![]() ![]() There's a small selection of hunter and agent characters, each with specific powers. The board is aided and abetted by a handful of special abilities. That the players can move diagonally yet only see in straight lines facilitates a strange sense of open claustrophobia. It's a tricksy, labyrinthine thing with just enough space to rush around and just enough corners to hide behind. Unlikely as it may seem, the main arbiter of all this wonder and excitement is the board itself. The hunters can get a sudden unexpected flash of their quarry and be away in full cry. The agent can be shivering behind a barrel as hunters stalk past. "Īlmost every turn both sides feel like they're inches away from victory or disaster. "We saw her there, so now she can be here or here unless this or that in which case. There's plenty of opportunity for bluff and counter-bluff. Trying to second-guess the agent player's mind could pin her down or let her escape into the shadows. It's rare they can be certain where the agent is, and equally rare that they have no clue. The hunters have to use an unholy combination of logic, strategy and intuition to pin down the agent. Specter Ops manages to nail an aspect of hidden movement that's too often overlooked: deduction. You might imagine that such a simple framework couldn't support anything worthwhile. It'll even play to completion in about an hour. The game has an age rating of eight plus on the side of the box. If the agent moves across a hunter's vision, they place a marker to show where. Whenever a hunter ends their turn with a straight line of sight to the agent, the agent figure joins them on the board until it can hide again. The hunters move on the board, the agent records theirs on a paper pad so you can check for cheating. ![]() ![]() The others are hunters, enhanced humanoids whose mission it to catch and kill the agent. One player is an agent, who moves around the board in secret trying to sabotage three of four randomly-determined squares. Like many of these games, it's very simple. But it expands the genre with a style and energy that has to be played to be appreciated. Specter Ops still doesn't take us on to the second hand. Fury of Dracula, Letters from Whitechapel, Scotland Yard, Nuns on the Run and that's about your lot. You can count the quality titles that use it on the fingers of one hand. Hidden movement is the most under-used mechanic in all of board gaming. ![]()
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