Category: Game Reviews

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Week 3 game reviews

This week we focused on collaborative games. My group (Mia, Delaney, and myself) first played Pandemic with Professor Ames’ help to set up. We didn’t read the character cards, but rather just picked the colors we wanted and went with the corresponding character cards. I had the contingency planner, Delaney had the medic, and Mia had whatever the dark green character was. In terms of acts, it took us a bit to get a hang of the rules, even with Ames helping us out. We finally got into the swing of things after 4 or 5 rounds, which leads us to act 2. At this point, we had cured but not eradicated two of the viruses and we were really getting into the swing of things. We were working as a team to try and get the other two cured… when we ran out of draw cards. Which Ames gleefully told us meant the game was over and we’d lost.

None of us realized that lose condition for the game and were, understandably, shocked and upset. Ames asked if we would play Hanabi, but the three of us unanimously decided to play again. This time, we read the character cards and talked it over with each other to decide which roles would be the best. Delaney stayed the medic, Mia was the scientist, and I was the dispatcher. We were able to get into it a little better this time, and thankfully those stupid epidemic cards all came up relatively early. It took a round or two to fall into our new character roles, but then we were off. We had cured but not eradicated three of the viruses when we all simultaneously realized there was only two more draws worth. This started act 3, and though we tried valiantly in our last two remaining moves, we did not win.

In the last fifteen minutes or so of class, we picked up Hanabi. This also took us a bit to figure out because a) the board was circular and b) neither Mia or Delaney had ever played chess before, which Hanabi is based on. I think we got a decent way through the game in ten minutes before just packing it up and leaving class as it ended. I am unsure that I would play that game again, unless it was with people I knew had played chess before.

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Week 2- Thoughts on gloom munchkin and love letter

I wasn’t a fan of gloom munchkin, mostly because I thought the game rules were too complicated and a lot was going on before starting the game. However, I enjoyed the love letter. I feel this game was straight to the point and was easy to follow. It also seemed to get more competitive when other players started to collect the tokens of affection. I also enjoyed how each round of this game could either go fast or slow. As well as determining how fast you can be out of a round, there were some times I was out on my first turn and then there were others when I made It to just me and another player.

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Week 3- Thoughts on pandemic

I actually quite enjoyed this game and want to buy it for myself. The metaphor it used was fighting off infections and trying to stop the spread as well as find a cure. I liked how this game made you work together and try to strategies the best way to clear the diseases. At first, my group almost completely failed since we only cured one disease but the second time we played we got the hang of how the game worked and we started to read more about the characters we were playing and chose which ones would be best to try to beat the game. We still ended up losing but we ended up curing three diseases which were further than the first time.

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Week 2 Discussion & Questions

5 Game Ideas that can be played using Cards:

  • Memory Game: For this game players would lay out all cards onto a table face down. Each player would then pick two cards and try to get a match, the player with the most matches by the end win.
  • Building Game: Players would have a certain amount of time to try to construct the biggest house of cards they can. The player with the biggest house of cards by the time limit wins.
  • BattleCards: The game would play similar to Battleship, but players would use King, Queen and Joker cards as their ‘ships’. Players would guess where in the card layout the enemy player placed these cards, the player who guesses all the locations first wins.
  • Guess Who?: Card Edition: Players would get a random card out of a deck and then take turns asking questions about the other players card to try to figure out which they have. The first player to guess correctly wins.
  • 52 Pick Up: The entire deck of cards will be thrown onto the ground, then players will take turns picking up 1-3 cards. The person to pick up the last card loses.

Thoughts on Games Played Last Week:

  • Gloom Munchkin: As a fan of the original Munchkin game, this version was not as enjoyable for me. The game felt too linear the entire time and it felt like the game wrapped up too quickly and suddenly. I also never got invested into the mechanics of the game like I would while playing the original Munchkin.
  • Love Letter: While I wasn’t sold on the game at first, I started to get more into it as I became more familiar with how it worked. The game is rather simple at face value, but as other players started to gain ‘affection’ it started to become a mind game on how to stop those players from winning and finding the chance to get closer to victory for myself.

