concept

Concept, the Worst Game Ever

concept board gameFor those of you who are not familiar with the board game Concept, congratulate yourselves.  You must be smart, intelligent people with good taste.  I don’t want to spoil this review, but I’ll give you a hint: I do not like this game.

Is Concept the worst game ever?  Probably not, but it definitely gets an honorable mention in that category.  Here is how to determine if Concept is for you.

Do you like Charades?  No?  Wonderful, we can be friends.  If you do not like Charades then you will not like Concept as they are the exact same game.  But Concept has a box!  And a game board!  Well, you got me, they aren’t the exact same.

Concept is Charades without the acting.  Does that sound fun?  Here’s another hint: it isn’t.

Instead of acting out a word or phrase, the active player places game pieces on different spaces on the game board that represent common Charade-like themes, such as a color, big/small, person, object, etc.

concept player aidI just put my primary game piece on “object” and a secondary game piece on “big”, start guessing!  Each card has a set of three words/phrases containing three words/phrases of increasing difficulty.  A card could start off with something seemingly easy like “Tractor” or “Shell” and end with “Make a fresh start” or “Breaking the silence”.  The challenging phrases are in fact difficult.  Try guessing “Delusions of grandeur”, “Forbidden City”, or “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” by placing stupid markers on icons.  The name of this game could easily be “Frustration” as that is more descriptive of how you’ll feel when trying to guess someone else’s clues.  When everyone gives up and the answer is reveled, everyone immediately groans and says, “Why didn’t you put the markers here and here; I would have immediately guessed correctly if you would have done that.”

If you like Charades and you go to parties where playing Charades is the most fun part of the party, then Concept might be just the game for you.  Unless of course you like the acting part of Charades, then this game will suck for you just like it sucks for everyone else.

38 Replies to “Concept, the Worst Game Ever”

  1. All I’ve learned from this is that you don’t like charades and you and your friends are bad at this game and perhaps don’t communicate well in the first place… I don’t think the game’s at fault for that, and an actual objective review would be nice.

    1. Now i think this game takes the creative quotient to the next level. Basically this review summarizes ~ ”never put your gray cells into use, play mindless games like monopoly…”

      Author’s Comment — Yeah, because Monopoly is close to anything reviewed on this website. By all means disagree with me, that is your right. But if you read any other review on this site you’d see that your arguement doesn’t hold any water. What board games do you like, praytell?

    2. I agree. This review is extremely biased. I just saw Wil Wheaton playing this game on tabletop and it seems like they had a great time

      Author’s Comment: Reviews are biased, end of story. People have different tastes in games. I thank you for taking the time to read this entry and taking the time to comment.

  2. Many, many people who play this game at our weekly games club would disagree with you. It has become a go-to game for casual groups.

  3. Okay, this is likely one of the most biased and awful reviews ever.

    I get that some people want to play games where they chuck dice, draft decks, or strategize intensely. I like those things too.

    But, I also really like games that involve some creativity and socializing. Such as Who, What, Where or Say Anything. This game is unique and clever. There is no need to play with the points system meaning you can use it as a filler game. And it is a good party game for those who are not into the heavy several-hour-long games.

    I get that you can’t review a thing without have some bias. But what makes someone a good critique is rating something on it’s value within a genre.

    If you only like action movies and are going to hate on dramas why would you ever think your review is worth a damn?

    1. Hey Josh,

      I appreciate your input on the quality of the game and the fact that you took the time to rate it and comment. Your rating, along with others, has given the game an overall score of a “B” which is very decent. I know that people like this game and I think the open rating system creates the fairness and difference of opinions to show that some people actually do enjoy this game.

      Thanks.

  4. The way I play it is to give 2 points to the person who find out the word, and 1 to 3 points depending on the difficulty picked to the person giving the clue if his answer is found.

  5. I’d say that Concept is closer in concept to Pictionary than charades. Very fun as a casual party game; probably not so much if you’re a competitive strategy gamer. I played it with a bunch of word-puzzle people, for fun and not for points, and we had a great time.

  6. forget everyone offended, your review was hilarious. if you don’t like charades yeah you won’t like this.

    if you have a group of people that you like, that you’re wanting to do something fun with at a get together, it can be a great deal of fun.

    1. Thanks for your comment, Jon. I appreciate that you found the humor and not just a slanted review. It was clearly meant to be tongue in check and certainly a lot of people enjoy Concept. Like a lot of games, the people you play with will play a major role in how enjoyable the game is.

      1. I get that you might put in some humor, but can you imagine what your “Tounge and cheek” humor does to the games sales? your “Review” is on the 4th spot on google… its title of your review alone is probably costing the creators hundreds of dollars.

  7. I do enjoy this game, but that was damn funny. Loved the review. I enjoy this game more because it brings my wife and kids to the table.

    We’ve never looked at the rulebook, so I can’t rate it.

    We play the version where if the group can’t guess your concept, the group mocks you unmercifully, pointing out all the obvious things you should have selected. I have an erection just thinking about it.

  8. First of all, the game is not for children, the age suggestion (10+) is much too low, not because of the difficulty, but for the fun.
    I would suggest to play it with adults and with people of different cultural backgrounds.

