CGE Codenames Board Game (2nd Edition) | The Top Secret Word Association Party Game for Friends & Family

Product overview

Codenames (2nd Edition): What to Know

The age rating is the thing to resolve before buying. This listing describes Codenames as a word association party game for friends and family, while its manufacturer recommended age field says 14 years and up and its age range description says Teen. Those are very different propositions, and the mechanic sides with the higher number. One player per team is the spymaster, and their job is to invent a single word plus a number that links several unrelated words on a 5 by 5 grid, while steering teammates away from the opposing team's cards, neutral bystanders, and an assassin card that ends the game instantly if revealed.

Giving a good clue is an abstract lateral task, and that is where children struggle. A ten-year-old can guess competently on a team; being spymaster requires holding several meanings at once and anticipating how other people will read a word. In a family with teenagers it is one of the best games available. In a family with primary-school children, one player ends up doing all the clue-giving and the game becomes lopsided.

The design detail that makes it tense is the guessing rule: teams may guess up to the clue number plus one, which allows a deliberate extra risk or a return to an earlier clue, and the assassin means every risky guess carries the chance of losing immediately rather than losing a turn.

Player count is stated as 4 to 8 or more, which makes it the only game here that genuinely works for a large group, and the reason to own it alongside rather than instead of the others. This is the 2nd Edition, and numerous themed Codenames versions exist as separate products.

Key Listed Features