I have a major problem with Agent Avenue. I cannot win. It is a game that looks beautiful and engages you with its gameplay, but I am not the best spy. I can be an enigma because sometimes I’m very good at deduction games or bluffing games, and other times I am not. Whether it’s positioning myself in the right place or positioning my opponent, I go 50-50. But with this game and my daughter, I have found my weakness.
This expansion to an already beautiful and exciting game offers new characters, new board movement, and new black market cards. For anyone unfamiliar with Agent Avenue, it is a chase game where you are trying to keep your neighbor from discovering that you are a super-secret agent. Think Mr. and Mrs. Smith meets Modern Family. There is a lot to like about the art from Fanny Pastor-Berlie and the distinctiveness of the characters portrayed in the neighborhood. You already feel like the chase is on from the start as you make strategic moves.
Division M introduces mice that provide a bit of a pinch in the game. They can make movement more dangerous and require you to calculate your decisions differently. I find myself making different positioning decisions based on what cards I want my opponent to take versus what I want to take myself. The mice essentially add another token to the board that you now need to interact with and be concerned about. I’m also excited about the black market cards, with their new and different themes. I like them more than my daughter does in our games, and I can see how they improve replayability by changing which cards you use each time. The expansion is just the right size to be easily understandable and not out of scope for a small and interesting tabletop game.
For now, I’m going to have to stare at this game for a while and see what my next move is to become the best super spy in my house. At the very least, I’ll get more time playing the game. We rate it an 8.5 out of 10 for the great design the Kudahls have put together in this expansion, with the only drawback being the storage container and how it works with the original game. Go find it with Nerdlab Games and come play me so I can beat you.
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