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Two good ones this week!
We've got a lot of ground to cover today so let's get right down to business.
First up- Mistfall review is up in the review section. in. I really like this game, and I think anyone that petered out on Pathfinder ACG or found LOTR LCG frustrating but interesting will too. It should also appeal to the Mage Knight crowd. The rules suck and it is a somewhat difficult game to grasp, but ultimately it has been worth it. It is also worth noting that this is one that I think falls squarely in the "better solo than with a group" category. Having the time to parse everything, to take your time with it without having to worry about anyone else's entertainment level is ideal. But if you play with folks that are willing to play learning games and also read the rules themselves, you can circumvent some of that. Neat setting, cool artwork...this is a good one.
Second act- Undercity officially reviewed at MiniatureMarket.com. Four stars out of five. I liked this one a lot as well, I think it's a fun dungeoncrawler with some neat things going on, but it is definitely going to struggle to be heard in an overcrowded genre. The production is really great, I know everyone complained about the tiles but the way that they make setup QUICK and EASY makes up for their blandness. I do hope that Privateer Press dresses them up in some Iron Kingdoms finery for any expansions.
Third order of business- I did a head-to-head with one of my Senior Writers, Kyle Mann, over Ingenious. I think it turned out pretty good. One day I really am going to get that Knizia project rolling- I didn't expect to be buried under review copies like I've been lately. It is still happening. Soon.
Fourth stage- I bossed my writers into doing a little Halloween feature, each picking a Halloweeny game to write a bit about. Notable F:ATties Charlie Theel, Pete Ruth and Nate Owens pitched in. It's a fun feature...the TOMB OF TERRORS is right here.
And now for the odds and sods section...Stephen Buonocore, notorious internet salesman, has SCAMmed me. I've played the first two scenarios and the good news is that I don't have to sheepishly decline to review it to avoid coming to a disagreement with the Rose family. It's definitely good, definitely fun and definitely cool. I really love the lighter tone and the golden age SF setting, it's very refreshing compared to pretty much every other dudes in a hall game out there. The Overkill mechanic is brilliant and I think it might be the next deckbuilding. Not really, but it is something that sets this one apart. More later as I dig into it.
Buonocore also attempted to buy positive press with a copy of Survive! Space Attack!, which I somehow didn't realize was done up by our very own Geoff Englestein and his clan of budding young game designers. I love Survive!, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out. It may even inspire me to finally get that new edition of the original game since I still have that awful-looking "dolphin" edition they did years ago.
From Grey Fox Games, I've got a copy of Champions of Midgard complete with a "Dice Tower Seal of Approval". I ran through it last night and it seems like it's pretty good. It's WAY more like Stone Age (paging Pete Ruth) than Lords of Waterdeep. There's some cool things going on, love the Troll/blame mechanic and the dice rolling is fun, but I suspect that it might be repetitive. There's no sense of escalation, no mounting or increasing challenge level. You might fight the weakest monsters/trolls/draugrs in the deck on the eighth turn. The game kind of tries to keep pace by fluctuating your strength (gaining/losing Viking dice), but four turns in a three player solo outing and I was feeling like I was on a pretty set cycle. But it looks really good and it's very easy to play, which is important. The rulebook has got to be one of the most UNDER written ones I've seen in a while.
Gale Force Nine sent over Kalidasa, which I'm taking over to a friend's house to play since I don't have the base Firefly game anymore. It looks like it may, unfortunately, tip the scale on that one toward expansion bloat. A new board and 200 new cards is a lot in a game that is already putting on weight.
