I've been thinking about Netrunner lately and thought about the other games set int he Android unniverse. I was going to write them off only to realize, hey, there's one that may fit my like a glove: New Angeles.
As you might know, I like this kind of old-school negotiaton games but I never even considered NA because my playgroup had a player count of three. Now things are changing and not only I can play it on the club, I have people to get to play these longer, 5-6 player games. And I can bet on the theme to get some.
So what do you think of the game? It didn't seem to get much fanfare. Have you tried it?
I think it's good but falls just short of great. The rivalry thing is pretty neat and I dig the sort of entanglements it creates, however, you can get setups where one player is kind of dicked over and it's also extremely hard to win as the traitor in a competent group. This can lead to a frustrating game as you can't do much to sabotage within the scope of the design. It's very reliant on selfish play, and most people don't play it to the hilt like that due to the incentives.
I still enjoy it but I can't ever imagine wanting to play it more than Cosmic Encounter or Sidereal Confluence for a negotiation experience.