Red7: Review

In keeping with my recent love of card games, last week I picked up today’s review Red7, a game designed by Carl Chudyk and Chris Cieslik of Asmadi Games.

Red7 is a 2-4 player card game that I would say is a little like a mash up of Fluxx and Uno. Everyone starts with a set number of cards in their hand, and they are trying to be the last one standing at the end of the round. The way you knock out other players is by playing cards from your hand that either satisfies the current rule AND makes you be winning the game, or you change the rule to make it so you are winning the game.

The packaging for Red7 is simple enough. Sleek box with a cardboard insert to hold the cards in place. This is definitely a game for sleeving, but if you want to keep the original box, you’re going to find that to be a little difficult. If you take the insert out, you could fit the cards sleeved by stack height, though it’s such a snug fit that you might bend the cards.
Players play until they reach 40, 35, or 30 points for a 2, 3, or 4 player game, respectively. Each game (I’d prefer to call them rounds, because the game actually ends when a player has reached the appropriate amount of points) begins with the same rule card, which is the red card in the photo. Everyone starts with a hand of seven cards kept secret, and one card played face up. Whoever has the lowest number begins the game.

The game begins with the starting player playing one card either in their play area, or onto the rule card, changing the win condition. The round starts with the rule that whoever has the highest numbered card played is the winner of the round. So if you’re opponents have played a card with a higher number than yours, you must either play a card that’s higher than your opponent’s, or change the rule so you are winning the game.

If your opponent has played a seven, which is the highest number you can play, and you also have a seven but it’s of a higher valued color, you will be winning the round if you play it. The value of the colors are in order of the color spectrum, ROYGBIV. Highest color is red, and then orange, and then yellow, all the way to violet being the lowest color.

Each color has a rule written on the side of the card in case you want to use the card to change the win condition. For example, if you played a yellow card to change the win condition, then the new win condition would be whoever has the most cards of one color. If Player A has three green cards played, and Player B has three yellow cards played, then whoever has the highest numbered card in their set of three would be winning the round at that moment.

If both players are equal in their amount of cards of one color AND their highest numbered card in that set is the same, then Player B would be winning, because yellow is of higher value than green (remember, ROYGBIV).

Some of the other rules that change the win condition are most cards played in a row (indigo), most cards of different colors (blue), and most cards below the number 4 (violet).

I have played this game with two and four players, and no matter how many players there are, you still seem to have a good time. The game lasts a little longer with more players, stretching it out to about a 30 minute game, while two players can last about 15 minutes. Once you’ve played the game once over, you definitely get the hang of the rules.

You can pick up Red7 from your FLGS for $12.99 MSRP.

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