Love Letter: Batman Edition Review

Good day to you, ladies and gentlegamers! As we've mentioned in the past, we thoroughly enjoy every review we bring to our readers, but we get an extra bit of joy from reviewing a new release - purely because of the fact that it allows us to feel as though we're on the ball for once!  So, brace yourselves for probably the shortest gameplay walkthrough we've ever brought you, as we take a look at Love Letter: Batman Edition by Seiji Kanai, from Alderac Enterainment.

Love Letter itself is a very popular and well-established casual card game, and has been a staple of many gamers' collections for quite some time.  Even with comic book heroes very much ascendant in recent years, this is probably one of the most surprising games to receive a superhero paint job!

To date we haven't actually played the original Love Letter so will be unable to draw direct comparisons, but we're chalking this up as an advantage as it leaves us able to dissect the Batman Edition on its own merits, and give it an unbiased score.

Love Letter: Batman Edition is a competitive card game for 2-4 players, in which each player takes on the role of the Dark Knight, and has to outshine the other Batmonei (we established this as the plural of "Batman" on a Hobbynomicon podcast!) in recapturing the escaped inmates of Arkham Asylum.

At the beginning of the review we mentioned that this would probably be our shortest gameplay explanation to date, and this is entirely down to the fact that Love Letter: Batman Edition is a mind-bogglingly simple game to play - to such an extent that we were left wondering why we never picked up a copy of the original version.  Before you click away though, we like to think our Cards Against Humanity review proved that simple mechanics do not a bad game make, and similarly our Arkham Horror review went to show that complex mechanics don't necessarily pave the road to a good gaming experience.  So stick with us as we go through Love Letter: Batman Edition and see how it plays out...

Contents-wise, Love Letter: Batman Edition is a very light game.  There are 16 Game Cards, each printed with lavish artwork depicting either Batman, Robin, or one of the many major supervillains from the Batman universe (for those DC fans interested, with the exception of The Joker they're all New 52-based).  Each of these cards contains a nice, plain-English explanation of how that card functions, which we'll go through shortly, and a number in the top-left corner which dictates the card's value (the higher, the better).

As an extra little assist for players, there are also four card lists included in the box, explaining the value of each character, the card's abilities, as well as a reminder of how many of each card are in the deck (there may be five Batmonei, but there is only one Mr J!).

"I'm Batman!" "No, I'm Batman!" "I'm Batman, and so's my wife!"

This just leaves a bag of small wooden Batman tokens, which are used to keep track of the scores across each round, and the rulebook.

And that's it!  Not a great deal to look at (although certainly very pretty), but let's put them all together and see what happens...

The aim of Love Letter: Batman Edition is to gain 7 Batman tokens before any of the other players, through rounding up the highest-valued Arkham escapees.

To start the game the Game Cards are shuffled and then one card is randomly discarded face-down, not to be used throughout the rest of the game.  Lover Letter: Batman Edition is a game of bluffing and deduction, so having one unknown card missing from the deck adds an extra challenge to the latter.

Each player draws a single card to create their starting hand, and then the round begins.  During each players (very quick) turn, they draw one card off the top of the deck, and then have to discard one from their hand,  Some of the cards have positive effects, some have negative effects, either of which can be used to try and misdirect the other players about the remaining card.  Some can be used to eliminate other players from the round, whilst some eliminate the player who discarded it, and one way to win the Batman token for the round is to be the last Batman standing.

If the deck is depleted then the round finishes, and the player with the highest value card in their hand wins the Batman token, or - in the event of a tie - the player with the highest value of discarded cards wins.

Confused?  That's fair, it's a far simpler game in practice than on paper!

For example...

Going back to Batman himself from the earlier photo, his discard ability allows a player to guess at the card in another player's hand.  At the beginning of the game this could be an outright guess, but as more cards are discarded deduction can start to creep in.  Of course players do have to rely on complete honesty from one-another, but frankly anyone who can't be trusted through a casual game has no place in any gaming group, in our opinion!  Batman is the lowest value card in the deck, so keeping him in hand serves very little purpose in the long-run, so he will usually get discarded/activated a lot.

