All over the globe, around the Festive Season, families and friends commune to spend time together. Mince pies are eaten, eggnog is drunk (actually, I’m from the UK and thus have no real concept of what eggnog is…), and fireworks go off around the New Year.

We spent New Years Eve with our gaming group this year having food, drink, and general cheer. Games were played throughout the day including Between Two Cities, Codenames: Pictures, Meeple Circus, and Megacity: Oceania. As well as that we had the general assortment of movie quizzes that tend to come out around December time – and then we also had this thing that we are going to talk about today. As well as playing physical games, we had this meta-game going on in the background, known simply as Don’t Get Got.

Before we continue, I don’t want to spoil too much of what is in the box, but we will be talking about some of the missions in Don’t Get Got within this article. This review will mention around 8 of the missions in Don’t Get Got in images and the text. There are spoilers ahead.

The (incredibly large) box to Don’t Get Got

What is Don’t Get Got?

…and how is Don’t Get Got played?

So, what is Don’t Get Got? Well…the simplest way to explain Don’t Get Got is as a series of challenges and tasks you need to get other players to do throughout a day without getting caught. At the start of the day you each get given six tasks, one of which is the same for everyone:

Say “Guess What?” to a player. If they reply “What?” then say, “You Got Got!”

Aside from that all the tasks are different. Some are as easy as getting a player to say “sugar”. Some are medium difficulty like getting someone to moonwalk. Finally, some are insanely difficult such as recording yourself on a device and getting another player to listen to you saying the words “you got got” through headphones. The difficulty comes because, if someone asks you if something is part of the game, you have to tell the truth and you fail the task.

You store the tasks in a wallet throughout the day, and when one is completed flip it over to say either “Nailed” or “Failed”. The game is officially over when one player has completed three tasks – however, realistically it can continue as long as you want.

Don’t Get Got is a Big Potato game, a name that is becoming synonymous with party games at the moment. The credited designers are James Vaughan, who also designed Plague Inc., and Zoe Lee. It can be played with 2-8 officially; however, it is only really limited due to the number of wallets in the box – Big Potato actually replied to an Amazon comment saying that the game can be expanded if you make your own wallets. We had people keep them in pockets or couples doubled up on tasks. There is no time limit and it can take a whole day to play.

What is it like playing Don’t Get Got?

Describing what it is like playing Don’t Get Got is a bit of a weird one, and that is because it’s not really a game. Don’t Get Got is instead a bit of a joint or collaborative experience. As such, it’s taking the gaming world a little bit by storm recently, especially since Shut Up and Sit Down did their review of it, describing it as (and I’m taking this from the title of their Don’t Get Got video review) “Mission Impossible with mates”.

What Makes Don’t Get Got Interesting?

When you first open the box, Don’t Get Got is a really interesting concept that I’ve been thinking about more or less solidly over the past 48 hours. Inside the box are a whole host of missions, varying in style and difficulty, that present themselves as secret missions throughout the day. You have your six, and upon getting your six it is kind of exciting. Due to the nature of some of the cards, and the need for props on some, we dealt everyone out more cards than they needed so they could veto some. Then, you start playing and when you start it is exciting.

Then it dawns on you just how difficult Don’t Get Got is. If you are with a regular group of people, who all know each other incredibly well, it is hard to change your behaviour patterns so much that you don’t immediately get called out whenever you try and do a task. You find yourself planning long and intricate schemes to try to pull off elaborate stunts. It can become this phenomenal cat and mouse game, trying desperately to just get something ticked off.

Then you do – you manage to pull off a scheme – and you shout “YOU GOT GOT” and everyone laughs.

There were a couple of stand out moments in our game, including one player setting up a whole hour and a half long quiz to complete a mission, another player (the host) changing his clothes every hour and no one noticing until around 8 hours in, and one player diving on the floor to be helped up. Those are moments that will stick with us because they were so incredibly well done and funny that we will always remember them. They are a part of our gaming group’s history.

That is what Don’t Get Got is good at, and when it is good, it can be very very good.

Based on that description – it’s easy to recommend Don’t Get Got, isn’t it? Well, it doesn’t quite work like that –

It’s Not All Good…

Now, before I get into the nitty gritty of this, there is something that needs to be recognised about Don’t Get Got. Several members of my gaming group really enjoyed Don’t Get Got and, looking around online, there are quite a few positive reviews out there for Don’t Get Got as a game. After reading this I recommend you look at a few other reviews to see if it is a game that you would enjoy. That being said, there are a few negatives that stand out.

