Ruthless Review

Ruthless, from Alley Cat Games is very much like a firework.  Not the type of firework that goes off randomly at 11:36pm on a Thursday night in March, waking the dog up, and thus you.  No, Ruthless is like a firework in that despite the fact you’ve played many other deck builders, this one will make you go “Ooohhh”, like you do when watching fireworks, despite having seen many fireworks go off before.

I mean yes, it is very, very, very pretty to look at and let’s face it, the incredible box art is one of the reasons you picked it from the shelf, it’s the reason you had a look for a review to help validate your choice in-game purchase.  Rest assured the Ooohhing only starts with the artwork.

Simply put, you’ll win if you have the most notoriety after a number of rounds.  You’ll claim these Notoriety Points after each round if you have the strongest crew, the strongest crew being the best poker-style hand of cards.

You’ll play doubloons from your hand to trade them in for coins, use the coins to hire pirates from the Tavern to add to your play area and then your deck (or if you want to be thematic to your Deck and your deck).   You can use your Powder Monkeys (part of your starting hand) to bury those cards you don’t want anymore or use them to explore for Treasure, or even just send them to have a punch-up in the Tavern and get rid of the card you know your opponent wants.  So far, so deck builder.

Once all players have used their hand of cards, the pirates are mustered.  The new ones that have now been fully initiated into your crew, and those that you played throughout your turn, are now all arranged to be the meanest bunch of salty sea dogs to ever take to the waves…and by this, I mean arranged neatly into pairs, or straights or flushes, because pirates always look scarier when they are colour coordinated with the one another #TrueStory

From the outset, it all seems so simple, so straightforward, but each pirate card is not only going to be part of a rank system, nor part of a suit, but the pirates, when played or recruited will spring into action.  These actions make the main body of the game, adding both an internal conflict and to the player interaction: you’ll be able to attack your opponent, forcing them to lose cards; you’ll be able to retrieve cards lost to your discard; pick up extra coins or treasure; basically, loads of stuff.  It is this combination of rank, suit, and ability that makes Ruthless so enjoyable.

With every card played you’ll have to think about the long and short-term tactics, and in a slightly uncharacteristic fashion, these pirates are ushering you to think that way each time they are played. Their worth is only realised in the company they keep, their individual ability, although very “powerful” can only become a strategy if you have others of the same suit or rank, as ultimately it is the scoring that matters.

The final scoring naturally matters most, but noteworthy here that it isn’t necessarily the round winners that win the game. You know that saying about losing a battle to win the war?  Each game can be littered with winners.  In the end, you can lose, but not feel robbed, remembering that round where you scored 25 points with that mega flush.  With this comes a sense of achievement, of knowing that for at least one round your deck worked!  Just not often enough.

With any deck builder, there is the opportunity for optimisation, for finding the combinations of cards that just work well together, so if that is your cup of tea then Ruthless certainly won’t disappoint. But as cards of the same rank don’t all have the same ability, you’ll realise quickly that your plans need to be able to pivot, twist and parry like any good swashbuckler.  There is no card that is universally better than another, sure the higher ranking cards often offer some more powerful actions, and the Captain and Quartermaster also come with their own Notoriety Points, but—just as with poker—ace high is a rubbish hand.

I rarely find myself hunting and hoping for that one elusive card, Ruthless gives you options hand over hook, which cards to play and in which order, how to best use the pirate cards in your hand and how quickly can you buy that one you need.  Each round is made up of these tiny little choices, tiny little costs and that’s how this game will get under your skin.  From the outset, the plan is simple, but each step along that path is paved with seemingly innocuous choices.  Even the flipping treasure cards have a choice!  This all contributes to an overarching structure of action for the game, which despite all these little decisions you’ll be making, the pace never slows, the drama of the game builds turn by turn.

There’s a pseudo-narrative here, with the first two rounds being all set-up as players need to recruit quickly and heavily, and as you move into the middle of the game, the action and interaction heats up.  Now your recruiting, treasure hunting and blocking is more focused, more deliberate.  This all builds (hopefully) for the final act, as all those loose strands are pulled together, tightly bound in fortune and planning to create a concrete tactic and well-balanced deck, but it’s one that has grown naturally with you in the game.