Harley Quinn is a high-value escapee, with a value of 7 (second highest only to her puddin' - The Joker - himself), so keeping her in hand is usually going to be a good play.  However, her ability forces her to be discarded if Two-Face or Poison Ivy are drawn.  In the example above the player has just drawn Bane, who allows players to basically play a quick game of Top Trumps!  Now whilst the obvious play would be to discard Bane and hope Harley's 7 is enough to knock out an opponent, a sneakier play might be to discard Harley, leading the other players to believe either Two-Face or Ivy is in your hand.  Throwing the other players off the scent for a turn like this can be a devastating move, especially with such high card turnover and fast deck-depletion.

Each character in Love Letter: Batman Edition serves a different purpose, and learning how and when to use them most effectively is the key to victory... that, and a good poker face.  Catwoman, for example, allows a player to look at an opponent's hand.  Two-Face allows a player to trade hands with an opponent altogether.  Robin allows a player to ignore the effects of other cards for a full turn.  And The Joker (a personal favourite) puts the player who discarded him out of the round - you are playing as Batman, after all, so allowing Gotham's most notorious criminal to slip through your grasp is grounds for immediate dismissal.

As mentioned above (although now with a bit of context!) being the only non-eliminated player wins a Batman point, or after the deck is depleted, having the highest-value inmate in your clutches snags you that little wooden bat-symbol.  At the end of each round the deck is shuffled and the process is repeated until one player has 7 of those coveted points.

So that's Love Letter: Batman Edition.  With a learning time of roughly 90 seconds (no kidding, that's actually how long it took us to get a game going!) it's one of the quickest and easiest games to pick up on the market, but with some light-hearted theatricality and deception, it's still incredibly fun to play.

The physical components of the game are manufactured to a high standard, and the artwork - as mentioned earlier - is very nice to look at.  Being a quick game to play, it makes an excellent warm-up, wind-down, or intermission game to any games night, and the turns rotate so quickly that it feels more like a party game, as you always seem to be taking an action of some sort.  It's simplicity and short play-time make it an excellent game for younger gamers with shorter attention spans as well, so if you have a young Bat-fan in the family and you want to draw them into your gaming hobby, this might be a good place to start!

Criticisms of the game come very few and far between, however we've always prided ourselves on our impartiality, and so will work to find any negative points we can.  First of all it's not so great with just 2 players.  Even with the mystery card removed at the beginning of the game, the deductive side of Love Letter: Batman Edition falls a little short when you only have one opponent to outfox.  The only other criticism (and ye gods we're having to scrape the nitpicking barrel here!) is that there will inevitably be people getting upset over the choice of villains in the deck.  With a limited-sized deck and so many Arkham alumni to choose from, some people will end up having their favourites missed out.  (On a personal note, the inclusion of The Joker, Harley Quinn and Catwoman was enough to keep me happy, anyone else is purely a bonus!)

The Good Points

• Quick to play.
• Even quicker to learn!
• An excellent entry-level game for younger gamers, or those new to the specialist game scene.
• Nicely tactical, in spite of the simple mechanics.
• Very well presented, with nice artwork throughout.
• "I'M BATMAN!"

The Bad Points

• Limited appeal with only 2 players.
• No Riddler or Penguin, to name but two, so Nigma and Cobblepot fans will be disappointed.
• Very difficult to resist the urge to growl "I'M BATMAN!" with the Batman card in hand.  Anyone?  Oh, maybe that's just me then.

Recommended Number of Players: 3-4

As mentioned, Love Letter: Batman Edition struggles a little with 2 players, but it comes to life with 3 and excels with 4.

