Matthew BaileyI realised, having initially started a recommendation for the Christmas series, that it required me only to play really good games, and sometimes negative reviews are just as important. Luckily, this game is genuinely fun, but I didn’t want to tie myself down… so…
“Into the Blue” is a fairly simple dice-rolling, Yahtzee-style, push-your-luck game. The general concept of the game is that you are a treasure hunter diving into the deep to try and get to the best treasure.
On your turn, you roll all six of the dice and can then freeze any dice you choose and re-roll the remaining dice two more times. What you intend to do is to get a run of dice starting at 1, with the highest number that is part of the complete chain being the level to which you are diving. You can then place the matching number of shells on that level based on how many dice you have.
For instance, if you had one, two, and four threes, you would place four shells on the third row. If you manage to get a complete run of 1 to 6, with 6 being the Treasure Chest, you take a treasure chest, which gives you some points at the end of the game.
The game ends after one last turn when the first person gets rid of all their shells, with players winning the treasure on each level dependent on who has the most shells on that particular level.
On the face of it, this sounds pretty simple, but as you work your way through the game, it becomes apparent very quickly that trying to get the best possible score is not always the right way to go. Sometimes you want to get a lower level but spread your shells out to maximize your final points. Interestingly, some of the most engaging gameplay comes from the dice numbers that you don’t want to roll, more than the ones that you do. This mechanic is something I haven’t really encountered much in this type of game before, making it different enough to stand out.
One thing that I was less keen on is the fact that there were a lot of ties, and quite often, you have to go through two or three different tiebreaker rules to work out who actually wins each individual level. This does tend to cascade, making it tricky to determine on the fly who is going to win what.
The components are of really nice high quality; the board is double-layered, with all the cardboard tokens fitting in well. The dice are made of a really nice, firm-based plastic that is incredibly pleasant to hold. The plastic shells fulfil their function, but I think they would have been better opaque, as the transparent nature of them does make them particularly difficult to see, especially in dim light.
We really enjoyed “Into the Blue,” and I would definitely recommend it if you like games like Yahtzee and are looking for something different enough to warrant having both in your collection.
“Into the Blue” was provided free of charge from Hachette Games as part of a donation to the school where I work, with the understanding that I would also review it here. Our thoughts and opinions are our own (trying to get children to not be brutally honest anyway).
