Components: The quality components you’d expect from a
release like this. Miniatures of the main characters instead of tokens might
have been more fun though.
Game Setup: The setup instructions are simple and detailed. There
is a deck of mission cards to play through and each requires a similar but different
setup.
Game Play: Linear. There are three training missions to
complete that gradually teaches game concepts. Since this is a solo/cooperative
game this is a nice touch as there is no human opponent to know if you
inadvertently “cheat” and point it out.
Mechanics: Spending points on available actions to solve your mission objectives.
Summary: This game is ripe for promoting the dreaded “Alpha-gamer”
syndrome. Thwarting that usually involves all players getting involved in a
discussion about what the players should do each and every turn. We can’t think
of a more effective way to wreck this game and take all the fun out of it unless
you are playing with children and want to encourage that type of collaboration.
What can save this experience is limiting open discussion at the start of each
mission determining roughly how to achieve the mission objectives and then not
speaking on each other’s turns to let each player figure out for themselves how
to accomplish what needs to be done.
Last Word: Being a highly themed abstract game it will be easy for
players to experience the dreaded “alpha gamer” situation with this one. That
means it’s perfect for solo play though.
