You remember the all-time great and game-changing classic 007 GoldenEye on the N64, right? Do you ever wonder what the devs did next? Perfect Dark, TimeSplitters we know. Truly amazing FPS titles that are still very playable today. Steve Ellis and David Doak are names that are carved into gaming history… and now they’ve made Scrabble, but Beyond Words.

“From the creators of GoldenEye & TimeSplitters comes Beyond Words the genre-defining fusion of roguelike strategy and word-crafting. Build powerful combos, unlock upgrades, and master a challenge where victory is spelled one letter at a time.”

As mentioned in the intro, Beyond Words is essentially Scrabble but with Nigel Tufnel leaning over your shoulder and cranking the dial to eleven. You already know the basics: tiles, points, bonus squares, and the highest score wins. It’s the sort of game everyone has played at least once, even if only at Christmas with a relative who insists “QI” is absolutely a word. Beyond Words takes that familiar foundation and bolts on an entire funfair’s worth of bells, whistles, and outright chaos.

Each round gives you a target score and a limited number of moves to reach it, but the real twist is the sheer variety of boards. They’re not just different layouts, they’re themed challenges. One moment you’re racing against the clock on a train-themed board, trying to keep your linguistic locomotive on schedule; the next, you’re on a nostalgia‑drenched homage to GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and TimeSplitters. Every board is littered with bonus tiles that make Scrabble’s double‑word scores look quaint. And then there are the boss rounds, which gleefully throw curveballs at you: stolen tiles, score handicaps, penalties for reusing letters, strict word‑length limits. It’s Scrabble reimagined as a series of escalating trials.

Between rounds, the roguelike layer kicks in. Completing a board earns you coins, which you can spend on Power Cards, Booster Cards, and Perks. These are randomised, so you never quite know what you’re building your run around until the cards turn up. Power Cards offer persistent bonuses, multipliers for certain letters, boosts for specific word lengths, score modifiers and more. Booster Cards are single‑use bursts of help. With over 300 cards in the pool, the combinations are wild, and no two runs ever feel the same.

Of course, randomness cuts both ways. Sometimes you’re dealt a hand of letters that feels like the alphabet has personally wronged you, paired with Power Cards that might as well be written in invisible ink. Other times, everything aligns: perfect tiles, perfect perks, and a board layout that practically begs you to rack up absurd scores. Skill and vocabulary matter, but luck is a co‑pilot you can’t ignore.

That said, strategy absolutely exists, and it’s satisfying. Planning ahead is crucial: nudging your early words toward high‑value bonus tiles, anticipating where later rounds will force you to stretch, and arranging your Power Cards so their effects cascade properly. I found the most effective layout was point‑boosters on the left, multipliers in the middle, and the big score‑doublers on the right. When it all clicks, it feels less like Scrabble and more like orchestrating a linguistic engine.

I first realised just how absorbing Beyond Words was when my girlfriend came downstairs, and asked “What time were you thinking of coming to bed?” in that specific way that women tend to do, but I’d only been playing for a couple of hours. Then I looked at the clock. 3:30 a.m. I started at 9 the previous night and it was then a handful of hours away from the break of dawn. I’d somehow slipped into a Red Dwarf‑style time slip, half‑expecting Cat to stroll in and ask, “So, what is it?” every time I explained what Beyond Words was. That’s the game’s real magic trick: it steals time with alarming efficiency. One minute you’re spelling “TRAIN”, the next the sun’s threatening to rise.

I would like to bring up a slight issue with the controls. I played this on Xbox, and for the most part, the controls were fine. As you can most probably imagine, moving lettered tiles around on a board is not particularly demanding on the fingers. But, there are a couple of things you can do, like shuffle the letters you have or put them in alphabetical order. This sometimes helps you see possible words that you may otherwise miss. However, you have to manually move the cursor to the icon and press a button to use it. There are plenty of unsed buttons on the Xbox pad that you could just tap a button to use the shuffle thing.

Out now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, Beyond Words is deceptively simple to grasp and dangerously easy to lose hours to. It’s not just about making long words (though a few 8+ lettered words can’t hurt), and you don’t need to be the world’s greatest wordsmith. It’s about using the board intelligently, managing your cards, and thinking several moves ahead. You can get some impressive scores with simple three and four-letter words, as long as you’re clever with the board and bonuses. It’s Scrabble with swagger, strategy, and a streak of pure, joyous addiction.