Infiltraitors Preview

With the immense size of the board game industry lately, so many new games are brought to market every single day around the world. But due to logistics, not all games are available in every country. Which is a bummer. Fortunately for us, though, publishers can acquire the rights to distribute games in other countries and bring these gems to us! And that’s how Infiltraitors is coming to the US, courtesy of Pandasaurus Games!

Disclaimer: We were provided a copy of Infiltraitors for the purposes of this preview. What you see pictured below are the finalized game components, and are what you will find in your copy. -L

Infiltraitors is a cooperative game of deduction in which players take on the roles of Agents attempting to suss out the spies who have infiltrated their organization. By playing cards onto the hidden suspects, you will be providing or receiving clues as to their identities. Can you figure out what all the clues are leading you towards and correctly identify the suspect? Or will their identity elude you, as they bring down the entire organization?

To play the game, first choose which Mission you are going to be playing. The game comes with a mission booklet, consisting of 20 thematic missions, as well as 3 training missions to help beginners learn the gameplay. The general setup is the same, regardless of which Mission you play, although some Missions have slight variations. To setup for the game, remove the insert from the game box, place it in the center of the table, and place the cardboard gun on the insert. This is called the Headquarters. Now, place a number of Bullet tokens onto the Headquarters as described in the specific Mission setup. Next, create the Headquarters deck by shuffling together the necessary card suits (again, this will vary by Mission). From this deck, deal 5 cards to each player, and place the remaining cards facedown next to the Headquarters to form a draw pile. Each player also receives a Clue Board, and the dry erase marker is placed nearby. Finally, draw cards from the deck (the number varies by Mission) and place them facedown next to the Headquarters – these are the Suspects for the game. Choose a starting player, and the game is ready to begin. Pictured below is the setup for the 1st Training Mission.

On your turn, you will perform one action from the following: Nab a Suspect, Give a Clue, Information Exchange, Bide Your Time, or Eliminate a Traitor. To Nab a Suspect, take one of the facedown Suspect cards from the Headquarters, look at it, and then place it facedown in your play area. You now know the identity of this Suspect, and will be attempting to lead your fellow Agents in discovering who they are. After taking a Suspect into your play area, discard a card from the Headquarters deck facedown. An important note: you can never have more than 1 Suspect in your play area at a time!

The second action option is to Give a Clue. To do this, you will play a card from your hand into your play area, orienting it appropriately. If you play a card vertically, that means that it has an element that matches your Suspect. Cards played horizontally do not have any matching elements. These elements are: Card Suit, Number, or Factor/Multiple. If at least one of these elements matches your Suspect, the card must be played vertically. If none match, horizontally. These clues will help your fellow Agents narrow down what exact card your Suspect is.

To perform an Information Exchange, you will take a card from your hand and place it next to a fellow Agent’s Suspect. That Agent will then orient the card appropriately, as described above. Once you have played that card, you may draw a new card from the Headquarters. If you choose to Bide Your Time, discard the top card from the Headquarters facedown, and then you may draw up to 3 cards to your hand. You may never have more than 7 cards in hand, though!

And finally, you can Eliminate a Traitor. If you think you know the identity of a Suspect (its Suit and Number), discard a Bullet from Headquarters, take the cardboard gun and point it at the Suspect card, and call out its Suit and Number. The Agent who knows the identity will tell you if you are correct or not. If you are correct, shuffle that Suspect back into the Headquarters deck, and you can take a card from the discard pile into your hand as a reward. If you are incorrect, the Suspect remains hidden and a Bullet has been wasted.

Play continues in this fashion until the game is won or lost. If players were able to correctly identify all Suspects, then you win! But if you cannot perform any action on your turn, you have run out of Bullets, or there are fewer Bullets remaining than there are hidden Suspects, you lose the game!

I’m a big fan of deduction games. As a kid in school, we would do logic puzzles and those were my JAM. So as an adult now, the deduction mechanic in board games really draws me in. And I feel like Infiltraitors truly shines in this category. The premise is easy – trying to deduce the Suit and Number of a hidden card. The gameplay is engaging, a little brain-burning, and really quite fun. Unlike other deduction games where it’s every player for themselves, the cooperative element here really makes the players feel like a team as they figure out every card. Infiltraitors kind of gives me Similo vibes, but not as abstract because the suits and numbers are more cut-and-dry than deducing characteristics/artwork.

There are a couple of neat things that I want to touch on specifically, the first of which being the inclusion of Bullet tokens. You start each game with a certain number of Bullets in the Headquarters, and anytime you make a guess, you have to discard one. If you guess incorrectly, that means you just wasted a Bullet! This kind of puts a ‘clock’ on the game, as it means you only have a finite number of guesses before the game is lost. You can’t just make every guess possible, you have to be at least mostly confident in your guesses. Another thing that I really like is how some actions will have you discard cards from the Headquarters facedown. This keeps those cards hidden, thus making your job of deduction just a bit tougher. If you could see every card being discarded, you could narrow down the Suspects by eliminating those cards. But keeping them secret adds a tiny bit more unknown into the game, and keeps you on your toes.

And finally, I’ll touch on the Clue Boards. These are tools to help players keep track of what cards/suits they have eliminated for each Suspect. Since there will most likely be multiple Suspects in play at a time, it can be tricky keeping track of which numbers or suits you’ve eliminated for each Suspect. The Clue Boards give you a place to cross out eliminated elements, so you don’t have to constantly be going back through the clues every time you come back to a Suspect. If you want an added challenge, don’t use the Clue Boards at all! I personally am grateful for the Clue Boards, as it helps me keep my trains of thought separate.

Components. This game is definitely well made. The cards are nice and sturdy, and the cardboard components are thick and chunky. The artwork is on the minimalistic side, but it’s appropriately thematic and colorful. The cardboard gun is definitely gimmicky, as it really isn’t necessary for the gameplay, but it can help the game feel a bit more immersive. If you’re not wanting a ‘gun’ at your table, you can absolutely play without it. I don’t usually mention the game box when I talk about components, but I like this one quite a bit. It has some ‘bullet holes’ in it, that have a more matte finish against the shiny box finish. It just makes it look neat, like there actually are little holes throughout. All in all, great production quality here!

Infiltraitors really surprised me. I was thinking it would be a kind of bland game of simple deduction, guessing only suits and numbers. But the unique elements of the gameplay really were exciting to me. The way in which clues are given feels new and is effective, as simple as it is. The cooperative gameplay leads to fun and engaging table talk, with no players really ‘taking over’ the game. The variable setup between Missions, and how many Missions have special rules to play with ensures that the gameplay won’t be too repetitive. I’ve really enjoyed all of my plays thus far, and I can’t wait to dive into more Missions. If you’re looking for an excellent cooperative game of deduction, with unique rules and gameplay, look no further than Infiltraitors. I’m so glad that Pandasaurus Games is able to bring this to the US market. Let us know your thoughts once you’ve given it some plays!