Locke & Key THe GaMe Review

Locke & Key THe GaMe

Cryptozoic Entertainment and IDW Publishing

Number of Players: 3-6

Game Length: 30 Minutes

Ages: 15 and Up

“Locke & Key is the story of an incredible house that is home to a collection of impossible keys, each with an uncanny purpose of its own; it's also the story of a hate-filled creature that will not rest until it claims the most powerful of the keys for itself.” -Locke & Key THe GaMe

Locke & Key takes game night to new dimensions in this card game adaptation of the popular comic series by  Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. Inside the box are 150 Strength cards; 15 Key cards; 19 Challenge cards; 1 Initiative marker; and 1 3D cardboard stand-up Keyhouse. The Keyhouse, by the way, serves no purpose other than letting someone know what game you're playing when they approach your table.

Players are dealt four cards from the strength deck and a card from the challenge deck is turned up. On the strength cards, players will notice a number as well as an occasional block of text. Challenge cards also have a number on them. The objective is for the players, as a collective, to match or beat the number on the challenge card by playing up to three cards a piece of the same color as the challenge card. That occasional block of text is something that could modify play to their benefit. If the challenge is overcome, the player with the highest individual score gets to add the challenge card value to their score. The player who gets second place is also awarded. Sometimes they get to add cards to their score, sometimes they get to add cards to their hand, or sometimes they get to draw one of the mystical keys that lend to the sublime magic of Locke & Key. Keys can also be used to modify play in one's favor and either have a one-shot use or are re-useable. The game continues for several rounds, until the "Game Over" card is turned up in the challenge deck.  Whoever has the highest score when the game ends is the winner.

A highly qualified team of Outside The Cube game testers sat down for a couple games of Locke & Key. The game is designed for a minimum of three players and is suggested for players 15 and up. One of those highly qualified game testers recently turned 14 and found that there was no trouble in understanding or playing the game. In fact, she won the first game hands down.

The game is a lot of fun. Once acquired, players tend to horde the keys. Nobody wants to use theirs at the wrong moment and keys tend to be color specific, so it's possible that a game can be played with none of the keys being used. However, they do make the game very interesting. You just don't know what you have on the board until someone turns over a key and changes the game completely.

Locke & Key is based on the wonderful IDW comic series by writer Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez. All of Hill's elements from the story are involved. White challenges represent personal and psychological problems the characters might face; Blue challenges are the mystical otherworldly events the family in the story faces; and the Black challenges are the creatures and entities that attack the Locke family in the “Crown of Shadows” story. For the players, the White strength cards represent character and self-realization; the Blue cards represent resolve and reason; and the Black cards represent fearlessness and conviction.

Locke & Key THe GaMe also features the wonderful art of Gabriel Rodriguez. Straight out of the series, we see images of what the keys can do as well as the dark denizens of Keyhouse and the threat they pose to the Locke family.

This game is great fun and we strongly encourage gamers to run out to your nearest specialty store to pick it up. If you're a fan of Locke & Key or just enjoy a good clever round of cards, you are going to love Cryptozoic's Locke & Key THe GaMe. It's an affordable game that doesn't take up much space but does require a little bit of thought and an adventurous attitude.

Review originally published in Game Reviews Outside The Cube- Jan 30th, 2015.

Locke & Key THe GaMe designed by Matt Hyra. Game developers for Locke & Key THe GaMe include Mike Donais, Matthew Place, Patrick Sullivan, Ben Stoll, and Drew Walker. Original testers for Locke & Key THe GaMe during development include Patrick Dillon, Erik Larsen, Passion Donais, Nathaniel Yamaguchi, Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez, Cory Jones, William Brinkman, Ted Adams, and Chris Ryall.