Resonym Visitor in Blackwood Grove

Bought as a gift and appreciated as a quick game for a couple people.

Visitor is a unique and engaging game that promotes creative thinking to come up with interesting relationships of everyday items. It’s only as complicated as you want it to be.

I loved this game!

I backed this on Kickstarter for two copies. I think it’s a great game that encourages creative expression and out of the box thinking. My daughter first played it at age 6 and needed some coaching and support but loved it. Our family plays games pretty regularly and had no trouble with the rule book, though it dies require an adult go through things for a few minutes beforehand to make sure concepts and game goals can be explained clearly. I tried to rate this game on amazon after I’d first played it on Kickstarter but the system would not allow for that because there was no record of my purchase w Amazon. I was recently looking for a birthday present for a friend if my daughter ( 7yo), and was delighted it was still in stock at amazon. Bought it and am finally posting reactions now that amazon has me on record as having bought it.

I really want to like this game, and I think it has potential to be fun in the right setting. But it has some drawbacks. Pros - The objective is creative, and once you get the hang of it, it leaves room for the person playing the visitor to have some fun with creating a rule. The instructions give examples of rules to use. But with the amount of item cards it gives you, you can come up with some fun ideas. It allows for the players to be split into teams. Additionally, the teams do still have to operate secretly, as the visitor doesnt want to give away too many hints at the rule so that the agents figure it out. And the agents dont want to be too brazen about discussing theories that allow the child to figure it out. Cons - The box says game play takes 5-15 minutes, you will probably be spending more like at least double that for a game. Weve played several times. And even after getting the hang of the rules, games tend to take some time to get going. There sometimes feels like theres too much clutter going on when trying to keep track of the childs and agents cards, the agents chips, and the cards around the board. People would be asking for clarification on which cards were accepted and which ones werent. Also, a flaw that can take the fun out of the game for some is that you can technically win without knowing the visitors rule. The instructions state that the child or agent can place four cards by the shield and guess which ones would go through the force field by moving those cards closer to the shield. However, they dont have to guess the rule before they do so, nor do they have to confirm what the rule was. So, if you have a partial idea of what it might be, you can make a guess and possibly end the game without knowing it for sure. I suppose you could tweak the instructions so the person guessing has to verbally say what they think the rule is, but it seems like a important part to leave out of the game play. Weve only played a few times but it hasnt found its way into the rotation due to people not really getting on board. But it might click at some point.

This is a cute little game, but it feels a little unpolished. We have found several situations where interpretation of the cards matters enough to throw a wrench into things. Interpretation is part of the game, but if you think it’s a toy car, and someone else thinks it’s a full-size car, there will be pass rule problems. We have decided to keep a list of “house rule adjustments” that help with the game; communicating somehow “this is a toy car” for example. I don’t regret the purchase, just be prepared to polish the given rules and tweak them to your group’s needs.

The rules took a while to figure out but it seemed like it had potential to be fun. The four of us tried to like it but gave up after several rounds. There are much better games out there. This is being donated after playing once.

Fun is very limited based on subjectivity of the person playing the Visitor.

We played this one night from a friend and I loved it! I love it so much. However, there is a flaw or two in the instructions, and the game play can be difficult because of it. However I still love it! And it is all up to interpretation. So there is that. Now there are very few rules, BUT you can change the rules so there are a few cards that have a underlined word and that can easily be switched out to be what you want it to be. So to change things up. But the cards themselves a few things (one in particular) we have no clue what it is and took out of game play. So I feel like there could be some improvement on the game and the designs. But over all I LOVE it. I have gotten so many people to play with me know too. It is a little confusing at first but once you have it games really could only last 5 minutes. So it is a nice quick fun game to have. I am very happy with it. I bought it myself after playing. Some very goo d laughs. The other thing we like to do is if someone proves it right explain their rule, and if someone else gets it right but their rule matches and the first didnt we go with that winner. Because one of the flaws is they could easily get the clue without actually knowing it. So we jazzed that up. Very good game!!!

Played this game with friends quite a few times recently. Its super fun. Only one player needs to be particularly creative in making the visitors rule (a good thing, as we all know how people can be when pressured to be creative on the spot), but the other players still feel important and engaged in discovering what this rule is. Even losing isnt too bad, as every losing player has a sudden oh I get it now or i knew it! moment together at the end. Its a mind game at its core, and it remains fresh and fun every time. Likewise, there are mechanics that stop the alien from making their made up rule too hard, keeping the game very balanced. Would recommend to everyone regardless of age or experience with unique board games!