Outsmarted! A fun, traditional trivia board game with a modern flair

Playing board or card games is a big part of our recreational social time.  We are constantly on the lookout for fun new games to play.  And so, from time to time I will feature a game that we are particularly enjoying.  Kicking things off is a trivia game called Outsmarted.

Outsmarted!

Outsmarted has a similar feel to it as Trivial Pursuit. Player pieces travel around a board answering questions from categories that you land on. The goal is to end up on each of the categories ring spaces where if you answer the ring question correctly, you win the ring for that category.  So far it sounds exactly like Trivial Pursuit, right?

Outsmarted is a modernized version of a traditional trivia game. It integrates the flexibility and power of being online without losing the traditional board game feel.  You physically move your player pieces around an actual board, but all the features of the game are controlled by an app that you sign into.  Through the app, you identify the players; how long the game will last; and even which country you’re playing in (yes, a significant number of the questions will be from the country you select). You can choose whether you want to play the junior, teen or adult version of the game.  And you get to choose the question categories.  There are standard categories to choose from, or with a nominal fee you can purchase alternative categories.  The questions are constantly being updated so you never get repeat questions. In fact, categories like “Breaking News” often ask questions from events that happened during the past week! (we really like this feature). There is also an option where you can play virtually with friends at another location, but we haven’t tried that feature yet. We find the adult version questions to be at the right level for us. Its not too difficult, but not too easy either.

We have uploaded the Outsmarted app to a tablet, so it can easily be passed around a table and with the larger screen size all the players at the table can see the questions being asked. Though we thoroughly enjoy playing Outsmarted, there are some features that we are hoping will be updated in the future.  It would be great if it had a read aloud version so that all questions and response options are auditorily presented rather than being manually read by the players. This feature would likely improve the level of engagement for other players awaiting their turn.

There are a limited number of assists available to players which include 50/50, where two of the four response options are removed, giving you a 50/50 chance of selecting the correct option. +15, which adds 15 more seconds to answer the question, or Skip, where you answer a different question from the same category instead.  At random times during the game, a player might win more assists.  And randomly, you might even get to jump to a ring that you still need.  This raises one of the problems we have encountered with the game.  Because these assists can happen on a random basis, a player on a roll who has answered several consecutive questions, has a higher probability of receiving an assist advantage and if that advantage turns out to be “jump to a ring”, the game can quickly become a bit lopsided.  I’m hoping that future versions of the game will address these challenges.

Regardless, Outsmarted is a fun game that by design is always a fresh experience.  For more details check out the Outsmarted website.