Review of Pocket Ops

Blurb from the publisher: 'In Pocket Ops, you and your opponent are spymasters sending competing teams of agents to steal a doomsday device and its power crystal from the villain's facility where it is being built!

Pocket Ops is quick to learn, because you already know how to play; If you've played Tic-Tac-Toe before, you have the basics: place markers in a grid, trying to get three in a row. But wait! The simple game-changing twist with Pocket Ops is that before you make a move, the other player gets to secretly predict where you are going to go. After your move, if they were right, your move is canceled. In addition, a variety of Specialist tokens (like the Grappler or Sniper) introduce all sorts of sneaky abilities that will change the way you place and predict. Win two rounds first to win the game!'

What you get: Your EUR 15 or equivalent will buy you Pocket Ops, a deduction and pattern-building game for two players that lasts around 20 minutes. In addition to the English rulebook that can also be found on the company's website free of charge, the game also contains the following: one Facility board, one Doomsday Device, 2 Power Crystals, 18 Blueprint cards (9 red, 9 blue), 14 Spy tokens (7 red, 7 blue), 16 Specialists (8 red, 8 blue) and one Keycard.

The rulebook can be found on the company's website in French as well. When one buys the game however, its components will be in one language only. That being said, and with the cards not having any text apart from the titles, the game is effectively language neutral.

Gameplay: Each player chooses a colour. One player randomly picks the Keycard. He will be the Placer in the first turn of the round, while the other player will be the Predictor.

The players keep their Specialists face down. After randomly picking two out of the eight available, they reveal one to be active this round. Each round is made up of turns. The Predictor predicts via the cards in his hand where, from the nine spaces initially available, the Placer will place a unit, irrespective of whether it is a generic spy or a specialist. Then the Placer either plays a spy in the facility in an empty room or places his specialist according to its own rules. Following the move, the Predictor reveals his card. If the prediction was correct, the move was blocked. Blocked spies go back to their owners supply, while blocked specialists are removed from the game. If the prediction was incorrect, the placed unit stays on the board. Specialists usually activate their abilities at this point. These include the Assassin (who kills other units in the same area), the Courier (who moves friendly units in an adjacent area), and the Grappler (who exchanges his position with an adjacent enemy spy).

The roles then change, with the Predictor becoming the Placer and vice versa. Players continue playing like this until one player wins by getting 3 units in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The round might also end in a draw. That would have felt a lot like tic-tac-toe, yet a draw is not only a result of lack of moves. It can also occur if both players win simultaneously due to their specialists, or if both have only a room left to place a unit (the Predictor would infinitely predict the next move correctly). Taking the eight different specialists into account, be sure that it really is a draw before you reset the board. In any event, in case of a draw the winner is the non-Keyholder, i.e. the person who started by being the Predictor and not the Placer.

The game is played in a best-of-three series. On your second victory already, you saved the world. Wow, that was easy!

The strong points: I am not supposed to be surprised that easily, yet here I am extolling the virtues of a game that is based on tic-tac-toe. 'Is based' is the key word. This is definitely not tic-tac-toe, even though the wining conditions are the same and the time it takes to explain it is pretty much the same.

The deduction aspects of the game are solid. One would expect that since the board gets smaller by the minute, deducing the other player's position becomes easier. It would have been, were it not for the specialist. Seeing how some specialists may be placed in already occupied squares, you might find yourself with substantially higher margins of error than what you would have enjoyed even in mid-game. This helps keep the tension in place.

The mechanics relating to choosing your specialist and the power he holds are well thought out. You can use only one specialist per round, and that only once. You'd better choose wisely, because he will otherwise get burned. Seeing how you have a choice of one specialist out of two each round, the game is guaranteed to have replayability. A variant on exactly that point become instantly obvious, namely not using any of the two initially drawn specialists in the following rounds. In that way each game will see a rotation of six specialists out of ten per player, and will test the player's adaptability. This also allows for a more tactical choice at the beginning of each round; you might want to consider the chances of what your opponent might want to play with, and what you would like to counter him with.

A rather comical side effect of Pocket Ops is that with a bit of luck you can potentially rectify mistakes that are fatal on standard tic-tac-toe. I do not recommend fumbling your moves and giving the opponent an advantage just to check whether Lady Luck is with you on the deduction part. Escaping out of a tight situation is however a possibility. Remember: this is not tic-tac-toe. You might have four units on your board, while your opponent has one. The more obvious a move is, the more certain you can be that it cannot possibly grant you victory. The route to saving the world is patently indirect.

The artwork has a comic book quality to it and is well-tempered to the feel of the game. On a very clever design note, the names of the nine locations easch start from the first of the nine letters of the alphabet. It is thus easy to remember that A stands for Armoury and H for Hangar. The wooden tokens are crystal clear as to who they depict. Usual spies are actually less pronounced than the specialists, and show that nothing changes upon their placement on the board.

The game takes a very small amount of space. It can thus be easily played on a picnic, a train or under other suboptimal circumstances. Just don't overdo it, and don't lose any of the specialists.

I always enjoy it when a company makes an effort to tidy up the components. Thanks for the extra resealable bags, Geek Attitude Games!

The weak points: This might be the most interesting, or maybe the only interesting version of tic-tac-toe in existence, this doesn't mean however that it is your evening's mainstay. Seeing how one match is effectively a repetition of two or three identical rounds, a single play each time will be all you do before moving on to other things.

I can nitpick by saying that the game is overproduced when it comes to the infernal robotic device which counts as a third victory counter. It doesn't matter in the least; it's actually fun!

Conclusion: Tic-tac-toe advanced, tic-tac-toe on steroids, or ultimate tic-tac-toe are all valid monikers to describe this deceptively easy yet quite tactical game. Engaging while inexpensive, it punches a lot higher than its weight. And don't forget: at the end of the day, you are saving the world.

For more info on Pocket Ops and Geek Attitude Games, visit their websites at http://www.geekattitudegames.com/en_GB.

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