By: Will Traband
Sorry! is one of the most iconic board games ever made and it is easy to see why. It is simple enough for a child to play, but deep enough to be fun. I think this game excels primarily due to its ability to make the random nature of a shuffled deck of cards fun for the players.
Fundamentally, the game is controlled almost exclusively by chance. You draw a card, and you move the amount of spaces on it. Almost every interaction is like this. Where it gets interesting, however, is where you have multiple options. You still get a random card, but you can choose which piece to move. Or, you can choose which piece to steal in the event of drawing the titular Sorry! card. The strategy comes out only sometimes, and that I think is the crux of what makes Sorry! fun.
It is random whether or not you get to strategize. This game almost works like gambling in the brain, where a good draw feels really good. The fundamental gameplay loop is drawing a card and deciding where to play that card. You can play it on any of your active pieces, and this is the entirety of the game that is player-controlled. Often, you have one play that you can make. Even winning is a matter of luck since most people play it so you have to make it to the home space with a perfect movement.
But, it doesn’t feel like luck. Due to the slight strategy it feels like its all the player. I think this is the crux of this game. You aren’t just gambling for good cards every time you draw, you’re gambling for the opportunity to be strategic. When my friends and I played, it was always intense when a player had to make a choice. What few chances you get to choose in that game feel like critical moments. The game may be almost entirely random in terms of cards, but it feels like you are skilled!
Sorry! manages to perfectly straddle the line of purely random and purely strategic gameplay. It is random what card you choose, and yet it feels like you make good or bad moves each turn. It seems to me that the tiny amount of choice Sorry! affords the player manages to make all the difference over something like Chutes and Ladders. When it comes to Sorry!, you feel a lot more in control than you are.
