In Bequest, players take on the role of aspiring supervillains that divvy up the possessions of their villainous mentor after his untimely death following an experiment gone wrong. Bequest would have been an unremarkable card drafting game if not for the addition of ‘I Cut, You Choose’ mechanic.

Just like in a typical drafting game, players get a hand of cards, only instead of choosing one and passing the rest along, in Bequest players divide their hand of five into two piles, where one pile must be at least one card or more. These piles are then passed onto the neighbour, where they decide which pile they will take and the remaining one goes back to the original player. Everyone goes through the same process, resulting in one player always choosing from a pile of received cards and getting another set of cards from the pile their neighbour refused.

With so many cards being passed around to and from different people, this arrangement takes a little time to get used and can feel a little clunky to begin with. However, when the mechanic ‘clicks’, it makes for very interesting gameplay. In a single turn, you are always thinking of at least four things. Firstly, what you are looking for? Secondly, what is everyone else be looking for? Knowing this, how to arrange the piles to entice the neighbour to give back the pile that is better suited to you. Here, sweetening cards you don’t want with a card or two that the neighbour needs may be a good offering. Finally, deciding which of the received cards to keep and which to give back.

Balancing these four aspects of the game is surprisingly challenging, feeling satisfying when you get it right, and encouraging you to try again when things didn’t quite go to plan, so when a game of Bequest is over, you immediately want to jump back in.

ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA

Read the full review here

PLAY IT? YES

Designer: Marek Tupy

Publisher: WizKids

Time: 30-45 minutes

Players: 3-6

Ages: 10+

Price: £50

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