Ruthless manages to feel familiar and new all at once, deftly dodging that games-ja-vu feeling and instead hits that sweet spot of familiarity without drowning in its theme or core mechanic.  It has an exciting and engaging arc as you turn a bunch of Powder Monkeys and a few doubloons into a dynamic and rollicking band of pirates with enough variety to grant a multitude of options for any play style.  The familiarity makes the game very easy to teach, the artwork makes it look great on the table and the mix of mechanics will convince you that next game your deck will be that little bit better.

Ruthless is available to pre-order now through the publisher’s website (or designer’s for non-English versions of the game as well as some extra bling for your copy of it) and will be available at Essen in October.

This review is based on a prototype copy of the game provided by the publisher, as such the final contents may vary – in fact they certainly will.

This review was first seen on Polyhedron Collider

 

Cave-In Review

Boardgames are not like chocolates. They have very few things in common, however. However, much like that familiar Gumpism; with some boardgames, you never know what you’re going to get. Thus, a new boardgame term is coined: The Chocolate Box Game. Star Scrappers: Cave-In from Hexy Studios is my first Chocolate Box Game.

The box art features a surly looking sci-fi bloke reaching for a sci-fi glowing thing, while typical sci-fi looking robots are in the background doing sci-fi stuff. Flip the box over and you’ll see it’s a modular board and with cards, and the description will tell you that you’ll be mining crystals (the board) using mercenaries (the cards) and also that you’ll have to be mindful about being attacked/raided by other players. The premise of the game is very simple, in fact, the game itself is pretty straightforward. Your goal is to collect as many crystals and in as great an array as possible. You’ll do this by playing cards that colour match those crystals and where their combined total power equals or exceeds the value of the token you’re after.

This is much like the back of a chocolate box telling you that the ingredients are cocoa, milk and sugar.

As a Chocolate Box Game (look, I’m making it a thing ok, #ChocolateBoxGame) what you get inside the box is far more than this. Cave-In, on my first play, caused lots of the those “Oh that’s interesting” moments. There is a deck drafting element to this game, a set collection angle and a sort-of programming thing going on too. But, these are all just small parts of the bigger whole and it does each of these things just ever-so-slightly different to what is “normal” and to what I was expecting. For one thing, the crystals are really the reward, mining them is actually very easy, getting to the point where you can do that, well, that’s different.

“So how do we get new cards?” was the first question asked after player one had taken their turn.  Well, there are two ways. The “Nice and Slow” or “Fast and Nasty”. One of the actions a player can take is to recruit just one mercenary from the docks, paying the cost by a card in hand that is one rank lower. But as you can only do this action once, and for the biggest crystals you’ll need to equal 10, this is a very arduous way of drafting your “deck”. The faster, more erratic way is to Raid your opponents. This method wins you all but the top card of their discard pile. But, it’s the only thing you can do that turn, and because you didn’t draft/choose the cards yourself, it means you are essentially playing out of someone else’s pocket.

The rulebook calls it a ‘Raid’, invariably, we were calling it ‘Attack’, but actually it’s more like ‘Head Hunting’. Why bother regaling you with this distinction, well, because there is an interesting (and slightly masochistic) twist in that you can ‘Raid’ yourself, re-circling those spent cards back into your hand, which sounds great if you’ve got loads of good cards, but, timing, or rather; the sequence, is everything. Cards played don’t go into your discard pile straight away. They go from hand to table, and then once everyone has taken their turn, they are then added to the discard pile. This is important because in the turn you play all your good cards, you are basically advertising your wares to your opponents: those cards will be in your discard pile next turn and be ripe for the picking. Turn order comes into play here, but so does the hand limit.

