Love Letters Card Game Review

Love Letters

by AEG

2-4 players

Play time 15 mins

Setup time 3 mins

Teaching time 3 mins

A very light and quick game which shines with 4 players. Very simple to teach and mostly luck-based after the first few rounds. Strategies become very clear after two rounds. However, with that said, it is still a fantastic game to play especially when you are waiting for someone to arrive. The luck draws beginner gamers and it does little to impact your experience as you will be competing to see which one of your guesses are the most accurate.

Love letters paint a picture where you are the other players are trying to court Princess Annette. But the only way to reach out to her is via a love letter passed to someone in through the gates of the castle. Hold on to the higher numbered card at the end of the round and you win the round. Or you can try to knock out the other players to win the round. Basically only one love letter reaches to Princess Annette and at evening when all the doors are shut, she will open up the love letter to read it. The winner gets a love token from the Princess. Collect a number of love tokens and you win the chance to take Princess Annette out on a date... *sigh

Game Mechanics 7/10
To make the game as simple and as quick as possible, the designer did a wonderful job. At setup, each player gets one card. Every turn a player takes a card from the draw pile, adds it to his hand (now you have 2 cards in hand) and then chooses one card to discard. The card discarded activates and the player will have to follow the instructions given on the card, even if it hurts himself/herself. Sometimes, a player will get knocked out. This means that the player discards his/her hand and sits out of the game until the next round begins. At the end of the round, when the draw pile is empty, players compare their hands to see who has the highest numbers card. That player wins the round and receives a love token and another round begins again. Collect a number of love tokens and you win the game.

So easy, so smart. Although the game mechanics are simple, I have to give a high mark for this one as they do make the game as it was meant to be - quick and easy.

Replayability 6/10
I only bring out this game when I need a no-brainer and something light to play really quickly. The more you play, the more boring the cards will be (only 16 cards). We do enjoy it every time we play but this doesn't see the table as much as some heavier games. I keep it in the car for whenever we have to queue or wait somewhere, we can bring this out for a quickie.

Game Experience 8/10
Definitely worth the time every time we play it, although that's not saying much since after half an hour playing this, we move on to other games. The experience goes something like this...
  Dude: "I bet you're a priest, if you are then you're knocked out!"
  Gal:  "Oh Sh*t, how'd you know?"
  Dude: "Woohoo.. I'm on a roll today, I guess.."
  Bro:  "LOL, too bad I win, I've got the Princess"
  Sis:  "Not so fast, I play the Prince, you have to discard, haha, you're knocked out"
  Bro:  "!@#$%"

Overall 7/10
Anytime you have family gatherings, this game can be brought out before dinner, while mom's still cooking, instead of watching TV all day. It is really cheap and well worth the money. Get it and you can fill all those boring minutes waiting for something.. or someone..


What did you think of the game? Feel free to leave me a comment on your opinion of it...