Chalk one up for “Games with overdramatic sounding subtitles.” Exodus is set in the Resistance universe – you know, the one with the secret government infiltration, the spies, the… resistance. Yeah, that one.
This time around, something bad is about to go down in Paris and you and your resistance cell are out to help as many innocent people get out as possible. Unfortunately, the government is not only trying to stop you, but has infiltrated your group.
Playing out more like a mission, players will alternate playing cards for the Resistance and the Government. In order to win, the Resistance must not only stay ahead of the police by playing higher-valued cards, but rescue more people than are recaptured. Cards can also cause physical damage to an individual player, or ruin the “cover” of the Resistance team. If a player dies, their team loses. If all cover is lost, the Resistance loses. Otherwise, the game lasts a certain number of rounds (5 I believe) and after that, the Resistance must have rescued more people (yellow icons) than the Hunters have recaptured.
Each round, players will vote on who will be the leader for that round. The Leader will play the Resistance card, so you want to make sure they’re loyal. Also, once the leader is chosen, each player can offer up one of their cards, claiming it will help or hurt.
The leader can take 2 of the offered cards. A third card is added blindly from the top of the deck, the cards are shuffled, and one is discarded – so the leader can’t be certain who, if any, tried to sabotage play. Finally, the leader chooses someone to be the “chaser” who will play a card to the Hunter row.
I’m not sure the world really needs another hidden-team game, and I’m not sure how I feel about this one. It does, at least, give a more specific task to be accomplished rather than the vague “pass or fail” mechanism or just pointing out the spy. Time and repeated plays will tell if the game ends up feeling to weighted down by the luck of the draw, or how easy or difficult it will be to out the hidden hunters. If you cant get enough lying to your friends, give this one a look.
