How often have you found yourself pondering your choices, decisions and actions? How many times have you contemplated each of your life choices? What if I tell you that you can do that all over again?
Of course, it will not affect your life, but it can be a fun tabletop game to compete with up to 4 friends. We stole this straight from Hasbro’s top-secret laboratory, where the most brilliant minds work together to invent the most excellent games—presenting The Game of LIFE GOALS.
Life Choices, Life Goals, and Events! Let’s dive right into the review.
Unboxing The Life!
The entire box is tiny. And by that, we indirectly mean that we are taking it everywhere. Even I took it to my office one day! Inside the box, you get 88 Cards! (How did they even manage to fit it in there?).
In the total set of 88 cards, you get 4 Lifestyle, 4 Goals and 80 Life Choices. Now they sound complex, but don’t worry! I will guide you through it.
Quickly glancing over the cards and their roles:
- LIFESTYLE CARDS – Lifestyle cards are randomly drawn and assigned to each player. (You can only reveal your lifestyle at the end of the game!) The lifestyle will help you identify how to score the highest!
- CHOICE CARDS – Choice cards are the integral cards of the game. On your turn, you play the choice cards and add them to your life story. The end goal is to claim a life goal! There are multiple-choice cards, including – Adventure, Career, Family, House and sometimes Events! Your choice card will act like your currency as well.
- LIFE GOALS – Life goals are your aim of the game. Depending on your lifestyle, make choices that will suit you the best while you make sure that you grab onto the Life Goals to score the maximum points!
And that’s all! See? Relatively easy to understand.
But if you want to freshen up your knowledge or learn more deeply, Hasbro always offers a guide sheet along the cards to help you get started! You might need more space than other card games because each of you will make many life choices, so you must ensure your preferences can be seen on the table. We have tried playing the game with four, three and only two at a time, and trust me, all of them had been equally fun. The game can last between 15-35 minutes, but each choice will make you think thrice because there is no going back!
The Choices are put Down.
Once again, we grab our veteran partners who have become official ambassadors of the tabletop gaming community. We assembled the table and sat together; as soon as the card shuffling was complete and the first few cards were placed, the table started looking like a peaceful sight!
Apart from being mesmerized by how beautiful the cards look when placed in their respective places, I got the card “Workaholic”. This means all career-related cards granted me the maximum points, followed by the house cards.
One of my favourite card choices in the game was the ‘City Apartment house card. It allowed me to be best friends with the cat at the corner shop. But to do that, I had to sacrifice one choice card. So I happily let go of the ‘Run a Marathon’ card. This was the best choice since the card is yellow, a luxury card that gives me the lowest point per my lifestyle.
While I was happily celebrating my little steps in exploring and starting my career, an inevitable doom was set forth to fall upon us all. One of the players used an Event card. The event card was quite peacefully named ‘Change of Scenery’. Sounds simple enough. I had thought the same until I found out that each player had to let go of 1 house card. The only house car I had then was a card dear to my heart. You guessed it right, the ‘City Apartment’ card. I would no longer be friends with the cat at the corner shop.
Life choices are indeed challenging, and sacrifices have to be made. But do they? Presenting – INSURANCE!
I had preserved an event card labelled Insurance which safeguards me from being a victim of any event that affects me. And with that, I got to keep my apartment and became best friends with the cat at the corner shop.
Verdict
The Game of Life Goals has taken me entirely by surprise. I initially thought it was very complex, but as I observed each card and its meaning, I was ready to play in 20 minutes! Almost no-repeat cards except mandatory ones make the game exciting throughout.
With diversity, compactness, and enough cards for an excellent 30-minute sesh with up to 4 friends make, it is a unique and innovative choice for a tabletop game. This easily claims the number one spot of our best tabletop game for the year.
Final Rating – Recommended
