• Designer: Ted Alspach
• Publisher: Bezier Games
• Players: 2 – 4
• Ages: 15 and Up
• Time: 45 Minutes
• Times Played: > 5 (On Review Copy from the Publisher)

Author’s Note: I received a review copy, and in the interest of further fair disclosure, one of my games (where I am the designer) is being published by Bezier Games in coming months.

Silver Eye is the fifth game in the hit Silver line of fast-playing card games designed by Ted Alspach.  Silver Eye was announced recently, and it is coming to Kickstarter tomorrow, along with the Silver Collector’s Edition, which can house all six games in the series.  I received an early copy, and I’ve been playing it over and over with my game group and family. 

Based on the system from Cabo, each game in the Silver series is a hand management and set collection card game with a werewolf-themed twist.  Silver (a.k.a. Silver Amulet) and Silver Bullet were released in 2019, and Silver Coin and Silver Dagger were released in 2020. Silver Eye is next, and Silver Fang will follow soon (and I’ll have a review of it in coming days).

The Silver line of games can be combined, so sort of like with Dominion, you can mix different sets to make custom decks. Each game in the series features a different namesake relic, and as probably guessed, this one is a silver eye, fashioned into a metallic triangle with art that invokes the werewolf theme Bezier is known for. 

Silver Eye is all about visibility: there are more mechanics here for looking at your cards, or the cards in other villages. There are also more ways to play with the discard pile. And because of that, there is more high-stakes, high-reward gameplay: calling for a vote (i.e. triggering the end of the round) is riskier than ever, but it is also as fun as ever.

The art is still striking, and the production value is top notch.  Previous fans of the Silver line will naturally love Silver Eye. 

About the Series

For the uninitiated, there is a free iOS app available to show you Silver Amulet and Silver Bullet, or a combination of cards from those games.  For those interested in the game’s development, I highly recommend Ted Alspach’s Designer Diary over on BGG, which he updated for Silver Bullet.

The links above are to my reviews of past games. I’m a long-time fan of Cabo and the Silver series, with them having been some of my favorite games of the past few years. There’s an annual Silver tournament at Gen Con, and I made the final table in 2023. The games are also some of my family’s favorites: they were very eager to try Silver Eye and Silver Fang when they arrived at my house a few weeks ago.

The Components

The game is a card game at its core, with a deck of cards forming the core of what you need for gameplay. Four of the cards are player aids. Some of the games have extra components to work with their cards, but Silver Eye is cards-only.

There is, of course, the silver eye, which is technically called the “Silver Eye of Selection.” It appears metallic (though I’m not sure what it is made of). There’s a well-designed box insert from Game Trayz, with slots for each card, plus a little slot that holds the Silver Eye.  

Finally, there’s a scorepad, a rulebook, and a reference guide for the cards.

The Gameplay

At the start of the game, the deck is shuffled, with five cards given facedown to each player.  The deck is put in the middle of the table, and one card is flipped face up to form the discard pile.  Players may then look at — and probably should memorize — two of their cards.

On a player’s turn, he or she has three choices: (a) take a card from the deck, (b) take the top card of the discard pile, or (c) call for a vote.

Most turns involve taking the top card from the deck.  The player looks at it, and then can (1) discard it, and if applicable, use the card’s special power, (2) just discard the card, or (3) exchange it for one or more of his cards, discarding them instead and keeping the drawn card.

Unlike Cabo, which had only three special powers, every card in Silver has a special power, and the cards in Silver Eye are slightly more advanced (and interactive) than the cards in Silver Amulet and Silver Bullet. I would say they are easier to understand than the cards in Silver Coin or Silver Dagger. A complete overview of the cards in the game can be found in the reference guide.

Many of those powers — especially on the higher cards — activate when discarding the card. In Silver Eye, there is more of an interaction with the discard pile than in some of the other games. Dracula (the 10s) allows a player to move the top five cards from the discard back to the deck, but they go on the bottom.   The Underminer (the 11) is among the strongest cards in the game, at least in my opinion: it allows you to change two cards from any village with two cards from the discard pile. 

Silver Eye makes it where players can quickly get more information about their village (and other villages) than ever, and the theme here does seem to focus on visibility. The Spotter (the 3s, with an adorable otter) lets you, when face up, view facedown cards until you find a match when you’re discarding. The Tanner (the 5s) lets you keep its card, but turn all of your cards faceup. The Twister (the 6s) lets you turn over as many cards — in any village — as cards you have. The Split Seer (the 8s) let you view one card from each village. 

In the other Silver games, all cards are the same for each number. But in Silver Eye, there are 4 different 9s, and they provide what the next card on the discard will be (odd, even, higher than 9, or lower than 9). That makes putting cards on the discard a risky strategy, and it incentivizes players to learn the values of their cards. It is a cool twist, and it is probably one of my favorite cards in Silver Eye. 

