Codenames Duet keeps the grid. Twenty-five words, two different key cards, no opposing team: nine are your agents, nine are theirs, three belong to both, and you have nine clues between you before it turns into sudden death.
Decrypto keeps the clue-giving and makes your own history the leak. Your four keywords never change, and every clue you have given is filed publicly under the number it turned out to mean — so the other team wins by reading you rather than by racing you.
The other three move the pressure. Just One throws away any two clues that match before the guesser sees them, So Clover! makes you build the puzzle before anyone solves it, and Chameleon inverts the whole thing: one word each, and one player who cannot see which word is secret.
Five that keep a different piece of it
Questions about Games like Codenames
Do you have the two-team version?
No. We have our own version of the two-player game, Codenames Duet; for two sides giving one-word clues, Decrypto is the closest thing here. Table Party is not affiliated with or licensed by any publisher.
Which of these works with only two people?
Codenames Duet is built for exactly two. So Clover! deals you a clover each at two, and because every clue is written for one particular person it becomes a test of how well you know each other.
Which is the hardest?
Decrypto. It runs fifteen to twenty-five minutes and you can lose it without the other team guessing anything, because two miscommunications from your own side ends it as fast as two interceptions.
Which suits a big group?
Decrypto and Chameleon both seat twelve, splitting into two sides of six or going once round the table for one word each. Just One caps at seven and So Clover! at six.