A Quick Look — Cryptid
Cryptid is an interesting dynamic puzzle that you are racing against others to solve. If you haven’t heard of it, I want to give my quick thoughts, what I enjoyed about it, and who I would recommend this game to.
Overview:
Cryptid is a 3–5-player deduction game where players compete to be the first cryptozoologist to find the location of the mythical creature. It’s an interesting game where players will have to use their detective skills to figure out the clues and hints to uncover the secret location. There are lots of room for deception and trickery which adds another layer of complexity and fun in a dynamic puzzle game.
I will not go too in-depth with the rule in this article. You can learn more about the game here: Cryptids
Quick Thoughts:
If you were hoping to delve into some hidden layer to find an interesting and terrifying creature, then I must inform you that you’ve come to the wrong place. Rather, Cryptid, is a simple puzzle game where players are given hints to where the cryptid hides. The objective of the game is to be the first person to find the true location of the cryptid.
In the beginning of the game, a card is randomly drawn. This card basically tells you the terrain setup and the hints the players will be playing with. At the start of the game, each player has one hint in the Clue Book depending on the card. Every player knows one and only one clue exclusively. This clue tells you a bit about the location of the cryptid. For example, “on forest or desert”, “within one space of forest”, “within two spaces of cougar territories”.
As you can see, all the players have these hints, puzzle pieces, to pieces together the puzzle. This creates for a dynamic puzzle with lots of player interactions. There is only 1 solution to the puzzle. That solution will be the combination of all the clues provided to the players at the start of the game. When a player picks the location in which all the clues (conditions) are fulfilled, they’ve found the solution.
The game will start off by having players, take turns in picking all the places that they know for sure they cryptid doesn’t reside. For example, if the player has the clue “on forest or desert”, they would place a cube on terrain that is not forest or desert, signalling that the cryptid could not possibly in that location. Afterwards, players will take turns asking players if the creature can possibly reside in a certain terrain, in which they can only answer with the tokens (the cube meaning “not possible” and the disc meaning “possible”).
The way the game is structure, players will gradually and eventually, reveal the location of the creature. This progression will make it so that the players will not feel lost and that they are closing in on the solution. Makes for an exciting and climatic chase to the end.
At the start, I mentioned that there is an element of deception and trickery. This will happen in your later play-throughs of the game when you and your friends have gotten the hang of it. When players are more familiar with the hints, finding the cryptid should easier and quicker. However, players have the freedom to play mind games, such as strategically place clues where it is not helpful or strategically ask for hints that they may already have the answer to. This gives another layer of fun and complexity to the game. I feel that this is what makes the player interactions, while playing cryptid, so entertaining.
The game ends when a player places a guess (a disc) on a terrain they believe the cryptid may be residing. Players, from clockwise priority, start placing their “possible” or “not possible” tokens on. If it is a “not possible” token, the guess stops; however, if the next player places a “possible” token, the next player will have to place a token on top. Once, all the discs are stacked, signalling the correct answer for the puzzle, the game ends.
Wrap-up:
The game is a fun and dynamic puzzle. You can get yourself immersed in the competition by racing to find the answer and in the atmosphere. There are tons of player interactions. With the possibility for deception and trickery, this may lead to fun and interesting gameplay.
Visually, the game is not overly exciting. It is mainly just tokens and tiles, which may get boring after multiple sessions. However, I don’t believe is supposed to be visually impressive. It was designed simply to be a puzzle and deduction game, and I think it’s served its purpose. I would recommend this game to players who loves the thrill of finding answers to puzzles and love the game of deception.
Article published on www.fourtato.com