Average Game Time: 20 minutes

Each round of Love Letter: Batman Edition only lasts a couple of minutes, but with a target of 7 Batman points a full 4 player game has the potential to cap at 25 rounds!  However, this is unlikely to happen, and 20 minutes is a good average game time, which can even be shortened if needed by reducing the number of required points.

Replay Value: High

With its short play-time, this is a good game for filling gaps, whether a lunch break, or a pause between bigger games on a game night.  As a result, it's likely to be a game which is played little and often, and so will be very easy to keep coming back to.

The Future: Darkest just before the dawn...

Okay we have to admit that comment wasn't really relevant, but we just thought it'd look really good there!  Love Letter: Batman Edition is a standalone game, so really doesn't have anywhere further to go.

Price: £14

The RRP on Love Letter: Batman Edition is £14, and there are two versions available.  We've shown you the boxed version (as we like having pretty boxed games filling our shelves), but there is also a bagged version, which doesn't come with the box, but includes a Batman-embroidered canvas bag for ease of transportation.  Both retail for the same price, and with both Love Letter and Batman being very popular, we imagine it will be readily available on the shelves of most gaming stores before long!

OVERALL SCORE: 9.5/10

 Tea consumed during this review: Typhoo, milk and 2 sweeteners.  Brew Rating: 7.5/10

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Pirate Fluxx: The Ever-Changing Pirate Card Game

If you ask any gamer to reel off a handful of quick, casual games, there's a very good chance that Fluxx will be on the list.  Love it or loathe it, Fluxx has become one of the staples of the gaming world since the release of the original version of the game way back in 1997, and has spawned a number of themed sets (14, at the latest count!).

In this article we'll be swashing our buckles, hoisting the colours, and dunking the ship's biscuits, as we take a look at Pirate Fluxx from Looney Labs.

As with all Fluxx games, Pirate Fluxx is a casual, competitive card game for 2-6 players.  In the same way as we did with our reviews of Zombie Fluxx and Star Fluxx, we won't be going into the basic Fluxx ruleset here, as it's identical in every version of the game.  If you haven't played any version of Fluxx before then we'd highly recommend starting by reading our Monty Python Fluxx review, as we detailed the full rules here.
Instead, we'll be looking at some of the additions to this version of the game, and how well the pirate theme is brought to life.

If you've played Star Fluxx or read our review (and if you haven't, then why not? Seriously, we gave you a link just above, you have no excuse!) then you'll know that version of Fluxx tipped it's hat to a lot of franchises, from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, to Star Wars via 2001: A Space Odyssey.  We might as well start by pointing out that Pirate Fluxx is not franchise-based, so you'll find no Jack Sparrow, no Dread Pirate Roberts, and no Guybrush Threepwood here.  In fact it's not even historically-based, so don't expect to see Blackbeard or Calico Jack showing their faces either.

Sorry, Guybrush, you and your woodchuck have no place here.

It's not all doom and gloom though.  Even without some of popular cultures greatest piratical personalities, Pirate Fluxx still takes players across the seven seas, with ships, rum, gunpowder, treasure and citrus fruits!

As with all themed Fluxx decks, the chosen theme comes through strongest with the Keepers (and, subsequently, the Goals).  Whilst there are pirate-specific New Rules and Actions, the majority of these two card types are still the same as the other Fluxx decks, but the Keepers are all piratical.  Amongst the Keepers in Pirate Fluxx, players will find a wide selection of 'booty' cards, such as doubloons, emeralds and pearls, and a range of fine sea-faring vessels, from mighty frigates to humble dinghies.  They'll find rum, they'll find parrots and monkeys, the king's colours and pirate flags... basically if it's a part of pirate lore, it's probably represented in the Keepers somewhere (except for the governor's daughter, but Pirates! Card Game called dibs on her already).
As with Star, Zombie and - to a lesser extent - Monty Python, some of the Keepers in Pirate Fluxx have special rules, and the way Looney Labs have written these really does make the pirate theme stand out nicely.  For example, there is a New Rule card called Plunder, which allows players to steal a Keeper from an opponent once during their turn.  However, if a player has the Cutlass Keeper then they're (almost) safe from plundering.  They can still be plundered from if the plundering player has the Flintlock Pistol, as flintlock>cutlass.  To trump everything, however, if a player has the Captain's Hat then they can plunder from anyone, and similarly cannot be plundered by anyone (it's important to respect the chain of command).  This makes the Captain's Hat a highly valued commodity in Pirate Fluxx (in no small part due to the fact that the other players are required in the rules to refer to its owner as 'Captain'), and we've been involved in games which have gone on for far longer than they should have, with the Goal being completely forgotten about in favour of fighting over the coveted hat!  One of the most heart-breaking moments as the reigning captain is seeing the malicious look of joy in an opponent's face as they play the Mutiny! card.

