Chez Geek: Cards

Rating:
Summary: Most awesome casual game ever
Review: When I first laid eyes upon Chez Geek (Pronounced Shay Geek) what I first noted was the wacky and humorous card design with high quality art and funny quotes. However when I opened it up the rules seemed...simplistic. When I played a few games I started to realize how awesome a game this was. It's a completely casual oriented game, with minor tactics, but for the most part it's aimed at being easy to play and funny. Since the deck is shared and boosters aren't part of the game at all (Its not collectable) people can easily join in. Also the collectible aspect is refreshing since every card has a use and there are no "crap" cards. Certain cards are better than others, but not the outrageous degree of most card games. While in theory two people can play, it will be fairly mundane. Games are only worth it with at least 3 people. While the box says 5 people may play the number is closer to 7, and at an absolute max 9. However the two expansion boxes raise that number. Its great for parties since you can learn to play within 5 minutes. Now of course I have emphasized how easy to play it is, the game itself is incredibly fun. As 2-5 (or more) college students living in one apartment you each get one job and try to get as many "Slack Points" as possible. Slack may come from RPGs, hanging out at a Café, nookie, books, friends to invite over, even sleep. What other game gives you points for sleep? As well as many way of gaining slack methods of hindering your opponents are key. For example take "Car Alarm", which makes an opponent's sleep card be discarded. Also "Hungry Girl", a person card, is played on an opponent and 'eats' one food card every turn. Even some of the cards that help you can be a double-edged sword. For example buying a user low rider, "Harold the Hoopty Car", lowers your income by 1 point a turn. Income and free time are balancing factors specific to each job. For example as a Slacker you have a high free time value, but very low income. As a corporate drone you have the highest income of any job, but suffer from only one free time per turn.