Zeus On The Loose

Calling all Greek Gods! Zeus, the supreme ruler, is required for urgent matters of state and no one can find him!! You must find Zeus amongst the mortal realm and bring him back to mount Olympus. What are you waiting for! Let’s go! Remember if you reach Mount Olympus with Zeus in hand, you’re a mortal among the Gods, to play is human. To win, is divine! Let’s look at Zeus on the Loose!

Intro

Zeus on the Loose, created by Jason Schneider and published by Gamewright, is a card-based game of Mythic proportions, based loosely on Greek mythology by using Greek Gods who each have a special in-game ability to help you capture Zeus.

The game is suitable for two to five players with an average game taking between 15 and 20 minutes. There is an ability to add or subtract rules depending on the age and skill level of players. The game is recommended for ages eight and up but can easily work for children aged six or seven. Zeus on the Loose is an excellent educational tool to help your children develop mathematical skills of adding up small and largest numbers, along with rounding up and down, and knowing when to round to up to the nearest 10 or down.

In the game you have to reach the number 100 and in each multiple of 10 you are able to capture Zeus, and place the character in front of you. So, what’s the objective of the game?

The objective of the game is to capture Zeus and prevent the other players from taking him from you. The first player to get to 100 means has reached Olympus and is the winner of the round, you will play over four rounds to spell the word: Z_E_U_S.

Zeus on the Loose includes 56 playing cards, a large Zeus miniature and the rulebook.

How to Set-Up Zeus on the Loose

Set-up for |Zeus on the Loose is quick and easy! First, familiarise yourself with the Greek God card powers, as each God has a different power and understanding how each one works will allow you to define a more well thought out strategy.

For example, let’s look at Hera Queen of the Gods, wife of Zeus himself!

When playing a card, instead of playing a standard number card you can play this Geek God Power which, as stated on the card, raises the count of Mount Olympus to 99, remember when the round gets to 100, the player with Zeus wins. When you play Hera you steal Zeus, but as ever the heroics of the humans can overcome adversity and if a player has one card and there are only four in the game, they steal Zeus and Win.

Shuffle the 56 cards including the Greek Cods and deal each player four cards and That is it! You are ready to capture Zeus.

Final Thoughts on Zeus on the Loose

Zeus on the Loose is a very quick game and can be used as a time filler between other games, but in my view the great asset of this game is that it is a fantastic teaching tool and resource. I would highly recommend this game for teachers in schools around the primarily school age, as it gives a practical and fun use for subtracting and adding large or small numbers together along with demonstrating multiples of 10.

Zeus on the Loose can be simplified by removing some of the rules, which the game itself states you can do, such as steal Zeus if you play the same number as the last player.

If you are looking for a very colloquial quick game Zeus on the Loose does cover all the boxes, however the game, in my view, does not work well in a party game setting nor gaming groups – but of course this is dependent on your group and there likes and dislikes!

My personal view is there are more engaging games such as Decrypto, Codenames, Exploding Kittens, Roll for it!, Little songbirds, Blank – which are more fun and fit the similar timeframe of this game.