GI Joe Deck Building Game: Silent Interlude Expansion Review

boardgamequest.com:

Since its release in 2021, the GI Joe Deck Building Game has been a staple in my gaming collection, coming off the shelf quite often, especially when a new expansion is released. It has survived quite a few cullings that other deck-building games weren’t able to withstand (sorry Clank!). As a child of the 80s, GI Joe has always been my jam, and I’m glad that the deck-building game does it justice.

Today we are going to take a look at the Silent Interlude Expansion. Based on the famed comic without a single word spoken, Silent Interlude introduces two distinct modes of gameplay: a solo mission for Snake Eyes and a traitor mode.

Silent Interlude almost feels like two expansions in one box because the two missions are so wildly different. The first mission (technically Mission 8, but who’s counting) is based around Snake Eyes’s mission to infiltrate the Silent Castle to rescue the captured Scarlett. Yet if you’ll recall from the comic, Scarlett can quite easily take care of herself, so the mission ends with both of them escaping.

For the gameplay aspect, what’s new here is that you are only controlling Snake Eyes or Scarlett. Any Joes you recruit from the main deck are placed on the reserved tile (instead of in your discard pile). Snake Eyes (and Scarlett to a lesser extent) can use those cards to boost their own abilities. For example, Snake Eyes lets you remove 4 “costs” worth of Joes you’ve recruited to give him a +1 wild skill on a mission.

What’s also different is that this scenario is only 6 missions (2 per act) instead of the usual 9. So you’ll be playing a bit of a shorter game. There is also a Silent/Noisy token which tracks your stealth, making the game a little harder once you are discovered.

For Mission 9 though, things do a U-turn. Mission 9, dubbed The Traitor Within, finds a group of Joes held captive by Cobra. After the escape, it turns out Dr. Mindbender has messed with their heads. As you might expect, each player has secret loyalty cards that