I find myself in a bit of a quandary with this game. Let me start by clarifying that I enjoyed it. It’s a classic Reiner Knizia puzzle-y game and I tend to enjoy spacial puzzles such as this one. The rules are easy to grasp even if you haven’t played Ingenious before. The pieces, albeit a little finickity, are pretty good. And the number of puzzles and scaling of difficulty allows for players of all levels to jump in somewhere and not feel cheated or shortchanged. Though I should note that I, who am not the best at these sort of puzzles, jumped in about halfway through the 200 puzzles on offer.
So it’s a good product and one I will take with me travelling, bringing out when I have a few minutes to tackle another puzzle.
But the quandary I have with this game is that, inherently, it is not a game.
Or at least it isn’t a board game. And I suppose that’s not really a problem because it doesn’t market itself as a board game. It markets itself as a puzzle. But Ingenious the base game is a board game, and to have a solo variant that is itself not a board game makes for some confusing clarification.
Ingenious: single player travel edition is more akin to the New York Times game Pips, where you have to place a series of dominoes with specific restrictions. Unlike the base game, there is no variability in the board here because there are no other players placing tiles and there is no, well, board. It’s solo and therefore has no interaction (obviously). Instead you have a series of set puzzles you have to solve. They range in difficulty and provide the player with a number of fun little challenges in a box that is compact, quick to set up, and quick to put away. It’s the perfect travel companion. Play it on the bus, on a plane, or anywhere really as long as there isn’t too much turbulence.
As I said earlier, the components are good. Nothing special but they do the job and do it well. The box is compact which is the main thing you want out of a travel game. And the puzzles are set on a series of cards so they’re easily interchangeable.
But I still wouldn’t call it a game. Is Wordle a game? Is Sudoku a game? Well no, they’re puzzles. Which, again, is fine. But the Ingenious: single player travel edition is linked with Ingenious the board game and that’s what makes it feel misleading.
Maybe I’m going around in circles. But I do want to stress this because many of you will be coming here from your love of Ingenious and this inherently gives you a different feeling as you play. The similarities are only really superficial. Change the colours, change the shapes, change its connection to Ingenious and it’s still the same puzzle.
So that is perhaps my main gripe with a game that I enjoy and will definitely play again. It’s quick, fun, and a good puzzle. But is it Ingenious? I don’t know.
