Review: When in Rome, an Alexa Assisted Board Game

When in Rome is a travel trivia game where real life people ask the questions, and is the first launch in Sensible Object’s Voice Originals series of social board games, set to revolutionise the way people play by being the first to work with Amazon’s voice recognition technology.

I recently purchased an Amazon Echo Dot and when I heard about a board game you can play with it I was intrigued. I had pretty much been using Alexa to set my thermostat and tell me what the weather was, while the girls had been using it to annoy the cat with cat sounds! We needed to get Alexa to do a bit more!

What do you get in the box?

The Board Game  – I loved the fact that it was in two parts and folded up. That way limited packaging was used. Everything fitted in nicely.

2 Aeroplanes – 1 red and 1 blue, to use to move around the board and place on the city you fly to.

Friend counters – in blue and red to be placed on a city where you get the question right. They hep you fly through them if you are trying to get to another city (otherwise you can only fly to city that has a connecting route). If you have made a friend in that city then the other team can’t score any points if they land there)

Upgrade cards – these help you gain an advantage such as asking for another question if you don’t like the question. You are given the option to win points or take a card when you get questions right.

5 Souvenirs – These are placed on the board when Alexa tells you where they are and you have to get there to try to win it.

How to Play

Once you purchase When in Rome, which is available to buy exclusively for Amazon Customers, priced at £24.99, you simply have to connect to the When in Rome skill for Amazon Alexa and you are ready to play!

Alexa does all the hard work, telling you how to play and the rules, and even keeping track of the scores so you don’t have to worry about anyone cheating.

You have to divide into two teams and it is recommended to have 2-4 players per team. The aim of the game is to get the most points and to score points you have to answer questions correctly. Collecting souvenirs will give you extra points. The game ends after 9 rounds or when 3 souvenirs have been collected.

What Did We Think?

The game is recommended for ages 13+ but my eldest who is 12, enjoyed playing it and even beat me. As my score was pretty bad, Alexa advised my team to brush up on our world knowledge!

Although recommended to have teams, myself and the eldest played against each other with Bee helping now and then by telling Alexa which city we wanted to fly to next. It was still pretty fun to play against each other but I think it would definitely be more fun if you were in teams. That way you could discuss the questions and answers.

There are 20 cities to visit and what I thought was impressive was that rather than Alexa ask the questions you have locals asking the questions. Categories include slang and language, food and drink, and random and strange. 

I think the game is suitable more for the older ones, or children who have an interest in travel and love to learn new facts. When in Rome is certainly unique…the fact that Alexa plays host is pretty entertaining. There were a few times where it appeared Alexa had froze. However after asking for the Skill to be opened you start where you left off, as Alexa saves the progress of the game as you go along.

Definitely a game you should have if you own an Alexa powered smart speaker and love travel trivia. You can find the board game on Amazon: When in Rome.

Disclosure: We received When In Rome for the purposes of review. All thoughts and opinions are our own. This post contains affiliate links.