Hot Lead Review

I recently mentioned I'd only played about 3 Reiner Knizia games. That number has more than doubled since then.

Hot Lead, the final game of the Criminal Capers Collection, puts players as investigators gathering evidence in order to put the bad guys away. A number of evidence cards equal to the players is laid out and players will simultaneously play a card from their hands. Whoever has the highest will get to take the card closest to the deck and each lower number will take the next ones. After 10 rounds, the game ends and players tally their points. Additional points are given for having 3 of a kind or one of each type of evidence. Be careful, though, if you go over 3 of a kind you'll lose the whole pile. The player with the highest score wins.

The Good: This does exactly what it sets out to do. It's quick and simple. There's a nice amount of thought that goes into each turn. Especially if you're trying to not be the highest card and want to be somewhere in the middle. At lower player counts its a bit more manageable but when you get more players in the game it gets challenging.

The Okay: One could argue that the game is actually too simple. The advanced variant only adds in more ways to score points opposed to increasing the difficulty and challenge of the game.

The Not So Good: Hot Lead is definitely geared towards higher player counts. It plays 2-5 but at 2 the only change is adding in another card to the evidence and the high card gets to pick 1 of the 2 cards closest. Fine, but that didn't do much for me. Ultimately I played with two cards and thats what you get to fight over.

Final Thoughts: Hot Lead is actually great. It's not a difficult game and it's not going to be a staple of your game night but it's the perfect filler game. Quick to set up, teach, and play. What more can you ask for?

Thanks to Bitewing Games for providing me with a review copy.