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The smart thing about Mines is that you can only build new ones by spending the same units that make up your army, ensuring that players who sneak into the lead do so at a point where they are also weakened. Favorites to win quickly get crushed, with heroes of the revolution warping to become the new evil overlords. When your allies need your help most, the idea of instead swooping in to seize their Mines is intoxicating. It's like Lord of the Flies meets The Lord of the Rings.After a week of playing with friends, you'll genuinely feel like you need a holiday. You send a fleet to attack in the dead of night, and wake up to find you've only got two hours to evacuate your queen before she gets killed. It seems frantic in writing, but in reality most actions tend to take between ten and 20 hours to carry out. Sending submarines from one side of your territory to the other might take as long as two whole days, which means you need to be sure that each play is the right one.Article continues after the video belowIn theory it's a game you can just turn on every day to play for a few minutes, but in practice it can quickly feel like utterly life-consuming stuff. Notifications pop up on your phone to inform you that enemy subs have appeared on your radar, and suddenly you aren't at a party having a nice time any more—you're that drunk one from Battlestar Galactica, storming around like a melodramatic cloud.After a week of playing with friends, you'll genuinely feel like you need a holiday.
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New on Motherboard: A Twitter Choose-Your-Own Adventure Game That Tells Its Story in GIFs
Trust remains the name of the game, but trust remains impossible: Subterfuge is a game with only one winner, and there's nothing more dangerous than being in the lead. Imagine the Blue Shell from Mario Kart, except that it sneaks up behind you over a matter of days, doesn't make a sound while doing so, and when it's too late to avoid it you finally realize that the Blue Shell is a handful of friends you thought you could trust, repeatedly stabbing you to death with knives. Fuck. Don't do it. Just play Mario Kart. Live a good life.The scenarios I've gone through above are fabricated but based so heavily on truth that it amazes me we finished a game without anyone having an actual breakdown. We're documenting the hellish game in a video series that recently started, but don't be misled by the fun we seem to be having in part one—Subterfuge is a brilliant strategy game that you should absolutely play with strangers. Delve into a world where everyone's a bastard, trust no-one, lie, and stab your way to the top. But Whispers in the Dark With Friends? That game is hell.I've played plenty of games that have made me uncomfortable, but Subterfuge with people I know and love was like an engine that turned my head against me—dredging up teenage insecurities, pouring every drop of paranoia into a bucket, and then sloshing into every corner of my brain for the best part of a week.More information on Subterfuge can be found at the game's official website.Follow Matt on Twitter.Imagine the Blue Shell from Mario Kart… except the Blue Shell is a handful of friends you thought you could trust, repeatedly stabbing you to death with knives.