I’ve called it a deck drafting, but really it’s just a hand of seven cards, with up to another seven in your discard pile. Hardly a deck, by any stretch of the definition because of this re-circling aspect to the cards; Cave-In creates this “collective deck” between all players, which will be completely unique each game, even if the same factions are used, as it will depend upon how players recruit and interact with one another. The cascading cards means that the concept of ownership is smudged and muddied too. You can recruit the merc you know an opponent wants, but unless you plan on keeping it in your hand, they’ll be able to pinch it in a turn or two. This creates a sense of movement, of fleeting fluidity, that you’ll have to work with what you’ve got now because it could all change very quickly.

There is also something rather brilliant going on with the discard pile, the phase of a turn is to put all played cards in your discard pile, once you hit 7 cards, those on the bottom of the pile are removed from the game – which is a nice way of thinning out those starting weaker cards without having to spend an action or time doing it. The last card on the deck is your Leader, this means that their special ability kicks in at the start of your next turn. Low-level cards will let grab the appropriate coloured crystal, but the higher-ups, they can play a pivot role in your tactics. It feels like the natural order of board games has been subverted, “But, but, I’ve used it. I’ve discarded it. What do you mean I use it…again?” I know, I know, calm down, it’s okay. This double whammy of programming style card-play was a standout feature of the game for me, it really caused every player to stop and really think, not just about their short-term goal of this term, but their next, and the one after that. Weighing up the potential reactions of their opponents. The ability to plan ahead in any strategy game is vital to success but rarely does a game guide you on the process like this does.

You’ve mined, recruited and even picked up a useful artefact or two but now the mine rumbles its imminent collapse. In short, the endgame is brought about by the mine collapsing – hence the name of the game. You’ll advance along the Cave-In track each time any resource deck or pile is depleted, with some crystals adding to it too. This rather nicely pulls the game together, creating a funnel of action as, to begin with there seems no threat, but soon, that treat of collapse is all too real.

You’ll gain victory points in various ways; mostly through mining crystals but it feels a little more fiddly than it may need to be, especially given the flow of the game, the allocation of points seems jarring; each time I’ve played we’ve resorted to grabbing a piece of paper and pen to tally everything up. One of the best ways to score points though is by collecting crystals with symbols markings, collecting a full set of six will seriously bolster your score, if you are fortunate enough to get a few partial sets too and you are laughing. However, the scoring of these sets seems so big that it forces play in that direction and only that direction, to the point where it doesn’t seem to matter what else you have collected en-route to this finale, as long as you have a set or two, this also devalues the “normal” crystals somewhat too, making them feel more like an inconvenience that they are there instead of their higher point scoring kin.

This #ChocolateBoxGame surprised me when it first hit the table, the novel approach to the discard deck and the lingering power held within it, the cascading and collaborative pool of cards used really caught my attention and these aspects of the game that will still be there next time it comes down from the shelf. I love the way this game encourages you to think and plan, how you can play this game either defensively, aggressively or very fluidly and still get a lot out of each experience.

This review was based on a retail edition of the game provided by the publisher.

The Gig - First Thoughts

“First comes the bass.

Then the drums.

Then we bring in the keys, oh yeah.

Followed by the sax.

Then, and only then do we lay down the lyrics; it’s poetry really.

Now that, that’s Real Cool Jazz”

MAD E. Upman - The Spirit and Soul of Real Cool Jazz

The Gig is a light and fast dice placement game that caught my eye, attention and imagination at the UK Games Expo 2018 and it was quite simply a joy to play.

[caption id="attachment_2852" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Songbook is the very on theme main 'board'[/caption]

In this game, each player takes on a role of a member of a jazz band, whose goal is simple, put on a damn fine gig, yet be the crowd favourite at the end of the performance. Players will draft dice from two separate pools to place on either a central area, the song board, or a private solo board. Depending on the song and instrument, the rules governing the placement of these dice differ slightly, but in any event, you are going to want as many of your coloured dice or your key number on the main song as possible, whilst also having completed the most, if not all of your possible solos.

You’ll score points for every die placed on the main song, how many points will depend on how much the crowd are loving or hating the overall performance. The main way to shift this score is by completing sections of your solo which all players will be doing. This allows an audience roll, which can then shift those dice placement points up or down. Getting the timing of this can be key to bagging a seriously good run on points, and in a game about music, timing is understandably important.

