What is the best board game? Since you have likely been stuck at home for months, these might be just the thing you need for some new activities to do with the family. Ah, the simple pleasure of laying down tiles to build a bustling French town. What could be better? That magical feeling can be yours in Carcassonne , a game that looks charming and simple, but hides a competitive core.
Connect roads to roads, fields to fields, cities to cities, and then place your workers down to claim these features as your own. If two different areas eventually collide, the player with the most pieces there will end up scoring all the points in the end, so you have to decide whether to build in isolation, watching from afar as you friends bludgeon each other over prime land, or get in on the action yourself.
Enter Fog of Love : a romantic comedy board game for two. Both players create their own fictional character and work through one of several scenarios with fixed chapters and randomized scenes, charting the course of their relationship to its happy or unhappy ending.
Designer Jacob Jaskov played and loved hundreds of board games, but his wife was never interested in any of them. Its Walmart-exclusive distribution deal in the US hopefully speaks to a radical diversification of the mainstream board gaming industry in the near future. Buy at Walmart. Some games are built entirely around a single idea or theme, with every mechanic designed to serve it.
Azul , a game about laying beautiful tiles for the Portuguese royal palace, is squarely the latter. Players compete to build the most complete and aesthetically-pleasing square of colorful tiles. In Gloomhaven , two to four players team up for a co-operative fantasy adventure campaign that spans hundreds of hours, with over a dozen, unique characters to unlock.
Players assume the role of wandering adventurers in a persistent world full of treasure to find, monsters to hunt, and dungeons to clear, accruing new items and abilities as they go. Fantasy dungeon crawl is a crowded genre in board games as well as video games.
Whether you want to be savvy traders like the Ferengi, haughty imperialists like the Centauri, or a hive mind like the Formics, the expansive mechanics and broadly sourced archetypes of TI allow for basically whatever flavor of space opera tickles your fancy.
Several iterations have tightened up and streamlined the rule set towards more elegant, Eurogame-style mechanics and a vastly more appealing visual presentation. The fourth edition incorporates 20 years of player feedback, making a surprisingly smooth and refined version of a game that by all rights should be massively unwieldy.
If you're a board game enthusiast like me, it's tough to find people to play the complex strategy games with. And yet, there are so many types of games to enjoy, from deck building to worker placement games and everything in between. But some games can help casual board game players make the leap to more complex products: think Settlers of Catan, but for One of the best games for this, in my experience, is The Quest for El Dorado. With light deck building elements mixed in, El Dorado lets players race across an Amazonian rain forest to find the lost city of gold.
It's a fun game with light strategy elements, and when it comes to the final stretch of turns, dashing for the finish line, everyone will be thankful they tried something new. For more great games, check out our favorite board games to give to friends and family this holiday , the best two-player board games for the year , the best strategy board games and the best cooperative tabletop board games to bring together the family during this year's gatherings.
Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy , which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion. CNET editors pick the products and services we write about. When you buy through our links, we may get a commission. David Priest. King of Tokyo Best dice game. Jump to details. Just One Best word game. Wavelength Best party game. Magic Maze Best chaotic game. The Resistance Best deception game.
Decrypto Best puzzle game. Cranium Best game for mixed ages. Forbidden Desert Best cooperative game. Karuba Best game with individual player boards. The Quest for El Dorado The best entry point into more complex games. Read more: Best 2-player board games for the holidays King of Tokyo. Best dice game. Just One. Best word game. There are plenty of different strategies you can employ here, but to win a game of Skull, you just have to successfully flip cards without seeing a skull twice.
That's way easier said than done, as Skull is a game where everyone will be doing plenty of lying, bluffing, and risking their own cards just to mess up others. Because of how easy it is to learn and how few pieces there are to set up, Skull is an awesome game to break out at parties, and it's pretty much a guaranteed hit with any crowd.
Despite their similar names, Mansions of Madness has nothing to do with another game on this list, Mountains of Madness, although both are inspired by the works of H. Instead, the premise of Mansions of Madness is much more similar to Betrayal at House on the Hill--you and your group will enter an eerie mansion, explore its hallways and rooms, find items, and encounter horrors that will test your sanity.
In Mansions, however, you can see the full layout of the board from the start, including the location of clues, and the scenario for a playthrough is in effect from the beginning. While the first edition of Mansions required one player to take the antagonistic role of Keeper, who actively works against the other players, the second edition introduced a free companion app that absorbs this role and allows the game to be completely co-op or even single-player.
The second edition's base game comes with four different scenarios, with more available through paid DLC. However, this is a high-quality board game with detailed miniatures and tiles made to last, and its thrilling scenarios require deep strategy and cooperation that will keep your team fully engaged over the course of a two-to-three-hour playthrough. Another two-player board game, Fog of Love is a romantic drama played out in tabletop form.
In this game, you and the other player will play as two characters who meet, fall in love, and navigate the ups and downs of a modern relationship. You'll have awkward encounters, funny moments, and painful situations to work through, and the decisions you each make in these moments will affect your character's satisfaction and traits, which in turn affect whether you achieve your long-term goals.
There's also a possibility for one or both players to have hidden secrets, which will be revealed at the end and may affect the outcome. Like any relationship, your characters may find true love or end up heartbroken at the end, but the act of playing out this story together makes Fog of Love a truly unique and compelling experience. Codenames is a ridiculously fun turn-based game that works with a larger group or even just two people ideally, you'd have at least four.
In Codenames, you have two rival spymasters, each of whom knows the identities of 25 secret agents, which are reflected by their codenames on a 5x5 grid. Each spymaster's teammates are trying to make contact with all of their agents before the other team. To do this, spymasters give one-word clues that could point to any number of codenames on the grid; for example, "animal" could refer to codenames like "Cat," "Dog," and "Turkey.