Kobold Guide to Game Design: Part 2 Questions:

  • 1a. If we were able to play a game where we are all a nanometer tall, I think an interesting mechanic would be to utilize the fact that everything is now bigger than us now. Examples of this could be exploring the area around us in a new way or climbing things that used to be way smaller than us.
  • 1b. When designing games it is best to aim for a target audience, which can be just about any group. The easiest way to find this specific target audience is to design a game that you personally would find fun and make it for the audience that you fit into.
  • 1c. Outside of those in our class, I plan to have my friends and or family play-test any game I create as I know I can trust their opinions.
  • 2a. I might have had to refer to the rules way back, but I never remember a time I had to look at the rules of Uno. Uno has always been a game I feel I just understood how to play and the cards make it fairly clear what each one does.
  • 2b. A game can be defined by these three points: Mechanics and rules, Pieces and graphics, and theme.
  • 2c. You can make your game design more intuitive by adding a variety of aspects: Color, Form, Size, etc.
  • 3a. I would say my gateway game would be Monopoly, this is the game I can remember the most from my childhood and one of the game I remember playing the most. In order to get others into gaming I feel something simple is best so it’s easy for them to get the feel for it. I think a game like Uno can be a good simple way to introduce someone to gaming, it is easy to learn and can show how gaming can be competitive as well.
  • 3b. Gateway games tend to share these qualities: Ease of Learning, Theme, Lack of Complexity, Interactivity, Luck, Duration, Originality, and Replay Value.
  • 4. The 10 Beautiful Mechanics are:
  • Kingmaker’s Noblesse Oblige
  • BattleTech’s Heat
  • Set’s Set-Making
  • Magic’s Card Tapping
  • Battle Cattle’s Cow Tipping Rule
  • xXxenophile’s Popping
  • Bohnanza’s Hand Order Rule
  • Mississippi Queen’s Paddlewheels
  • Time’s Up!’s Communication Breakdown
  • Dominion’s Constant Shuffling
  • When it comes time for me design my own mechanics I want to aim to have the mechanics be something that leave the players satisfied and overall happy with their experience.
  • 5. Luck in games adds a sense of randomness and always gives a feeling of suspense and excitement for the player. Strategy allows the player to make choices and plan ahead to give them a sense of satisfaction.
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Week 2 Game Reviews

Love Letter

I really enjoyed this game, once we managed to understand the rules. Apparently we were supposed to take out two of the royals (picking the one that suited our fancy), but we accidentally played with all three royals in the game. I feel like this made things complicated but in a funny way. There were a few times when the remaining two players each had a royal. They either tied the round and each got an affection token, or they knew the other person had a royal, and forced them to discard so they could win. Act 1 was learning to play the game, and the first few rounds. Act 2 was starting to use strategy and actually playing the game. I thought we were going into Act 3 when Aaron had 3/4 necessary affection tokens to win, but Ronan managed to come back. The real Act 3 was when Ronan and Aaron each had three love tokens, while me and Luke each only had one.

Munchkin

Wow I absolutely hated this game. I couldn’t even tell you what the different acts were because we literally stopped playing this after a few minutes. Way too many rules to follow. I think we collectively gave up as a group halfway down page 2 of reading the rules and seeing there was still nearly four pages of rules left to read. We tried to play with what rules we had already read and just read the next rules as we went along, but the whole system was too convoluted to make that work. -1/10, would not play again ever.