[caption id="attachment_2853" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Each song will have its own rules on how dice can be placed, this little bit of variability is going to keep me coming back for more certainly.[/caption]

This idea of timing and rhythm blends into the turn sequence selection, where players select one of their five cards to denote the order of play. Being the leader for a round means you get first dibs on the dice and first placement of those dice, which can bag you those ‘special’ scoring areas on the song board. This puts you squarely in control of the song, just with fewer choices... well, in theory.

Not only do you want to manage your dice selections, but you also need to consider your place in the band, in terms of turn order. Being aware of what other players/band members are doing and anticipating these shifts in audience appreciation is a skill, but once mastered will surely elevate the game. However, should any players clash, by selecting the same turn order card, well that means you've just ballsed up royally and the crowd appreciation drops down.

[caption id="attachment_2854" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Solo board is where you are going to rack up most of your points and provides an interesting puzzle/sub game as part of the larger whole[/caption]

One of the aspects I like about the Gig, and one that certainly stood out is that it deftly steps around a common 'issue' in dice placement games, in that often they hold some agonising, and game-slowing decisions. With the Gig players will always have a choice, not only on which board to play on, but with the dice themselves. You can place two dice from your allowed pools, or flip a dice to the opposite face, or keep the face but change the colour, or even, in a last-ditch attempt return three and roll three new ones. These choices, although can feel sometimes sub-optimal (but actually aren't) keep this game moving and flowing at a decent pace.

In short, The Gig combines some great, light mechanics; the central play area is an area control game, the solo area is a roll and write sudoku-style-thing and this is all managed through dice placement. It hits a lot of strong chords with me, and on top of all of this, it was quite simply really good fun.

The Gig is still in development but at present, Braincrack Games are planning to bring it to Kickstarter in the winter of 2018. To keep up to date with announcements on this and their other games their Facebook or Twitter are probably the best places to do just that -or sign up for The Braincrack Games Newsletter

Nice

This review is based on a demo of the game played during the UK Games Expo 2018 ran by the publisher/designer.

This review was first seen on Polyhedron Collider and features some extra images courtesy of Iain McAllister of the Giant Brain, and a completely made-up stand in header image that I created whilst looking after a sleeping toddler.  But thanks for reading it again :)

Sunset Over Water Review

Those of us who lack the always enviable skill of artistry, especially that skill of painting can rejoice, finally, that there is now an alternative to colour-by-numbers and those adult colouring books (which failed my expectation on the adult front) with Sunset Over Water, a lightweight, quick game of painting landscape masterpieces and selling them off.

Warning: This review was written with a thesaurus close at hand, primarily used for synonyms of charming and delightful, because, well, Sunset Over Water is both charming and delightful. Indeed, you will be enchanted by the simplicity of the rules, and you’ll find the artwork presented on the landscape cards to be quite enchanting, but there is more to this game than meets the eye, in fact, you’ll have a very jolly, if not somewhat twee and bohemian time playing this little gem.



For this game, you need not a beret, paintbrush, easel or pallet, just your eight little action cards and your colour matched lazy-arsed, yet fetching artist meeple, posed sitting down, staring off into space not really doing anything.

Twenty-five landscape cards are arranged in a five by five grid, a number of art studios (one more than there are players) advertise for specific commissions, and then there are the typically artistic daily goals to be attempted. Now, before you start playing the game take a moment to stop and smell the roses-look at this tremendous and beautiful artwork, then consider the very accessible, easily understandable and yet utterly understated graphics present on the top left of each card. Sunset Over Water is a simple, beautiful and graceful set collection game, that wants you to take your time with it, to enjoy each turn and minute spent playing.



Each turn you’ll draw three of your action cards, select one and once all players are ready you’ll reveal that chosen card. A neat aspect here is that the two you rejected are placed at the bottom of the deck, in the order of your choosing, meaning they will reoccur in a later turn, or as they are amusingly referred to in this game, days, making the game six days long. These action cards dictate the time of the day you’ll awaken (turn order), which direction you’ll hike with a canvas under the arm, and how productive you’ll be by the number of landscapes you'll paint. These cards all have typically varying limitations such as an early start but not much movement and only one painting, against sleeping until noon and still managing to paint three lovely landscapes.

