Corporate America

Reading the rules, I expected a flimsy comedy game: one joke, already tired before the table was set. I was properly wrong. Corporate America will not suit every group, but ours found exactly what it wanted: lies, promises, aggressive pleading, complaints, and funeral rites performed over fines. Lovely stuff.

The game moves through terms of office, and its simple rules do not require anyone to be a seasoned gamer before they can join in. There is enough room for non-gamers to start thinking a little more sharply, without first drowning them in procedure.

The real game is what you do to one another during those terms. You promise, bargain, tell a tiny lie for the common good, then watch the fines arrive with all the solemnity of a funeral. Its best trick is the balance between depth, play and messing about: it lets the noise grow without becoming mere noise. At some point, you will betray a friend. You will enjoy it.

This is not a game to gorge on, nor one that needs to come out every week. It wants a properly full group of five or six and a table willing not to take it too seriously. Give it that, and it is the sort of party game that deserves an outing every six months.

Updated session

Our first play showed off its party-game credentials, but it was squeezed among several other games and never quite had the room to shine. A later standalone session, using the extra-long five-term game, did more than confirm the first impression; it made it louder: hatred, betrayals, public washings-out and abuse, all in the right proportions. With the right group and the right mood, Corporate America simply tears the place up.