It’s time for another new game and we’re talking about Dedale this week. This is another newish one that popped up on Board Game Area (BGA). The legend of the minotaur exists and the labyrinth is being created. Dedale is a cooperative game of creating a labyrinth to trap the minotaur in, each level of difficulty has different rules, so let’s see how this game is played.

How To Play Dedale

Dedale is a card playing game where you overlap the cards to create different rooms to trap the minotaur in. This is a cooperative game that is able to be played solo. And the turns are very simple, as you play one of the two cards, overlapping other cards in the labyrinth. If you complete the goal before all the cards are played, you win the game. If not, you can restart that level and try again.

Now, that is the vast majority of the game. But I want to touch on the one rule of playing out cards. The first thing is that when you play out a card, you must overlap. And while you still have cards in your draw pile, you must overlap a square that matches the color of the square on the back of a card. So the game controls where you are able to play cards. When the draw pile runs out, you place your card however youw ant.

And let’s talk really quickly about what a level looks like. In one level you need to get torches in a row and then that room closed off. Another one you want to have only a single color in the room with the minotaur. And as you go up in level the difficulty level gets higher.

What Doesn’t Work

The difficulty is inconsistent in the game. And I don’t just mean with the leveling up. I think that the new levels are basically always more challenging. And I haven’t beat all of them yet. But because it is card draw there is a higher element of randomness to the game. And the more players you play with, the more random it is going to get. So as a solo game the first five levels might be extremely simple, but at three or four players way more challenging.

And I don’t think that the challenges are all that fun in the game. So each level provides something but it’s really a lot of variation on the same themes. And I think there is a missed opportunity. Everything is always, trap the minotaur in a room with a certain condition. Why not make it, give the minotaur a single path with a certain condition? It is possible to have more variety than the game has.

What Works

Now, there are some elements that does work. Firstly, the challenges while not super exciting, they do level up nicely in difficulty. As a two player game, myself and another player on BGA were able to comfortably handle them going up to about level 6. At level 7 it became much more of a challenge. Though, see what I said about where the challenge comes from above.

The game is also simple and fast to play. A turn won’t take long at all. You know your objective so you simply go for that. And the limit on where you play is going to mean that you are limited in what you do. Even as the labyrinth gets bigger it isn’t too much.

Who Is Dedale For?

I think this is a fun game for people who like a puzzle of a game. If you want a challenge of a puzzle that isn’t an escape room game, but is a good puzzle, Dedale is strong that way. It is a bit more random than something like Relics of Rajavihara a solo puzzle game that I love, but it is going to give you that sort of feel.

Final Thought on Dedale

So, I want to compare Dedale to Relics of Rajavihara. And I think the big thing is that I sold Relics of Rajavihara and I bought it back because I want to do the puzzles again. It is just a fun experience to set-up the challenge and see if I can figure it out. Dedale on the other hand, having to replay a challenge starts to feel like a slog. The puzzles don’t do enough for me to generate a ton of interest in what’s happening and that’s a flaw for the game.

For a game that is a puzzle to try and solve, having randomness is not a good thing. And I also look at it as I think about games where I overlay cards. I own Grove and Orchard which I love. This one tries to do more with the levels and puzzle and just takes the fun out of the fast game.

Now, this is all pretty negative. And I don’t love Dedale. I don’t think it is a horrible game either. I think that it is mainly just a pretty boring game. And I think that there are better puzzle games out there or card layering games out there. So while I had some fun with it, the more I played it on BGA the less interesting it became.

My Grade: C-
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: B-
Strategy (out of 10): 3
Luck (out of 10): 7

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