The simplicity of these choices and the scope for error are engagingly juxtaposed, you’re all working towards the same commissions, you can all see the same possibilities, your previous positioning in the play space, the cards you declined for later use all come together in a fascinating mixing pot. And those days fly by, the actions, once chosen are rapid with commissions flying out at a sometimes-alarming rate-particularly for the artist that had a lie-in.



Sunset Over Water does apply a soothing balm for the last player though, that although may not feel like much at the time (each Daily goal is worth but a lowly 2 prestige points) these soon stack up. Awarded for the player to last perform an action, such as move horizontally, or to end in a corner: always the last player tough. This catch-up mechanic does feel very, well, mechanical and so stands out a little from the otherwise delightful and unobtrusive rule set but is a necessary system within the game.

The captivating artwork that I have gushed about all through this review, is, however, not beyond critique; the one simple flaw being its duplication. On the one hand, I can appreciate that sixty unique cards would have had an impact on the price, but there is a small pang of disappointment often accompanied by an audible “Oh” when the same landscape artwork occurs on adjacent cards. It’s like going to the sandwich fridge at the shop, seeing it fully stocked but then realising it has only Tuna Cucumber and Egg Mayo available - yes, they’re sandwiches, and yes, they’ll do the job, but one cannot help but be a little dissatisfied, and left wanting just a little bit more; like a coronation chicken, or maybe something with pickle.



Sunset Over Water also sports a solo mode, which I was pleased to see in a game that is about a very solitary pursuit, and happier still to find it an equally absorbing puzzle - this mode introduces a vexing variability to the available commissions by way of the alarm clock system used in the multiplayer, and Ranger Stations which cannot be painted but are one of the few ways to replace the vacant slots from previously painted landscapes.

This pleasingly minimalistic set-up from simple, yet considered insert makes Sunset Over Water very quick and easy to set up, and more importantly, to refresh - which given the brevity of this game is, I think, is a huge part of its appeal. This game is very light, offering fun and interesting choices in small doses. I cannot help but feel the similarity between this and Splendor, not that this is a contender to that game’s shelf space, but it feels like a relative to that modern classic. There is little in common mechanically, really but there is that sense of familiarity between them.



A game about painting pictures, should, and in this case, does, have artwork at its very fore - making the game hugely accessible and I really wouldn’t be surprised to see this box soon gracing the shelves of a Waterstones or Borders near you. It certainly wouldn’t be out of place in the gift shop of an art museum either, albeit a more forward-thinking one. It is light, quick fun, with enough allure to make it a welcome visitor to my gaming table again and again. With a theme and art that really is alluring, this game can be introduced and enjoyed by new or veteran gamers, young or old.

This review first appeared on Polyhedron Collider.

This review was based on a full priced retail edition paid for out of my own money from my own pocket.

The Awakening Review

It will intrigue you, it will puzzle you, it will move you. There’s a good chance of goosebumps, of fist pumps, of “Oh, course!”s and “I should have known”’s. The Awakening is far from your usual ‘Escape Room’ style games, for one thing, you are trapped not in a room or a building, your path to escape is not barred by doors or locks, no instead you are trapped inside the mind of a comatose girl. Your daughter in fact. The Awakening differs from other games of this genre as it’s not simply about solving first one puzzle and then another to fanfare when the door final swings open. It’s about telling a story. Of being part of that story. The plight of Sam and his daughter, Lizzy, isn’t a bolted-on theme, rather it is the driving force in this game. You won’t be just escaping a manufactured, puzzling room, you’ll be rescuing your daughter.

Game: Escape Tales: The Awakening

Designer: Jakub Caban, Matt Dembek, Bartosz Idzikowski

Publisher: Board & Dice

Artist: Magdalena Klepacz

Player Count: 1 - 4

Runtime: 20 – 180 minutes



Players are collectively Sam, a widower whose only child and last link to his late wife now lies in a strange and unexplained coma. Everything the doctors and specialist have tried has been for nought so now, out of choices Sam, makes one for himself and delves into the arcane. It is here that the game, well, at least the tutorial begins. Not every game can teach the rules as you play as well as it is executed here, there’s lots of reading, or scene setting and flavour with rules interspersed but all done so unobtrusively and for an experienced gamer it all kind of just makes sense.