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love letter and munchkin reviews

munchkin

  • card game
  • complex rules
  • allowed to change class and race during game play
  • not simple to learn
  • dose not include all of the need paces
  • to complex for a card game
  • dose not explain every important part of the game like how backstabbing works

Love letter

  • story based
  • card game
  • first to 4 tokens wins
  • not to many cards
  • essay to play with simple rules
  • dose not say what to do if it is a tie when playing the knight card
  • posable to not get any tokens
  • comes with 2 princess and one prince
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Fluxx Review

What was fun? My group played the space themed Fluxx. I thought all the references to various sci-fi media was a lot of fun! These included Star Trek (expendable crew member in a red shirt) and Doctor Who (the Goal was to get the Doctor card and the Time Traveler card), two of my all time favorite things. I appreciate all the various rules that can come into play. For me, the best part of the game is trying to be compliant with all of the rules set up throughout the game or even using the rules in a specific order to win!

Interaction between players? Ethan was openly bored and unhappy with the game, so sometimes I felt like I had to remind him it was his turn. It made the game a little hard to enjoy when he clearly wasn’t into it.

How long to learn? I already knew how to play basic Fluxx, but it did take two or three rounds to get the space theme’s own rules (like computer viruses or holographic projectors).

Would I play again? Heck yeah I would play again! I actually have two different versions of Fluxx at my own home (Marvel and Star Trek: Voyager).

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flux review

1 the rules of the game and the goal for winning are ever changing

2 the basic rules of simple and easy to under stand

3 needs at lest 3 players with no upper limit

4 only one person can win the game but even with no cards a person is not out of the game

5 you are invested in the turns of the other players as well as your own

6 has a reasonable amount of play time that only slightly varies between games

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Tsuro review

Tsuro is a game where players have 3 tiles in their hand at all times and play the tiles in order to move their pawn, however, if you run into someone else or your tile leads you to the end of the board, you are killed and the remaining players continue to battle it out.

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Review for Persist

For this game we had to fill out a scorecard where we had to rank our top three life values out of career, health, relationships, and leisure. The higher the ranking – the more cards needed to reach the life value. The game is very similar to Cards Against Humanity. It’s a really easy game to play and it’s really funny. I really enjoyed this game and I would play it again.

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Review For Persist

Madisyn Kovach

Goal: Trying to reach all of your milestones to win.

I actually really enjoyed playing this game. It was very fun and easy to learn. While playing, it actually reminded me a lot of Cards Against Humanity. The only thing that was different was the scorecard. I liked how you had to choose three of your life values before playing and then having to follow what you wrote down. The only thing that was really confusing was the Roadblock Card, but as the game went on it did get easier. Some of the cards were also really inappropriate so I would be playing this with really close friends. All in all, it was a fun game and I would play it again.

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2/18 game reviews

Tsuro is a tile based board game where players attempt to create the longest path possible to avoid the outer edge of the board, while messing up other players so that they can be the final one on the board.

Munchkin gloom is a card game that challenges player to have the most depressed team of adventurers, while also making other teams happier to ensure that their team is the most miserable.

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Game review 2/18 class – Emily Buzzie

Persist is a card game where players rank categories for themselves, and then complete funny and sometimes embarrassing actions to collect the cards and complete the categories. 

Tsuro is a board game where players build paths, trying to have their path keep them on the board the longest. 

Takenoko is a board game where players build land, waterways, eat bamboo, and grow bamboo, while trying to complete goal cards.

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Review of Forbidden Island (Madisyn Kovach)

Forbidden Island is a card game in which everyone is on an island and we are trying to capture the treasure as a team by trading, role playing, card dealing, and adding/subtracting.

Overall Review: I enjoyed playing this game but it took a very long time to learn. There were several questions that I had during the game like, if it isn’t your turn, do you still discard immediately if you have more than six cards? Is this supposed to be a team building activity? What is the point of taking the tree actions and drawing two treasure cards? These are just a few of the questions that I had while playing the game.

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Game Reviews

Carcassonne is a medieval board game where multiple players build the board and earn points using the same avatars, but the positioning of the avatars can help you earn more points depending on your strategy and placement.

Takenoko is a bamboo garden board came where multiple players add on to an existing board to create a bigger garden for a hungry panda to eat, and earn points using cards, weather tokens, and actions to gain the most points.