A review of Bang! the Bullet card game

Today I’m going to talk about Bang! This game is a lot of fun and if you can find it you can get it in a giant bullet container. Granted the bullet case does look a little like a giant metal suppository but it’s still a big bullet which looks awesome on the game shelf.

In Bang! everyone is given a different job in a Wild West shootout. The sheriff is the only player who is known to all players. It is the sheriff’s job to eliminate the outlaws and the renegade. The outlaws are trying to kill the sheriff. The Renegade wants to be the last man standing to duel the sheriff and then there is the deputy, whose job is to protect the sheriff.

Once these roles are dealt out you will be given a character card with a special ability. These abilities basically give a small advantage to each player and help you into the role play a little.

There is a learning curve with what the cards in the game do but once you figure them out the game flows well. The most common card is the Bang! card. Basically this is the card that shoots another player; this is where the translation from a foreign game gets weird. Having a player tell you that they are going to Bang! your mom over and over again gets old quick. To respond to a bang a missed! card can be played. There are other cards which have different effects, purple bordered cards are equipment, and brown bordered cards are single use.

Each player is given a number of “bullets” as per their character card. These are health and your hand limit. As you lose health you are limited in the number of cards you can keep. Once a player is out of bullets they are dead. This is where my main criticism comes in. The player elimination factor can make the game boring for those who are eliminated. In games with numerous players I have encountered times where a player is eliminated before they are even given a turn to play. The highly competitive nature of the game does make for some aggressive play. However once roles are figured out there is an element of team play.

One thing that really changes up the game is that without a gun card a player can only play Bang! cards against players one space away. That is the player to the left or right. In a game with many players, lets say 6; the player directly across the table will have 2 players between you (either left or right.) This player is then 3 players away. You will need better equipment to Bang them or eliminate players between you.

To sum up: I would recommend this game to any board game group because it is so much fun and the replayability is high. I particularly enjoy having to figure out the role of everyone at the table.