The Resistance: Reviewed and written by Mustafa Hameed

Image: boardgamegeek.com

The Resistance is a game that revolves around the idea of a resistance group that must take down an empire. However, among the members of the group, there are spies that work for the empire!

The game consists of 5-10 players. Players must carry out "missions" for the resistance group while at the same time figuring out who among them are spies that work for the empire.When the game begins each player is randomly assigned either as a member of the resistance or the empire. Nobody knows the role of the other players yet, but eventually all spies for the empire will identify one another. The spies hope to sabotage missions and cause them to fail, while the resistance members want missions to succeed.

As mission leaders are selected and missions are conducted spies will slowly start to reveal themselves through their acts of disagreeing with missions or sabotaging missions while they are conducted. Through these acts resistance members will identify who are the spies in order to prevent them from going on missions. Without participating in missions the possibility of sabotage is removed. Once three missions succeed or three missions fail the game ends and the appropriate side wins.

In short, this is a game that involves people talking. And this means noise. With a five player minimum there could be a ruckus. I tried this board game myself at the SAIT Reg Erhardt Library with five people and, sure enough, it got loud! If you read our post profiling the SAIT Reg Erhardt Library you might note that we were on the main floor of the library, which allows for the kind of noise we couldn't make in the lower level quiet zone. Imagine how loud the could have been if we had 10 players.

If you are interested in this game but noise might be a concern consider allowing patrons to borrow such material that they might experience the pleasure of this game in the privacy of their own home. Another idea, your library could host a game night every week where patrons come in and try the board games that the library has acquired. That way neither librarians nor patrons will have to deal with noise complaints!