SABOTEUR - MY REVIEW

History:
The third game that was selected by my girlfriend during our first trip to the gaming cafe. This turned out to be a very fun game to play so she purchased a copy from the local gaming store. We haven't been able to play her copy as much as we would like to, but time's on our side.


Gameplay:
In Saboteur, players take on the roles of gold-diggers who tunnel in a cave for gold that is located at the other end of the cave. If the gold-diggers reach the gold, players receive gold based on the game's unique point-scoring system. This game is played in 3 rounds, and the player who scores the most amount of gold at the end of the third round is declared the victor. However, unknownst to the gold-diggers, some of their peers may be saboteurs seeking to lead them away from the right path and prevent them from reaching the gold, all without being exposed.

Saboteur consists of:
- A profile deck with 7 "Gold-Digger" and 4 "Saboteur" cards - used to denote the roles each player will have for the upcoming round.
- 28 "Gold Nugget" cards - these cards are used for scoring at the end of each round, and have different numbers of gold nuggets on them.
- 27 "Action" cards - these cards can be used to hinder other players from playing "Path" cards or to remove said hindrances, depending on the card faces.
- 44 "Path" cards - these cards are played to allow players to progress towards the treasure chest. 1 of these is the start card, while another 3 show the possible locations that the gold may be at—1 treasure, 2 stone.

At the start of each round, the profile cards are shuffled and players select a card each from this deck. The card each player receives will denote which role—saboteur or gold-digger—he or she will be in but each player is not allowed to share this information with the others. The unused profile cards are set aside without any player looking at them, and the "Path" and "Action" cards are collected in a single pile and shuffled. Each player receives a number of cards before the remaining cards are used to form a draw pile. The 3 treasure cards are likewise shuffled face-down before they are placed vertically on the table with 1 card-length difference between them. The start card is placed 7 card-widths away from the centre card.

During gameplay, players are to place "Path" cards to advance towards the treasure locations, and this forms a maze of pathways from the start card to the treasure cards. Alternatively, players may play "Action" cards to hinder their peers from placing "Path" cards; in such an event, the hindered player can only discard cards from his or her hand until the hindrance is removed, courtesy of another "Action" card that can be played by the hindered player or another player There are some "Action" cards which allow players to peek at any of the treasure locations which can be very useful to players of both roles.

If the gold-diggers reach the gold, they succeed and are entitled to receive points in the form of gold. The "Gold Nugget" cards are shuffled and dealt to the gold-digger players, with the gold-digger player who placed the "Path" card which connects the maze to the gold treasure card having first pick. The other gold-diggers will take turns to select 1 from the remaining "Gold Nugget" cards. On the other hand, the saboteurs wni and are awarded a fixed number of gold if the gold-diggers are not able to reach the gold treasure card in time.


My Thoughts:
What do I think about this game? I really enjoyed playing it with my girlfriend, and I believe it would be even more fun if we were to play it with some of our other friends. The cooperative aspect of this game can be likened to that of Shadows over Camelot but the very interesting catch here is that there is a potential for MORE THAN ONE player to be a saboteur, and not know that another individual may be just like him or her!

The only gripe I had about this game is the image design on the cards—I think the cards can be more cinematic that what they currently are now. As I am a person who goes for visual appeal, brighter colours and probably better-designed images would probably up my love for the game. Notwithstanding this, this game is one which I would encourage gamers to give a try, especially those who are interested in the cooperative aspect of Saboteur.

Edited: Changed "EVERY" to "MORE THAN ONE".