Trust me, just download the app to your mobile, set the different types of cards out on the table and put the tokens all in easy reach, take a sip of your drink and in a sombre voice start reading…

In short, you have several action tokens, these you’ll use to cover spots on the reference card after you’ve collectively decided which part of the room you are going to investigate. By 'investigate' I mean to turn to the corresponding page/section in the storybook and read the text there. The story text is concise without being austere, it’s emotive without being overly flowery and perhaps most importantly it is focused. Everything you do; be it solving puzzles and riddles on the app, placing these abstract blue tokens on the cards, you are reminded at each and every turn why you are doing this.



Throughout the game, you’ll be asked to fish for cards from the deck, these cards come and go, some will be items, some will be enlargements of things in the room so you can see/read more easily, some will be ‘things’ that you’ll meet, many of them form part of the puzzles you’ll have to solve. And, oh the glorious, boggling, brain burning puzzles you’ll have to solve. That’s why you’re reading this review, The Awakening is still “an escape room game” after all.



These puzzles come in all manner, shape and size, many, if not all, will have proper names (which clearly, I don’t know). Once you’ve collected a card bearing one of the puzzle icons you’ll unlock your phone and have a little look. The app will tell you which cards you need to attempt the puzzle, and once you have them you can begin. There are riddles, code breaking, (the dreaded) algebra, labyrinths, rotational space visual puzzles…and they are just the ones I can “name” from the demo copy. This is where the cooperative element comes in, where this game shines at involving all the players, of creating an engaging social interaction. More people around the table means more grey matter, more ways of thinking and ultimately more fun.



Naturally, with puzzles comes some frustration, there will be things you are good at and enjoy, and then there will be areas that you are less good at, things that are a struggle-not the good type of self-rewarding struggle. From the few I’ve solved I can see them slowly ramping up in difficulty and complexity and I have little doubt that further down the line, deeper in the story they will become more difficult still.

These puzzles create wonderful moments of inner and outer conflict, as for some you’ll end up fetching a piece of paper and a pen to start scribbling stuff down, you’ll attribute values and reasonings before finally punching in the answer! It’s no good. You’ll look at one another, someone will say “Did you forget to carry the one?” and awkwardly laugh. Finally, you’ll submit and ask the app for a hint. Yes, these are puzzles, and yes this is a game, but more than that The Awakening is a story first and last. It wants you to progress, it wants you to move forward to explore, engage and ultimately finish the story.



Some people won’t take a hint (but isn’t that true of life too), they’ll need to work it out themselves and that’s cool, but it may be tiresome for those around the table that just don’t have any interest in solving an algebraic puzzle (not that I have anything against algebra). So, I’d say it’s important to make sure everyone is on the same page before the game starts.

Important to note about this game/story is that it will change with replaying it. It has a choose-your-own-adventure storybook with it, and you’ll get little choices along the way, there will be big choices too all of which come together to shape your experience. Depending on what you explore and in which order, it will change your story, I have no idea how all these mini-narrative strings come together in the end but I want to, no, I need to find out, there are nine rooms in total, and in each game, you’ll only ever see seven of them, there will always be cards left in the deck that you don’t get to see. Like a good book or movie, I feel The Awakening will call me back to replay, to re-explore and re-experience it.



There were lots of mini-wins for us in this game, we won when I noticed this one detail that helped with the order of the numbers. We won again when we connected ‘this’ and ‘that’ to open another puzzle. I felt the win slowly rise as we got closer and closer to solving the labyrinth. We won too as the story progressed, leading our version of Sam down a specific path. The Awakening blurs the lines between game, puzzle, and story, giving me just enough of everything to keep me at the table.

 

Nimble Review

This review first appeared on Polyhedron Collider.