Other piratical cards are interspersed throughout the deck.  Whilst Fluxx staples such as Draw 3, Play 2 and Steal a Keeper are still part and parcel of the game, cards like Mutiny! and Walk the Plank! continue to keep the pirate theme running.  But our favourite card in Pirate Fluxx (possibly second favourite - that Captain's Hat is pretty darn cool), and the one which most heavily brings a pirate atmosphere to the gaming table is a New Rule...

In a similar fashion to Monty Python Fluxx's Outragous Accent New Rule, Talk Like a Pirate rewards players for, well, talking like a pirate!  Whether slurring their way through their best Jack Sparrow impression, or "Y'arr!"-ing their way through a turn, players get to draw additional cards for putting on a pirate voice, and for keeping it going uninterrupted.  In our very first game of Pirate Fluxx, one player's phone rang and - unwilling to lose the +1 bonus for maintaining their pirate voice - they answered the phone in pirate character and confused the hell out of the sales caller on the other end of the line.

As with most variations on the game, Pirate Fluxx is not without its Creepers; cards which prevent players from winning the game.  However, it's very Creeper-light, with the two above being the only ones in the deck.  Not only that, but they're actually incredibly easy to get rid of compared to most Fluxx Creepers, with Scurvy being removed by the mere presence of citrus fruit Keepers, and Shackles having the option of being bought off with a booty Keeper.  Not only does this quicken the pace of the game, but it also makes it a lot more accessible to the younger gamers in the family, who may otherwise get frustrated with the unshakable Creepers in other Fluxx games.

So that's Pirate Fluxx!  We've always been very open about the fact that we fall into the pro-Fluxx camp, and Pirate certainly doesn't fail to disappoint.  The light-hearted nature of the classic game still shines through the piratical paint-job, but at the same time the pirate theme isn't lost - this still feels like a piratey game, as opposed to just a game with some pirate words on the cards.

The Good Points

• Each card tells the player exactly what they have to do with it, and so it's a very fast game to pick up.
• It's a nice compact game, and can easily be taken to a park or pub to play with friends.  Nothing is needed except for the cards in the deck.
• Pirate Fluxx manages to keep both the feel of Fluxx and the feel of a pirate game, so you'll get precisely the game you hope for out of this.
• The low number of Creepers and the ease of discarding them makes this a good version of Fluxx for younger players as well as adults.
• With the right number of players it's quite a quick game to play, and is good to wrap up a heavy gaming session.

The Bad Points

• As with other Fluxxes, Pirate Fluxx is largely a game of chance, and this luck-based system will not appeal to all.

Recommended Number of Players: 3

Fluxx decks are always good wind-up or wind-down games on any gaming nights.  Pirate Fluxx loses a little of the fun with just 2 players, but with 4 or more (the box advertises 2-6) it can start to drag on as players forget their own Goals and desperately vie to just keep eachother from winning.

Average Game Time: 20 minutes

Pirate Fluxx is difficult to put an average game time on due to its random and unpredictable nature.  We've played games which have been over in a matter of minutes, and some which have gone on for over an hour.  20 minutes is a good, solid, average time though.

