Best Interactive Board Games
If you’re looking for a board game with lots of player interaction, you’ll love our list of 10 of the best interactive board games out there!
Board games bring people together. Whether you’re surviving a pandemic with your besties or completing a Mars mission with family, board games are a fun way to escape our phones and laptops and reconnect with loved ones.
On our list, you’ll find both cooperative games and a few competitive. Take a look at these games that’ll have you interacting with players from the get-go!
🏆 Our Top Picks for Best Interactive Board Games
In a hurry? Take a quick peek before you go.
Xia: Legends of a Drift System
Players: 3- 5
Playing time: 60- 180 mins
Xia: Legends of a Drift System has players explore, trade, mine, and fight to become a Legend!
In this miniatures adventure game, each player starts as a humble yet hopeful captain of a small starship. Players fly through the system, completing missions along the way. You’ll be exploring new sectors as you navigate your way through dangerous environments and attack ships.
Captains choose to mine, salvage, or trade valuable cargo with each other for titles, riches, and most importantly fame. The game has a lot of risk-taking and players need to adapt and get creative. Eventually, one captain will rise above the rest and claim victory!
Spirit Island
Players: 1- 4
Playing time: 90- 120 mins
On the island, powerful spirits have inhabited it for time immemorial. Native Islanders know of them and have learned how to co-exist, with caution and respect. Invaders from a far-off land have ‘discovered’ the island and are upsetting its delicate ecosystem.
Players take on the roles of the Spirits and must grow in power and work together to drive the invaders away before it’s too late. Spirit Island is a complex and thematic cooperative game where each Spirit has its own unique powers.
With each turn, players simultaneously choose which of their power cards to play, making the game highly interactive throughout. Players also need to cooperate to stop the colonists from spreading and ravaging the lands.
Can you frighten off the invaders before it’s too late?
Dead of Winter
Players: 2- 5
Playing time: 60- 120 mins
Dead of Winter is an epic struggle for power and survival.
Dead of Winter is a story-centric game about surviving through a harsh winter in an apocalyptic world. The survivors are dealing with psychological issues but must work together to fight off threats, resolve crises, find food and supplies, and keep the colony’s morale up.
In the game, players find themselves facing tough decisions between doing what’s best for the colony and doing what’s best for themselves. There are dozens of unique characters to play that are engaging and make wildly-varying decisions so no two games feel the same.
Each character has a secret objective which could be something harmless like a psychological tic, or it could be very dangerous, such as a vicious vengeance against the colony.
The game can end with all players winning, some winning and some losing or all players losing, so you have to keep an eye on your fellow colony members because you never know who is looking to sabotage.
Sheriff of Nottingham (Second Edition)
Players: 3- 6
Playing time: 60 mins
The prince is coming to Nottingham! Merchants are taking the opportunity to sell highly sought-after products into the city but Nottingham is under the watchful eyes of the Sheriff. Will you play it safe, or will you risk smuggling contraband for a big payday?
Sheriff of Nottingham is a fun bluffing and negotiating card game where players take on the roles of merchants and have the opportunity to step into the Sheriff’s shoes every few turns.
In the game, players take turns playing the Sheriff. As the Sheriff, you’re looking for contraband goods and the merchants trying to stock their stores with illegal items. You can inspect any bag you’d like, but if you find a bag with no contraband and the merchant was telling the truth, you’ll be in big trouble.
In the second edition, there are some new rules as well as expansions like 6th Merchant, Black Market, and Sheriff’s Deputies which give the game more depth and, ultimately, more fun.
Cosmic Encounter
Players: 3- 5
Playing time: 60- 120 mins
In the depths of space, alien races battle each other for control of the universe. Alliances form and shift at a moment’s notice as starships fight for power.
Cosmic Encounter has players choose from dozens of alien races, each with unique powers that’ll help them build an empire. In the classic game of alien politics and sci-fi adventure, players explore, negotiate, forge alliances, and outwit enemies as they try to spread their colonies across the galaxy.
The game is highly strategic as the only way to expand your cosmic colony is through diplomacy or war. If you are the first to control five colonies on any planets outside your home system, you win! 3
Alien Frontiers (5th Edition)
Players: 2- 4
Playing time: 90 mins
Do you have what it takes to be a space colonist?
Alien Frontiers is a competitive board game where players roll and place their dice to gain advantages over their opponents. Players try to block their opponents out of useful areas, steal resources, take over territories, and do whatever it takes to get their colonies on the map first.
The game has strong resource management, dice placement, and area control, making it very strategic and quite intricate. The game board is also highly detailed, only adding to the interactive gameplay.
King of Tokyo
Players: 2- 6
Playing time: 30 mins
King of Tokyo has players take on the roles of mutant monsters, rampaging robots, and abominable aliens, battling in fun and chaos.
In the game, players roll the dice and choose what strategy they’ll play next. Will you attack your enemies, heal your wounds, or improve your monster’s powers?
It’s a fight to the death over the territory of Tokyo and only the fiercest player will win. Either one must destroy Tokyo and gain 20 victory points or be the only surviving monster in the end.
Specter Ops
Players: 2- 5
Playing time: 60- 120 mins
An agent has infiltrated the Raxxon facility. The agent must complete three mission objectives before they can try to escape. Seems easy enough, right? Well, not when you add a hoard of genetically modified Raxxon hunters with a mission to destroy agents.
Specter Ops is a hidden movement game, sort of a sci-fi cat-and-mouse game. Some players work to locate and capture the secret agent while others try to hunt down the infiltrator.
The game is highly interactive and you’ll need to have your wits about you to keep track of where players are or have been.
Pandemic
Players: 2- 4
Playing time: 45 mins
Players come together as members of a disease-fighting team to keep four deadly diseases at bay while discovering their cures. Players work together to travel across the globe, treating infections and finding resources for cures. You’ll either win together and save humanity or lose and humanity is lost forever.
Pandemic is a strategy game where players assume different skilled characters, working to play to their strengths and build a plan to eradicate diseases before they overwhelm the world. Only through interacting and cooperating with each other will your plan work.
Can you save humanity?
You may also enjoy:
- 5 Games Like Pandemic
- Best Pandemic Expansions
- Pandemic: On the Brink Review
- Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 Review
Mission: Red Planet (Second Edition)
Players: 2- 6
Playing time: 45- 90 mins
Mission: Red Planet is a steampunk game of planetary exploration.
It’s 1888, and priceless minerals have been discovered beneath the surface of Mars. It’s called Celerium, and it could power humanity well into the future. There are also Sylvanite Crystals that are extremely valuable as they are denser than anything on Earth. But most importantly, ice has been found, meaning it could give Mars a livable atmosphere. A brutal competition to colonize Mars ensues.
Each player assumes the role of a Mars-bound mining corporation sending astronauts to explore various areas of Mars and mine the planet for valuable resources. Players must utilize the talents of nine characters who can help lead your exploration and sabotage your competition.
The second edition has all-new graphic designs that take you into the Victorian steampunk theme.
Wrap-Up
We hope you’ve enjoyed our list of the best interactive board games on the market! Have you tried any of the games on this list? Did we miss any of your favorites? Drop us a comment below and let us know your favorite interactive board game!