  9. I think this review is incredibly off-base. There is a difference between “This is not my type of game” and “this game is bad”. The reviewer clearly does not understand this. The idea that this may be “the worst game ever” is laughable, and he should be ashamed of publishing this garbage, especially when this review comes up in the top google results for the game. (Clearly, his SEO game is more on point than his reviewing game.)

    (A poor letter grade with a review that gives more information on the game and on what the reviewer didn’t like? That’s great. That gives us context for whether or not we’re likely to have the same opinion. This review? Not so much. This doesn’t tell us anything about the game other than “I don’t like charades! I considered this game through the lens of charades, so I didn’t like it! Here’s literally no information on the game or what specifically I didn’t like about it, so I’ll continue to complain about a game that it’s NOT and pretend that it’s transferrable!”

    1. Hi Michael,

      Thank you for taking the time to comment on my off-base post. My apologies that the post did not live up to your standards. In the future, I will strive to write better reviews. I’m not going to assume what type of person you are (or am I?), but I bet you have to get people to explain things to you a lot and you’ve probably shared at least one article from theonion.com because you thought the story was real. Times are tough and the world is full of uncertainty. I get it. I’m here for you, brother. When you are feeling down, just remember how crappy my article is and that it isn’t fit to be online and how much better you are than me and I’m sure you’ll feel better soon enough. That’s why I did it, after all. It was for you. It has always been for you. This is my sad attempt to boost your spirits by showing how pathetic I am. *hugs*

      1. See to me it’s the fact that your attitude is so poor. You seem to think quite highly of yourself in your responses to people criticising your harsh review harshly . Get a grip. If you can have your opinion, so can they.

        1. Jason, I’m just glad that my four year old post is still generating comments. And it’s all due to people like you, so thanks for that. You mention that it seems like I think highly of myself. Do you not think highly of yourself? If not, why? Everyone has incredible potential and you shouldn’t doubt that you are nothing short of amazing. Also, you are correct that everyone can have their own opinions. No one ever said they couldn’t. But part of that social pact is that we’re able to disagree with the opinions of others as well (as many have done right here on this post). I hope you have a lovely day, Jason.

  10. I played this at a friends house the other day and loved it. We all did. Your opinion is not fact and this review is possibly damaging to what could be sales to other people who will love it. I would love to get this game, the only thing I didn’t like was the price

    1. Hannah, you are so very correct. My opinion is in fact, not fact. How astute of you to notice and point that out. I get to like and dislike different things than you and I get to voice my opinion about said things. You get to do the same.

      Are you saying that opinions shouldn’t be shared? Or is it just the negative ones? If a movie critic doesn’t like a movie should they just keep that to themselves? What if my friend doesn’t like something, should they not tell me?

      I find it funny that you like the game but won’t buy it because of the price all the while saying I’m the one hurting their sales. Seems like you don’t care enough about their sales to help them out.

      Anyway, Hannah, I love you (like a friend, nothing gross) and I’m ready to put all of this behind us and hug it out.

  11. Overall, I find the game to have universal appeal and “flexes the mind”, with fast enough play to work as a filler or as an actual game event. Surprised to see negative views from a rather universally loved game.

  12. What I learned from this review: Laszlo Toth doesn’t have a brain. That’s not exactly the kind of sterling, universal insight I come to a review site for.

    Oh, wait, and I learned that if you criticize him for writing a really shallow, dismissive, uninsightful review of a game, he gets really defensive. It’s bad enough to trash a game purely because you’re not a fan of the genre; it’s absolutely childish to resort to hyperbole like “it’s the worst game ever,” then get defensive when somebody points out this isn’t a very helpful review.

    Just, wow. Praise this guy. If you like party games, this is a perfectly good party game. Not remarkable, not life-changing, but to call it the “worst ever” is more tantrum than review.

  13. Try writing a review from an objective stance. It seems to me like you and your group aren’t exactly sharp. I have yet to play this someone that hasn’t enjoyed it.

    This isn’t my usual type of game but it hits my table more than some of my top games. I can appreciate your opinion on the game but your personal preference shouldn’t bias you really review. Just a terrible write up.

    1. Reviews aren’t objective. They can’t be. Movie critics/reviewers, advice columnists, etc all write based on their opinion. Sorry you think it is terrible, but thank you for your comment.

  14. Well you are obviously very smart if you think this is a bad game. I have just sat down for a whole weekend with my brothers (nothing too gross, I promise) and played this; we’d rather make out with each other. Mind you we are 25, 21 and 17. Oh and I can’t forget the 10 odd people that come to my house for games nights, that hate Concept too. It is a huge stinker of a game. I fully endorse this post. Seriously.

  15. What an amazingly well written review. I thought there’d be much better ones over on the BGG review forum for this game, but I was wrong.

  16. the game is cute and fun. i’m not a fan of charades because i’m an anxious kid, but I love pictionary and find concept to be an amusing kind of sister game to that.

    it’s especially amusing with a bunch of tipsy friends, and has a lot of replayability as a party game.

    i don’t personally own the game so can’t comment on how inconvenient the box is, but everything inside is orderly and easy to put away, even drunk…

  17. I absolutely love this game! I played with a few of my friends who really love to play games that test our ability to think on the same wavelength, and we had a great time. I probably wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun if I’d played with anyone else, so it definitely takes a certain crowd. But it was really fun playing around with the different ways you can interpret the things on the board, and including our own words & phrases to guess. We’ll definitely be playing this one again!

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