Players have to guess which codenames on the board belong to their team's spies while also avoiding codenames that could belong to the other team. Some cards on the grid are neutral, belonging to no team, and there's also an assassin--flip that card, and the game is over.
Codenames is super easy to learn, and the variety of codename combinations available keeps each round interesting. Exploding Kittens is another party favorite and a great family game for younger kids and adults alike. This card game involves tense minute rounds of drawing cards and using various actions to avoid drawing an exploding kitten, which means losing the game immediately.
You'll draw certain cards that let you defuse an exploding kitten, peek at the next card in the deck, activate special powers, and more, so you can both save yourself and set up your fellow players to lose if you play your cards right. Recommended for ages 7 and up, Exploding Kittens is one of the best party games to have around for family game night or a casual get-together with friends. This beautiful card game has a simple premise: You're growing a tree in a forest and must expand it outward with branches that contain various icons, like mushrooms, caterpillars, or fireflies.
The goal is to link branches that contain some of the same symbols on them, which will earn you points in return. With each season, the rules of the game and your hidden goals will change, earning you the chance to score extra points at the end of each round if you meet certain conditions.
Essentially, Kodama is a strategic pattern-matching game, but there's also something so calming about just trying to grow the best tree you can. It's a low-stress strategy game I'd recommend to anyone looking for an easy-to-learn game with a cute aesthetic. In addition to the standard edition, you can buy Kodama Duo , which tweaks the base game to make it more ideal for two players, and Kodama 3D , which maintains the same basic gameplay except you're actually building out the tree three-dimensionally, making it feel more immersive.
Stardew Valley the video game is often thought of as a casual, relaxing game in which you go around romancing NPCs, planting crops, and taking care of animals, but Stardew Valley: The Board Game is neither casual nor relaxing.
Instead, it's a fairly deep and challenging co-op strategy game that involves racing against the clock to complete a series of goals before the end of Year 1.
Don't get us wrong: It's incredibly fun. Whether you've already put hundreds of hours into the video game or just love a challenging co-op board game, you'll find a ton to love here. The board and pieces are absolutely gorgeous, and almost every gameplay mechanic from the video game is represented in some fashion, including mine diving, fishing, and befriending villagers. Because players only have a limited amount of moves and actions each turn, intense cooperation and planning is required in order to achieve everything you need to by the year's end.
Be warned that this is a longer game as well--a four-player game can easily take three hours to complete. However, we still highly recommend Stardew Valley: The Board Game as a faithful and challenging tabletop adaptation of everyone's favorite farm sim.
As of August , the game is currently out of stock at the Stardew Valley store, but developer ConcernedApe has promised future printings , so keep an eye out. Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news gamespot. Number of players: 1 to 4 Time to play: 1 to 2 hours It's difficult to talk about great board games without mentioning Gloomhaven, which multiple GameSpot staffers listed among their personal top three. See at Amazon.
Pandemic Legacy. Number of players: 2 to 4 Time to play: 60 minutes Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 ranks right behind Gloomhaven on BoardGameGeek's list of the best board games, and it happens to be one of our favorites as well.
Betrayal at House on the Hill. Number of players: 3 to 6 Time to play: 60 minutes If you're someone who finds haunted houses thrilling, you're sure to love Betrayal at House on the Hill. Number of players: 2 to 4 Time to play: 60 to 90 minutes Don't be fooled by the adorable woodland creatures on its cover--Root is an asymmetrical war game that's fairly complex, and you'll probably need to play multiple times to fully get the hang of it.
Number of players: 1 to 5 Time to play: 90 to minutes Scythe is designed for one to five players, but it also comes with a built-in single-player mode, if you have trouble getting a group together or live alone. King of Tokyo. Number of players: 2 to 6 Time to play: 30 minutes Designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield, King of Tokyo is a card game that has you and your friends go head-to-head as monsters battling for control of Tokyo.
Blood Rage. Number of players: 2 to 4 Time to play: 60 to 90 minutes Blood Rage is a board game inspired by Norse mythology, casting you and your fellow players as Vikings during the time of Ragnarok. Mountains of Madness. Number of players: 3 to 5 Time to play: 60 minutes Inspired by the H. Number of players: 2 to 4 Time to play: 30 to 45 minutes Azul is an easy-to-learn game where you collect tiles based on azulejos , a type of Portuguese tile used as decoration in buildings.
Number of players: 1 to 5 Time to play: 40 to 70 minutes Wingspan is a newer board game released in , but it's become an instant hit, winning the Kennerspiel des Jahres award and selling out at launch.
Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Number of players: 4 to 12 Time to play: 15 to 30 minutes Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is one of the most fun social deception games we've ever played, and it's a great choice for big groups as well, as you can play it with up to 12 people. Number of players: 2 to 6 Time to play: 15 minutes Coup is a card game about bluffing and bribing your way to power, so get ready to put on your poker face before challenging your friends.
Number of players: 2 Time to play: 15 minutes If you love playing Tetris, you'll probably enjoy Patchwork, a two-player game where you place Tetris-like tiles on a 9x9 board of squares to slowly assemble a quilt. Number of players: 3 to 4 Time to play: 60 minutes Even those who don't play board games have probably heard of Catan, a classic board game that focuses on resource-gathering and settlement-building that's simple to learn and addictingly fun.
Ticket to Ride. Number of players: 2 to 5 Time to play: 30 to 60 minutes Another classic game, Ticket to Ride is incredibly simple to learn, but it also maintains enough tension to keep things interesting. Number of players: 3 to 6 Time to play: 15 to 45 minutes Skull is the ultimate bluffing game, and the best part is that it's incredibly easy to teach to new players.
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