗ Two detective figuresTRY THIS IF YOU LIKED... MYSTERIUM
Like hunting for picture clues to solve a mystery? Shadows: Amsterdam will pit
you against a real ticking clock – and the other team.PLAY IT? YES
The real-time race across the
board means that Shadows:
Amsterdam feels original as an
experience and is huge fun to boot.
It’s well deserving of your time.A little bit Dixit, a little bit Codenames,
SHADOWS:
AMSTERDAM