Nimble is a game that will present you with neither interesting nor agonising choices. It will not test your resolve, or your ability to read a bluff in a friend's face. It will—as the name may hint at—test your reactions, your nimbleness if you will.

Game: Nimble

Designer: Peter Jurgensen

Publisher: Pegasus Speil

Artist: Christian Schupp

Player Count: 2 - 4

Runtime: 1 – 5 minutes

The rules and gameplay are very simple; all you have to do is draw a card from the top of your player deck, briefly place it on your discard pile and then place it on one of the central piles, where you will match the frame of your card to the circle of one of the central cards.

The first person to burn through their deck wins, if they haven’t made any mistakes that is.

That’s it. That’s the entire game mechanics.

You may think it sounds a lot like snap, and you’re halfway right, it does have that feel of snap but the good part of snap, all the excitement without the boring waiting. In Nimble, the game progresses as fast as the players, once someone says “Go” you do just that. If you can’t find a match you put the card in your discard and draw again. Another player beats you to the central deck, forcing a change and you have to start your frantic search all over again.

The game is about quick decisions, quick reactions and even quicker recognition. I find myself holding my breath playing, focusing all my attention on the cards, forcing my eyes to only look at one part of the card in my hand and one part of the card on the central piles, it’s here that the game tricks you.

Frame to circle

Frame to circle.

It’s simple. Say it with me now,

“Frame to circle”

So why can’t you get it right, why that moment of hesitation, that moment of second-guessing. You know what a frame is, you know its cream. And you know what a circle is, just look for a cream circle on one of the piles in front of you. Why is that so hard? It’s not as if the circle is hidden somewhere, but it does feel like it, that one cream coloured circle in a sea of pastel colours – some of which will be cream.

Playing this there will be mutterings of “redredredredredredredredred” and “purplepurplepurplepurplepurple” like your extras in a TV show and you’ll do it just to keep focused. I say it feels like the exciting parts of snap because there is a simple pure delight in finding your match quickly. That thrill of getting three cards on the bounce down, down and down all to the dismay of your opponents that stop their colour-chanting-mantra to groan.

Although there is an almost self-elimination in this game, you can’t sit back with your laurel wreath waiting for everyone to cheer your victory. No, because even when you’ve burnt through your deck and are out, there is no guarantee you’ve won. When any one player runs out of cards (including the discard pile) this causes the game to immediately end. However, now each of the card stacks are checked for errors, should the supposed “winner” be found to have ballsed-up, they are disqualified and the player with the smallest remain stack of cards wins. There is beauty in this too; a tension as each card is drawn (in reverse order) and is slapped down on the table. Now that the pressure is off everyone joins in:

Blue
Cream
Red
Purple
Ohhhhh!

Stringing the cards together, the errors are easy to spot and the erroneous card is easily matched to its player by means of its colour coded back.

And that’s why there is the second-guessing, why there is that hesitation during the frantic gameplay; one wrong move now will cost the entire game. How long do you risk checking? Do you trust your eyes enough, are you saying the colour of the frame right now or the circle of the card in your hand. You’d better check again.

With a game that is so dependent on colour, there is the rather obvious consideration of accessibility in regards to forms of colour blindness but the publishers here have you covered in a charming way. Each of the six card colours is used to depict a different classic story, where purple is War of the Worlds, the cream is Pinocchio and turquoise is Don Quixote. The good people at Spielfritte have, in fact, done a colour blind test of the game and to me at least it looks pretty good, but have a look yourself if you or someone you're likely to play with is colour blind.

It is hard for me to know how effective the storybook identification is, I know it looks pretty and some of the colours are intentionally 'close', causing difficulty and hesitation when slapping the cards down. For me, it was the turquoise/blue distinction, but I quite like it. It's all too easy to make a mistake in this game when playing at speed. And that's kind of the point.

It has many of the beats you would associate with a party game, just without the larger player count and that’s not a bad thing. We’ve been able to get a game in while someone is at the bar getting a round of drinks between “bigger” games. Nimble is a bridge or an aperitif in a game night, it’s a fun, family game; perfect for children. It’s light, it’s simple, and it’s a shot of cardboard childish delight that forces your attention and focus.

