Fog of Love is a semi-co-operative game which straddles the blurry line between board game and role-playing game. Before you start playing a game of Fog of Love you have to create your characters. You each choose a gender, then three trait objectives, these can be individual, or group goals, but you can’t tell your partner what they are.

Almost all of the events either affect “love” or “traits.” Traits each come in opposing pairs, for example introverted and extroverted. At the end of the game what you care about is the balance, if you had four tokens on extroverted, but two on introverted then your final score would be two extroverted. Compare your total with your trait goals and see if you achieved them, if you did then you’ll gain some additional love, but failure is penalised too! Next you decide upon your job, and then you choose three features about your partner that you noticed upon first meeting them. These are typically things like “muscular” or “tattoos.” Finally, you invent a name for your character and role-play a brief introduction to each other.

A roleplaying experience unlike any game you’ve ever played before. “One of those games... that can only be described as art.”- geek & sundry I think the strength of Fog of Love is that you’re playing completely as relatable people, rather than fantasy characters and you don’t have to invent any situations, unless you want to elaborate on what the cards give you. It’s really enjoyable to play as a couple, so long as you make sure you create characters who don’t too closely reflect yourselves! I particularly enjoy trying to distil down some of the goals into the concept of ‘getting away with being a horrible person’ and ensuring that I select some personality traits to match. At the end of the game each player will be committed to an end objective, these may be complementary, allowing you both to win together. Though it’s quite possible that even then only one, or neither of you managed to reach your goal. As you get further into the game new objectives are added which can make the game competitive, though you don’t know if your partner is going for these objectives or not! Amy’s Thoughts

My final thought is about who I would recommend the game to. Because of its themes, Fog of Love is definitely for adults only. I think that couples are definitely the right audience, or perhaps close friends. In both categories it needs to be for people who aren’t going to take themselves too seriously. It’s definitely not a game for gamers who want to play something mentally challenging, it’s more of a memorable experience and an interesting way to pass an evening. A tutorial teaches the game as you play! “The best tutorial in any game we’ve ever seen!... It’s a tour de force.” - shut up and sit down Most events will have one or both players decide on one of up to four actions. This is done by placing one of your four poker chips down and then flipping them to reveal the choice you took. The event card will then dictate the effect of the chosen actions. Fog of Love casts two players as two halves of a couple, living out a romantic comedy through a series of short snippets or scenes within their lives. When you first meet you will know very little about each other, but over the course of the game, the way you each deal with different situations will start to give you insights into each other’s personality, until ultimately you decide if you should stay together or break up.A relationship simulator that blends the heartwarming and awkward experiences of being in a relationship. “A hilarious and often touching experience.” - tabletop gaming magazine I can also see some people simply not wanting to play a game about role-playing a relationship with someone across the table. That can be awkward, especially if there is unrequited love involved between people in real life! However for friends who are comfortable enough with each other, or for gaming couples, Fog of Love is a very enjoyable experience and a truly unique game. Playing Fog of Love is like being in a romantic comedy: roller-coaster rides, awkward situations, lots of laughs, and plenty of difficult compromises to make.