As Captain Barbossa memorably said of the Pirate Code, in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, it’s “…more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules”. Why is that relevant, in a review of a very non-Piratey card game, I hear you ask? Well, with Creatures, though there are rules, they are, much like Barbossa’s approach to the Pirate Code, more like guidelines than actual rules. So what’s it all about? Let’s take a closer look at the Creatures Party Deck!

What is Creatures?

A deck of 55 poker-sized cards (available currently as the Party Deck), Creatures is a chaotic party game that can be enjoyed by players of any age, and it caters for just about any approach too. Want to play a family friendly game? Go right ahead. Want to plumb the depths and cross the line of taste with a very NSFW game? The deliberately loose framework of Creatures totally allows for that too.

How to Play Creatures

Setting up Creatures is very straightforward. Shuffle the cards together, deal 5 to each player, then the “coolest” person in the group chooses a card from their hand to play reading it aloud. Everyone follows what the card instructs, and when the mini-game it triggers ends, the player of the card chooses who wins the game, and the card itself. Every card won counts as a point, and players play to 5 points. Easy, right?

Is Creatures Fun to Play?

So here’s the thing: publisher Rule of Cool Games pretty much guarantee that Creatures is fun no matter who you are or what you enjoy, simply because of the Rule of Cool that their name derives from. What this means is that players should allow for the coolest possible experience or outcome when playing a game, that the outcome of maximum benefit should be chosen in group situations, and (perhaps the most important of the three rules that make up the Rule of Cool): don’t be an anus!

All that said, we can imagine that particularly introverted or shy players may have problems with Creatures, as many cards rely on acting, or being raucous, or acting out in some way. Of course, even introverted people are likely to play Creatures with friends or family members they trust and can be a bit more free with, so it may not be too much of an issue at all; it’s certainly not one that we’ve experienced just yet.

In fact, we had an absolute blast with Creatures, and found its variety of mini-games, along with its little twists using Joker and Rule cards, to be a truly memorable time. It’s the kind of game where non-gamers and gamers alike can have such fun that just about everybody wants to play again, as soon as one game ends. It copes with just about any game group size too, which means it can be played at just about any large or small social gathering or game night, with no concern that players won’t understand what to do at any given time, due to the ease with which it can be learned and played.

The loose framework, using both the Rule of Cool, along with the reminders within the general rules that you can play just about however you want to, gives an enormous amount of flexibility and control to the players. That’s particularly true for the active player, who’s able to judge using whatever criteria they deem fit as to who wins the card.

In this way, it seems like a more anarchic and physical Apples to Apples, or a less try-hard Cards Against Humanity; the latter of which feels like it constantly punches down, or tries to wring humor from awkard or offensive topics deliberately. The cool thing about Creatures is that it shows there’s no need to resort to cheap tactics of that nature. Unless you really want to, of course. With Creatures, the choice is there, but isn’t forced.

The Card Gamer Verdict

You can buy Creatures directly from Rule of Cool Games.