by schnapes
Midaga wrote:
schnapes wrote:
On the flip side it does make each choice less consequential so unlike Pandemic which requires Herculean planning to make the system "click" into place, here it feels a lot "lighter" and there's less chance of a few decisions screwing the game up - that said, it's by no means an easy game.
Oh, but certain decisions are quite consequential. I think you forgot to mention the most important decision, the one about deciding to play it safe, and spend a whole day (i.e. take both actions) with one activity, guaranteeing success, or spread out, make more things, but risking losing health and getting unpleasant surprises in the form of adventure cards. Since the time is pressing, you must take risky actions, and consequentially the game throws more problems at you to solve in exchange for the faster progress.
In this sense the game strongly reminds me of Ghost Stories, where after a short, calm period the whole thing blows in your face, and there's always three more crisis situations you have to handle than you are capable of at the moment.
The game probably won't satisfy the fans of the Pandemic's sterile flow, but certainly will appeal to those who love strong theme and risk management.
Sorry, I did omit that out - and whilst this is a decision, wasn't something that agonized me during our plays, since the events are super random it's hard to manage the risk, as to do so, you really need to quantify if it's better to double up or not? At the end of the day, unless there's something you absolutely NEED to do, it's mostly personal player preference, more adventurous players will prefer to do more with their day and more conservative, less so - but the balance I think is about right that one decision is not clearly better than the other - I think this is what Ignacy was trying to create all along! Personally, I certainly think it's possible to win without ever doubling up (ha, I rarely ever do, but then I tend to prefer the explorer who only has 1 fail on this dice).
And to clarify, my review is comparative, so not implying it's an easy game that doesn't reward good play/risk management, just not the same extent as in Pandemic/Flashpoint where you pretty much have to plan the next 3-4 turns to succeed on the harder level, you know like, "I will use this card to fly to X, where player B will give me Y, and I'll give him Z, so he can fly back to D and build a base, so player C can bounce through and clear the virus.. etc" - so an initial move will affects your moves later on like a large snowball effect, whilst here's it much more tactical centered on facing the problems you see in a shorter time frame. However, this isn't negative, it's a good thing because it's less cerebral and more about enjoying the feeling of surviving an island rather than solving a puzzle. Then again, simply depends on what your gaming group is like !