There are, immediately out of the box, a couple of issues that presented themselves with Don’t Get Got. The first is the variety of the tasks. Since the tasks are dealt out randomly and no one knows what any of the other tasks are, they were highly inconsistent – making it incredibly easy for some players whilst incredibly hard for others. I don’t want to give away too many examples, but there is a large difference between getting someone to say the word “sugar” and recording yourself on a phone to get another play to listen to through headphones without giving the game away. There are a few tasks that are highly contextual based on equipment you have to hand – so much so, that I suspect the rules suggest the game is over when one player has completed three because there are likely two or three in the majority of wallets that are so ridiculously difficult to do.

This leads onto point number two, which is that it was easy, when given the cards initially, to be disheartened straight out the gate if you aren’t enamoured by your missions. That is because, when trying to set up some of the tricks, they can be all you think about for hours when realistically you want to get on with other things, where others can be completed almost instantly. Thus the payoff can be small for the amount of effort going in compared to other party games. I don’t know if this is a relevant point to bring up here, but just over 50% of our gaming group (6/11 players) completed missions throughout the day.

Finally, and this is something I have raised about Big Potato games before – the box for Don’t Get Got is too big. It is once again a box that was designed with marketing in mind rather than actual practicality. I’ve mentioned this a few times now as it is a serious issue with Big Potato games, and it is ultimately why Clickbait/The Chameleon live in our garage rather than on our shelves. Don’t Get Got is a game that could easily fit in a box similar to Cockroach Poker, but instead it is in a box that is one of the largest on the shelves. Without wanting to just repeat the same message of almost every other reviewer of Don’t Get Got, the box is a problem.

My wallet when I handed it back in at the end of the day.

It’s Not All Bad…

All that being said – it’s hard to be super critical of a game like Don’t Get Got due to the scope and nature of the game. If you are invested, Don’t Get Got can be a thing to have running in the background. It is a game that a couple of our friends especially enjoyed and it is easy to see why. There are a few moments throughout our New Years Eve where Don’t Get Got shone through as delivering funny moments. There are a few laughs in the box, and finding out how other players carried out there schemes was enjoyable. That being said, for me it was far more fun as a spectator than a participant.

I’m going to end this review on something my partner said to me. She really enjoyed playing Don’t Get Got:

Don’t Get Got is really fun to play but realistically it’s a one shot game, and a game you need a large group of people for. It’s not a casual game and you will only every play it around a time like New Year. Then you put it away.

TL;DR: The Good, The Bad, and The Getting Got

Like all games we can now look at the good, bad, and neutral aspects of Don’t Get Got.

The Good

• At its best, Don’t Get Got can be incredibly funny to play. There are a few moments that do stand out as being enjoyable and a few moments that can stay with you afterwards.
• It can be a very funny to watch Don’t Get Got as a spectator. Finding out the level of detail that others have gone to in order to shout “YOU GOT GOT” is rewarding in its own right.
• It is a good high-player-count experience. Although the BGG page for Don’t Get Got suggests a player count for 2-8, I would actually suggest it is best played with 6-10 players.

The Neutral

• If you play by the strict rules of the game then you only need to complete three tasks to win. The odds are there will be a few contextual missions in your set, so only needing to complete three is a good thing. We suggest using the rule where you allow players to mulligan or veto missions at the start and then just play as long as you want to. The need for it to have a competitive end limit is unnecessary due to the inconsistency of the missions.

The Bad

• There is a lot of inconsistency in the missions, and this can be a problem. If you just take 5 random cards at the start then there is a small chance you won’t be able to do any, so being able to mulligan or veto is an absolute must. Even then, some players will have much easier to complete tasks compared to others.
• Due to the complexity of some missions compared to others, this can put some players off at the very start of the game.
• The box is ridiculous. The whole game could probably fit into a box that is 1/4 the size, and still have room to spare.

Conclusion: Don’t Get Got Review

So, how can we conclude a review of Don’t Get Got – a game that is a game but also isn’t really a game?

I think, if you have a group that is fully invested, and if you have a house full of props, and if you adopt the rules to allow for veto-int or mulligan-ing then Don’t Get Got can be a fun game to have running in the background for a day.

If you are in a group where you won’t fully invest, or if you are playing it camping, or if you are in a place with few props then I suggest it probably isn’t the right kind of game to play. Instead, you may have more fun with a simple social deduction game like Spyfall instead.

Finally, and from a personal perspective, I didn’t enjoy coming up plans throughout the day – however, I really enjoyed watching the game play out and hearing the stories of how other players pulled their missions off. If you are with a big group playing it, but you aren’t interested in playing it yourself, it can be just as much fun (if not more fun) to observe.

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I hope you all had a wonderful New Year. If you played games, what games did you play? Have you played Don’t Get Got? If so, what was your impression? Let me know in the comments below.

Published by Luke

Board game nerd, comic book geek, Rubik's Cube solver, Splendor player, and Blogger. View all posts by Luke