Asmodee sent us this board game to review, all opinions are my own. #BoardGameClub

Codenames is a game about spy's and agents, played with a minimum of 4 players aged around 14+ so this isn't a game for the little ones as it's slightly confusing.

The aim of the game is for your team to make contact with all the agents before the other teams do, the aim. Of the game is fairly simple where as the rules are the ones that may get you!
Using a minimum of four players get in to teams of two, choose amongst yourself who will be the Spy Master and who will be the field operatives, the two spy masters sit next to each other one on side of the table and both field operatives on the other side.

 The next step is to randomly choose 25 codenames cards and place them on the table in a 5-by-5 grid making sure that you shuffle them well before hand.
Each game has one "key" card that reveals the secret identities of the cards on the table. The spymasters should choose the key cards randomly from the pack and slide it into the stand between them, just makes sure you don't let the field operatives see it!

The key card relates to the grid of cards on the table. Blue squares relate to words that Blue Team must guess (blue agents). Red squares relate to words that Red Team must guess (red agents). Light squares are innocent bystanders, and the black square is an assassin who should never be contacted at all.

Got all that? Still with me? Good!

Now your set up we can play, so each team takes turns trying to guess the secret identities of their own agents using a single worded clue from their spymaster.


The spymaster can only say a single word as a clue and a number. The number that they can say is the number of cards on the board that this clue applies to. Remember the spymaster must keep a straight face and try not to give any other info away.

The agents then can guess the card with the clue they received and if they guess correctly the spy master will cover that card with a bystander and If a bystander is revealed then the turn is passed. If the assassin is revealed then that team loses instantly. The game is over. You will win the game by guessing all of the agent cards.

Thats it! So it's slightly confusing to learn especially for younger ones but definitely alot of fun. The game itself isn't somthing i'd play regularly as I enjoy playing with my children but it may be fun when they're older.