Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
The response to The Crew: Family Adventure has been pretty bad. At the time of this writing, a month after release, it sits at a tidy 5.7 on BGG, an abysmally low score for a highly-anticipated release from a major publisher. There’s been almost no coverage of the game in board game media, which we all know in our criticism-averse ecosphere translates to “nobody likes it.” The consensus is clear: The Crew: Family Adventure is bad.
Allow me to be the bold contrarian, fording my way against the current. I alone will speak the truth, say what nobody is prepared to hear; The Crew: Family Adventure is not bad. I am brave enough to acknowledge that it is p e r f e c t l y o k a y.
P e r f e c t l y O k a y
Family Adventure didn’t make a strong initial impression, there’s no doubt about that. I was so excited to try the newest entry in The Crew series, the best franchise in board games, that it was a rare Straight from the Package to the Table situation. I had this bad boy out and was playing within ten minutes of its arrival.
There were, in the name of managing expectations, two important things to keep in mind:
- This Crew was specifically designed for a family audience, so it would be unfair to go in expecting an experience on the same level as The Search for Planet 9 or Mission Deep Sea.
- Family Adventure is not a trick-taking game, in any sense of the word. When it was first announced, Uno was the primary point of reference.
What The Crew: Family Adventure has in common with its kin is cooperation. The goal of each mission boils down to playing certain cards within a certain number of turns. That’s about it. Cards are played with Uno-like restrictions. If the player before me puts down a green 6, for example, I could play any green card or a 6 in another suit. I could also pass, though the number of passes for each mission are strictly limited. Each player also gets a unique power card that can be used once during the hand if need be. (Need often be-n’t.)
So we g0t it all set up, I read the rules, dealt out the cards, and a group of adults completed the first mission in about fifteen seconds. Then we did the second mission in about fifteen seconds. Then we did the third mission in about twenty seconds. You see where this is going. The missions were flat, the tasks were easy, there was never any tension or uncertainty. It was, in a word, bad. I asked if everyone would mind trying the last mission, just to see how the game progresses, and that too was done well within a minute.
This was not fun. “Bummer,” I thought. But then I remembered that it’s a game for children.
It’s a Game for Children
When I sat down to play Family Adventure with a group of three eight-year olds, it was a different experience. I still found the game underwhelming, but they loved it. They found the game challenging and exciting. Over the course of 80 minutes, we did the first ten missions, all at their behest.
Did I enjoy it any more than my first play? No, not really. I spent most of that game with “Pop Goes the Weasel” running on repeat in my mind. No thoughts, just vibes. I let them drive the car. I watched them make deductions and inferences and figure out how to wriggle out of tight jams. It wasn’t an experience I was any more excited to be a part of, but Family Adventure really pushed those kids. They had to make age-appropriately difficult leaps in logic, and they were having fun the entire time. So intense was their feeling of peril that I had to constantly remind them about volume.
Maybe it’s better to think of The Crew: Family Adventure as The Crew: Kids Adventure. Get them set up, teach them the rules, and leave them to their own devices. There isn’t anything here for adults, but adults aren’t the only ones who play games. If you know a group of three or four kids who hang out regularly and like to play games, you can get some good mileage out of The Crew: Family Adventure.
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