If you love a good conspiracy, Illuminati: The Game of Conspiracy, from Steve Jackson Games may be right up your alley. Or not. Be careful. They’re watching.

They are all around us. Secret conspiracies are everywhere. In Illuminati, you increase your wealth and power to take over the world until only YOU reign supreme.

Now, this classic game of conspiracy and world conquest has been updated to include current events and up-to-date references! Illuminati is for two to six players and contains 110 cards with new card back designs. It features new art created by Lar deSouza, known for his 2008 Shuster Award-winning online comic Least I Could Do.

I had originally played this game on the PC through Steam, and found it intriguing, but tough. The opportunity to play it at Nerdi Gras came up and I jumped at it.

This game is a serious strategy game. Each of the controlling Illuminati have different criteria to win based on their alignments and such. But you really need to be on your game and paying attention to everyone else playing if you want to win this. It can get cutthroat in a quick way with veteran players by your side.

You play the game by controlling groups like News Stations, Churches, Governments, or the CIA. There are a range of groupings, from liberal to weird to criminal ,that work together or against each other when moving to take them over. This is also something to watch out for with your opponents, because they may be after a number of the cards you’ve taken control of.

All in all, I loved the game and I’m sure that my two strategists (my two boys), will love it as much as they love Risk. So, I ordered a copy just after getting home from the Convention. It’s hours of fun if you are into thought-provoking strategy games.

~William Joseph Roberts~ aka (Hillbilly)

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