The Enigma of Leonardo Card Game Review

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Discover the keys to Leonardo da Vinci’s lost projects in The Enigma of Leonardo, the fast-paced strategy card game. Scrutinize worn-out drawings and assemble enough of them to figure out the secrets hidden in them. Time is of the essence though, and you need to uncover these secrets and hinder other players who are working to do the same!

The Enigma of Leonardo is published by RightGames, a Russian company known for other fun card games such as Potion-Making: Practice and Evolution: The Origin of Species. This game is a great “filler” or party game, and can be taught very quickly to players of all ages and experience levels. It also plays very fast (about half an hour), allowing you to get a few games in at one sitting.

The story and theme of the game are based on the secrets hidden in the writings and drawings of the great inventor Leonardo da Vinci. You take on the role of modern-day investigators, scrutinizing da Vinci’s works in the hopes of finding the Keys that unlock these secrets. Honestly though, the game mechanics are general enough to be able to fit almost any theme (such as a tactical battle).

The goal of the game is to discover and collect 7 different Keys which unlock da Vinci’s secrets. This is done by playing cards from a deck to form matches in a manner similar to Tic Tac Toe or Bingo.

Each card in the deck contains a beautiful picture of a Renaissance-era drawing attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. The art is a major plus for the game, being simple yet iconic and totally appropriate for the theme. Other than the drawings, each card also features 2 symbols in its top left corner. There are 12 different symbols in total, each representing a different area of research performed by da Vinci. The goal of the game is to match these symbols in order to discover the Keys.

At the start of the game, each player places 5 cards in a cross in front of him, and draws another 5 cards to make up his hand. Players then take turns playing a card from their hand, then drawing a card from the deck. Playing a card means choosing a card in your “cross” and replacing it with a card from your hand. If by doing so you manage to get 3 cards in a row in your cross that feature the same symbol, you have discovered that Key. You can then collect that symbol’s Key token.

You need to collect 7 different Key tokens in order to win the game. This can be difficult to achieve as it is pretty random which symbols are on the cards you draw. However, if you manage to get all 5 of your cross cards featuring the same symbol, you can collect any Key token of your choice.

All that is just half the game though. What makes the game interesting and interactive is how your actions can affect your neighbor. When you replace a card on your cross, that replaced card is then used to replace the card on the exact same spot of the next player’s cross! This adds a lot of unpredictability to the game. You can set up the perfect cross, only to have it disrupted next turn before you can collect your Key. Similarly, you can play an attacking or denial game, making life difficult for the player after you.

The random and ever-changing nature of The Enigma of Leonardo makes for an enjoyable and exciting filler game rather than one where you must carefully plan all your moves. There will be times when you finally draw the card with the right symbol into your hand, only to see your opponent replacing a critical card on your cross. This is a great party game, but it may get boring for players who are after a more strategic and intellectual challenge.

You can find out more about the game at RightGames’ website.

Complexity: 2.0/5.0

Playing Time: 30 minutes

Number of Players: 2 to 4 players

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