A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review

Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr - First Thoughts

“He has moments of lucidity, but mostly, the things he says come in fragments, I don’t think he even knows where he is. If we could piece together all these things he talks about, maybe he’d let go, and go peacefully.”

Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr from Hub Games was one of, if not, the hot ticket at this year’s UK Games Expo, and being lucky enough to sit down with the designer, Michael, to play some of the first scenario, it really isn’t very hard to see why.

[caption id="attachment_2845" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The choices are often simple, but morally complicated. The austere board with, at times, the graphic artwork really helps bring this story to life[/caption]

Firstly, this game breaks new ground in terms of how it handles its theme, and I think a large part of the hype around the game stemmed from that. In this game, player’s take on the roles of the primary carers attending to Billy in a hospital shortly after he has suffered a massive heart attack. All you know about him at the beginning of the game is that his name is Billy Kerr, he is dying, and you will be the last people to learn the story of his troubled life.

Throughout this co-op, worker placement game, players will have their nurse meeple assigned to one of the three shifts that make up each of Billy’s day; morning, afternoon and night. Once allocated the player has to decide how to treat Billy that day, some shifts will allow more choice than others, but it boils down to treat him physically, keeping him alive, or offering palliative care. This second option is again often split between talking to Billy and learning more about him or simply plumping his pillow so that you can gather your strength for the next crisis.

[caption id="attachment_2847" align="alignnone" width="1920"] At some point things will take a turn and start going badly for Billy, will you treat him, or finish his story so he can die in peace?[/caption]

As you talk to Billy you’ll draw Fragmented Memories, these will have a quote on one side, and come the end of the day, all players with them get to flip these cards to reveal black and white blurry snapshots of Billy’s life. These will form a jigsaw, a mosaic-like image that tells part of his story. Throughout the game you’ll have opportunities to access Vivid Memories, these form a sort of mini-game that is wonderfully thematic, where you’ll get a full colour, fully detailed version of one of your fragmented memories, which you’ll overlay in you patchwork story of Billy’s life to get a clearer idea of what happened to him.

There are other mechanics, which, in a full review, one might cover, but the important thing about Holding On is that although the mechanics are the thing that makes this game run, they are especially unobtrusive, allowing players to become immersed in this story first and game second.

[caption id="attachment_2844" align="alignnone" width="1920"] These wonderfully abstract memories allow you to build your own version of Billy's story[/caption]

Holding On is a sombre game, and make no mistake, Billy is dying, but his full, flavoured and yes, troubled life will reveal a game that is sure to be equally full of wonder. Speaking to Michael and Rory after my demo they told me that across all their playtests certain scenarios resonated with different people. Scenario eight has something interesting enough to stand out to many. Number ten is the end of what one can hope is an engaging and moving story, and I think it is here that this game really wins. The story, more so than the desire to win and beat the game, is what will drive and motivate people to play, and possibly replay; re-exploring Billy’s life, seeing it from new angles and with a new perspective.

This is a game of worker placement, where players will mechanically flip cards, read them, manage their workers and resources but at each and every turn you are present in the story you are constructing, from the art that depicts Billy’s pain to the austere medical backdrop and the lovingly detailed memory cards. Choices are not only weighted by what they will do to your turn, the round or the game, but also to the life of a dying man.

[caption id="attachment_2846" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The story lies at the heart of this game, even the board has a three-act structure[/caption]

This wonderfully immersive, engaging game will be released worldwide for Essen. If this sounds like your cup of tea, I’d speak to the folks at you FLGS to reserve one and make sure you get a copy.

I’m going to end this preview with this little tidbit:

Everything that happens in Billy’s life, everything is real. It’s all based on actual events from an array of people. The artwork featured on the cards, including things like graffiti, is all taken from real life locations and records. It is just a game, to you, but everything you see really happened to someone.

This review is based on a demo of the game played during the UK Games Expo 2018 ran by the publisher/designer.

This review was first seen on Polyhedron Collider but thanks for reading it again :)