Like many people, some of my earliest experiences of games were with a good old-fashioned deck of cards, playing things like Brag, 21s and Rummy. Level 8 brings that feeling to life in a modern way, giving you something familiar whilst at the same time offering some modernity
Introduction
At its heart this is a simple set collection game. You play with a deck of 101 cards (six colours/suits numbered 1-15 plus 11 special cards) and the aim of the game is really to collect certain melds and shed the rest of your cards before anyone else to complete a level before anyone else. Let’s take a look at how we start and how the game plays
Level 1
Everyone gets given an individual Level card which shows the progression of the game, as well as an indicator piece which fits over the card to allow you to track your progress. Pick a dealer and have them shuffle the cards before dealing 10 to each player and revealing one face-up into their own personal discard pile to begin. Players are free to arrange their cards however they like before the player to the left of the dealer takes the first turn of the game
Level 2
Turns have three distinct elements to them:
- Pick a card – this is mandatory
- Lay out a level – this step is optional
- Discard a card face-up to your own personal discard pile
Taking a card is straightforward enough – pick the top card from any discard pile or the face-down card on top of the deck and add it to your hand. Here it can be helpful to keep track of what other people are discarding, and if you’ve ever played the classic card game Canasta you might get a twinge of familiarity here as you vaguely attempt to count cards and/or intuit what other people are doing
Laying out a level is the bulk of how you progress in the game. Each level has a different requirement noted on the Level card you started with. It could be something like ABC ABC (two runs of three cards) or AA BB CC DD (four pairs). This is what you’re aiming for as you take cards. The tiny twist is that you can only ever lay out a fully completed level in front of you. In the second example here, you wouldn’t be allowed to lay out three pairs while you search for the elusive fourth – it’s very much all or nothing. This puts you in prime position to win the round, but doesn’t automatically make you the victor. We’ll cover the detail of that below.
Finally, as you might expect, discarding a card is easy enough. Take one from your hand and add it to your personal discard pile. We’ll look at how you go from laying out a level to actually winning a round in a moment, but first an interlude…
Level 3
I mentioned at the beginning there were 11 special cards in the deck so let’s look at those now. These come in two flavours:
- There are 7 Joker cards – these can be substituted for any number or colour in the requirements of a level, making it much easier to get cards on the table
- There are also 4 Skip cards which… are not the most well-explained part of the game if I’m honest so we’ll talk about them a little more
Skips are placed in front of an opponent instead of you discarding a card at the end of your turn. When it gets to that player’s turn, instead of drawing they discard the skip card to the bottom of the deck – face-up – and end their turn. I think. It’s honestly not clear in the rules, online, or anywhere else. But logically, given the name of the card and their scarcity, these are doing two things. Firstly they’re temporarily hiding a potential card to pick up from someone’s discard pile, and secondly they slow down an opponent.
They also have the effect that when they appear face-up on the deck, the remaining cards are reshuffled. This also doesn’t make the most amount of sense to me as drawing blind is inherently random, and all the cards are reshuffled every round. Maybe it’s just chaos for the sake of it. While we’ve attempted to find absolute clarity, the description I’ve provided is as good as I think you’ll find, but please let me know if you think differently! Back to the game…
Level 4
OK so we’ve laid our level out and we’re still stuck with between one and four cards in our hand and we need to draw and discard each turn as well. So now what?
Getting your level in front of you means that you can now play additional cards from your hand onto your own or other levels that are on the table which is where the game pivots from set collection to card shedding very quickly.
Let’s say I’ve laid out my first level with two runs of three cards – 456 and 678. On subsequent turns I’ll pick a card and then, before discarding I could add say a 2 and a 3 from my hand to my run of 456. It does also mean that any opponents who have their own level laid out can do exactly the same.
This ability also shifts how others play in a way I’ll confess I didn’t truly see the first time we played. If you’re still trying to find cards for your own level, you now have to watch what you discard because you can easily create a bit of a “gimme” situation for an opponent if you throw away a card they could add to a level.
Of course, if you’re sneaky, you can try and collect those cards in secret so when (if) you lay your level out, you can shed the rest of your hand all in one great flourish. This is sometimes easier said than done
Level 5
The round ends as soon as someone has a level in front of them with no cards left in hand. Sometimes that can be really quick, others it can feel like an unending amount of tension as everyone searches for the perfect card.
If you were the victor that round, you move your level indicator up TWO spaces – missing a level entirely and moving onto harder things, but two steps closer to the end. If you’d managed to lay your level out but not get rid of all your cards, you move on to the next level – progress is progress. If you were unlucky enough to be left with a hand of 10 cards and a “noooo – I could have done it with that card on my next turn” feeling, well… tough. You stay on the same level and try again
Level 6
(Scrambling to make the headings idea fit a little at this point but go with it). To start a new round, all the cards are shuffled, the dealer responsibilities move clockwise and a new round begins.
Again, note that the somewhat vague rules mean that you may encounter a face-up Skip card, and I should tell you to diligently reshuffle the cards. But honestly, do whatever you reckon – I cannot make that part make sense.
Levels 7 & 8 – Final thoughts
Aha! You weren’t expecting that. Probably. The last two levels go together because there’s more than one way to win this and so we’ll cover that, along with my own feelings on this quirky card game at the same time.
You win by getting past Level 8 and you can do this either by winning Level 7 (and so advancing two spaces to the winner’s medal) or by laying out your Level 8 requirements without needing to shed any remaining cards in hand. Either works, though personal experience says winning Level 7 and skipping 8 is more satisfying
I rarely (if at all) reference BoardGameGeek ratings in reviews – section bias and all that – but I will say this game’s 5.9/10 score made me think for a moment before I said yes and bought it any way. And I’m glad I did. I know what kinds of games we like as a family and I know when/where we play these kinds of titles too and this hits the spot for us.
Sure the rules are a tiny bit sketchy in one place – but it’s almost incidental. It has a real familiarity with games like Rummy or Canasta so it feels fairly intuitive and that makes it easy to teach. There’s variation as the level indicators are double-sided so you can change the difficulty too.
What I really like is this kind of inbuilt catch-up mechanism. If you didn’t clear Level 1 well the good(ish) news is that someone else has to navigate Level 3 now and that’s a harder combo to get together. In fact I’ve played this game where I was the only person stuck on Level 1 and then blitzed four hands in a row to go from last to first overall. If you play on the advanced level indicator side, players who didn’t ay out their level can retain up to 4 cards in hand from level 5 onwards as well.
I suppose the moral of the story is partly to trust what you know you like and ignore BGG, but also that taking a chance on something for less than a tenner can pay off! This goes up to six players and is a great one for families too