The other favorite card are the Simons (the 2s, represented by a tiger). When faceup, even if it is not your turn, you can discard your faceup cards that match the top of the discard deck. This makes you watch other player’s turns closely, and it makes them eye (see what I did there?) your village with suspicion as they play. 

As I’ve always said, some of the most powerful cards in Silver activate when they are face up in your village, and that is the case here, with many of those cards affecting scoring. The Illusionist (the 0s), if faceup, let you subtract the number of deck cards from your score. This gives you an incentive to call for a vote as early as possible, which is why I say there are high-risk, high-rewards cards in this deck. The 1 card in the deck is actually a -1, and if it is faceup at scoring, you can make another card a negative value. The 13 lets you remove it and another card from the game if faceup at scoring.

Some of the other cards here put a fun twist on the game. The Gambler (the 4s) lets you predict whether the top card is higher or lower than a 4: if you’re right, you can discard a card, but if you’re wrong, you keep the card. The Ghost (the 7s) lets you discard a card. The Drunk (the 12) lets you give the top deck card to any village.

Returning to what you can do during the turn, if a player takes the top card of the discard pile, he or she can do the exchange action. When exchanging cards, there are rules about which card spots (i.e. the order of cards in your village) that you can place them.  If exchanging, you nominate one or more of your cards, and you can discard several as long as they match.  If they don’t match, you have to keep all of the cards (including the one you drew) and take a penalty card.  

Finally, a player may call for a vote.  This triggers the end of the round: every other player gets one more turn.  Alternatively, as discussed above, the end of the round is triggered if the deck runs out. 

For scoring, players get points equal to the face value of the cards, unless they called for a vote and have the lowest score, in which case they get 0 points.  (If they don’t have the lowest score, they also get a 10 point penalty.) The player who correctly calls for a vote and has the lowest score earns the silver eye token, which they can use once on a future turn to look through the deck for a card instead of just taking the top one. 

The game ends after four rounds, and the player with the lowest score wins.

My thoughts on the game…

As I’ve said before, the Silver series is tremendous, fast-paced fun with a high degree of replayability.  Silver Eye, like its predecessors, is an addictive, engaging card game that has been a big hit with me, my family, and my game group.  We eagerly await each new Silver release.

Silver Eye is a wonderful new addition to the lineup. Silver Eye takes a back-to-basics approach, and I think this would be an excellent entry point to the series. Whereas I think Dagger had become the most complex of the four games, Silver Eye feels simpler to me, but it remains well-thought out in terms of card interactions.

Here is how I would explain the series so far: Silver Amulet was the introduction to the series, and Silver Bullet ramped up the interactivity.  Silver Coin introduced some clever combinations that make it feel almost like engine-building.  Silver Dagger forced changes on the previously-developed strategies. And now Silver Eye feels like the game where you care most about what other villagers are doing.

One of the most fun aspects of Silver has always been trying to gauge when the others players will end the round. That is ramped up substantially here (especially if an Illusionist is face up), because of some of the clever scoring cards. There are also more ways to interact with the discard pile here (which is new to the series). And, given the eye theme, there are more ways to see what each player has.

As I’ve recounted before, the real joy is in combining the decks.  Everybody in my family loves picking the best cards from each series.  And in the end, while we love each base games deck, our favorite games have been the ones where we matched the preferences of our group.  And on that front, more cards have been getting picked from Silver Coin, Dagger, and Eye these days than from Amulet and Bullet, because those decks have the best opportunities for play.

Combining Silver Coin and Silver Eye is especially fun, since Coin had many ways to flip cards up and down, and Silver Eye gives you knowledge of what cards to do that to.

Silver Eye has my favorite relic of any of the games. Getting to pick your card is fun — and powerful — and it gives you the extra incentive to go for the strategy to get that for future rounds. 

The Silver games are each especially well produced: the art is attractive, and the cards are of decent quality.  I like the inclusion of a player aid: you probably won’t need it after you’ve played a game or two, but it is helpful for teaching the game. Plus, the metal tokens and the insert for the game continue to both be nice additions.

All Silver games play well at 2, 3, or 4 players, and Eye is no different. I don’t know that any particular player count is better than others.  We’ve been playing this slightly less than the advertised time — 20 minutes on average, I’d say — but groups will vary, since a lot of it comes down to the group dynamic of when somebody is going to call for a vote and familiarity with the cards.

Overall, I’m still impressed by Silver, which I think remains one of the best card games on the market, for gamers and non-gamers alike. Silver Eye lives up to the excellent reputation of its predecessors.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Chris Wray
• I like it.  
• Neutral. 
• Not for me…