Red7 Review – If You Aren’t Winning, Change the Rules

Red7 is a game explained best by Talladega Nights. If you ain’t first by the end of your turn, you’re last. And by last I mean, eliminated. It’s a cutthroat rule. Thankfully, you can easily change the rules to ensure your safety.

Everyone begins with a seven-card hand, and one face-up card starting their palette. While in the middle of the table, is the canvas; a card that explains how to determine the current winner.

At the start of the game, the canvas is red. Meaning whoever has the highest card in their palette is the current winner. Now, on your turn, you have three choices:

• Play a card to your palette.
• Change the canvas and the rules of the game.
• Or both: add a card to your palette and change the rules of the game.

After you’ve acted, check if you have the winning palette. If you do, you’ve survived the round, otherwise, you’re out of the game.

When it comes to checking who wins, there are no ties. There is only one card for each colour and number combination. So cards are ranked from low to high in terms of number, and violet to red in terms of colour. For example, an orange 6, is stronger than a red 5 based on their value. However, an orange 5 is weaker than a red 5 based on its colour.

As play continues, palettes grow and your hand of cards starts to dwindle. Making it harder for you to produce a winning combination, and have fewer options to do so. Eventually, only one player is standing: the winner.

Small game, lots of depth

The moment you start playing Red7, you only get seven turns to connive and squirm your way to victory. Creating a tight and intense experience, where every move could be your last.

While games last only 10 to 15 minutes you’re always switched on. You’re either thinking about how to survive the next round, or how to put together the strongest palette for the late game. Ultimately, you want to have the strongest palette, that wins in a number of the seven different win conditions. Therefore, forcing your opponents to use the play a card, and change the rules move.

The other thing you need to think about is how many cards everyone has left. Because if it’s your turn, and you have no cards – it’s an automatic loss. This makes your hand, and everyone else’s a ticking timebomb for how much longer you can stay in the game.

For a small game, Red7 has layers of depth for you to explore. There’s nothing better than when after a minute or two of thought, someone throws their cards on the table. Saying those two magic words: I’m out. The sense of relief you feel when this happens makes the game shine.

Oh wait, there is one thing better. And that’s when, after someone has a turn where they’re clearly struggling to get to a winning position, you play one card to put yourself back in the winning position. Red7 is absolutely a game of one-upmanship, and take that, but does it in a non-confrontational way so everyone can have fun with it.

However, even if you are eliminated, the games are so quick you don’t have to wait long before back playing the next game.

How’s your relationship with Lady Luck?

The contradiction of Red7 is that as intense, strategic and thought-provoking as it is, you’re constrained by the hand of cards you’re dealt. We had games where someone lost before their first turn and others where someone won without applying any thinking whatsoever.

This makes it a great title to bring out with friends of all experiences because it allows them to win even if they’re not too versed in the game. But more competitive players might struggle with this reliance on luck.

For those, there is an advanced variant that adds card abilities to Red7. This increases the amount of depth to the game and the amount of agency you have as a player.

Otherwise, Red7 feels like Love Letter but with more depth. Although from the outside it doesn’t look like much, with perhaps one of the most uninviting game boxes I’ve seen. Inside is a fantastic card game that quickly puts you on edge, where you stay for the duration.