...unless everyone is squabbling over the Captain's Hat, then you should steel yourselves for a 3 hour epic!

Replay Value: High

Pirate Fluxx is an excellent wind-down game, and with it being an enjoyable yet generic theme, it's a lot of fun to keep returning to.

The Future: n/a

Each version of Fluxx is its own game, and as such the contents of the box are all you'll ever get of Pirate Fluxx.  However if you've enjoyed the mechanic then there are several other themed Fluxx sets to choose from, including Zombie Fluxx, Oz Fluzz, Martian Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx and Stoner Fluxx.

Price: £12

Pirate Fluxx will set you back roughly £12, which is a thoroughly decent price for a stand-alone card game.  The various Fluxx sets seem to be standard fare in most specialist game shops, so even if they don't have the set you're after then they should be able to get their hands on it quickly.

OVERALL SCORE: 8.5/10

 Tea consumed during this review: Tetley Redbush, 2 sweeteners and a dash of lemon.  Brew Rating: 8/10

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Space Alert, Part 2: Gameplay & Verdict

In our last article we took our first step back into the world of regular reviewing, by taking a look at the box contents for Vlaada Chvatil's Space Alert, published by Rio Grande Games.  Space Alert is a co-operative game for 1-5 players (side note: we'd love to know how a competitive game for 1 player would work... answers on a postcard), in which the players take on the roles of expendable crew members on a short-range interstellar vessel.  Here we'll be taking a look at how the game plays, and giving it our coveted* final score (*Games & Tea final score may not actually be coveted).

Before the game can begin, players must first of all squabble amongst themselves over their roles in the crew.  As mentioned in the box contents article, the pace of the action is dictated by the ship's computer - relayed either via the accompanying CD or the smartphone app.  This means that one crew member must be designated as the communications officer.  Whilst all hell is breaking loose on board the ship, robots are malfunctioning, and aliens are attacking, it's the duty of the communications officer to closely listen to the ship's computer and ensure that no updates are missed.  Obviously all crew members can hear these updates, but the comms officer is the expendable man or woman responsible for none of them slipping through.

The other role to be assigned is that of the ship's captain.  Space Alert is a co-operative game, but it's also a real-time one, which means that there is rarely enough time to sit around and discuss various options to a newly revealed threat.  The ship's captain serves two purposes: firstly, to have the final say on any conflicting courses of action from the other crew members, and the other we'll come to shortly.

"Captain's log, stardate Tuesday... point two."

Once the crew roles are have handed out, it's time to set up the board.

As the first part of this review showed, there are a fair few components to Space Alert.  In spite of this, however, the setup process of the game is actually very quick and straightforward.  Threat Vectors are randomly drawn and assigned to the four sections of the ship previously mentioned (left, right, center, and internal), the jelly cubes representing the power to the ship's systems are assigned to their starting points, the threat decks are shuffled (internal and external still kept separate), the combat robots sent to their charging stations, and the crew members placed on the bridge.  If all has been done properly, you'll be left staring at something like this...

Then it's time to hand out the Action Cards and start the game!  You may have noticed in Part 1 of the review that the Action Boards are split into three sections, containing the numbers 1-3, 4-7, and then 8-12 respectively...

These are the three mission sections, and the individual numbers represent the turns of the game (we know, we said this was a real-time game, but all will make sense as you read on!).  Before the game starts, each player is dealt 5 Action Cards for each section of the board, which are placed on those sections face-down.  The computer will call out the beginning and end of each mission section - during the active section, each player may assign Action Cards to any turns they wish, and rearrange them as many times as necessary to adapt to changing circumstances.  Once the mission section is over, however, and the next section begins, those Action Cards are then locked in place and cannot be changed.

Each room of the ship has contains three different buttons; A, B and C (easy to remember!).  Button A fires the weapons system in whichever room the player is standing at the time, button B is used for raising the shields or charging the reactor, depending on location, and button C is a bit more specialist, being used to fire missiles, maintain the computer, launch fighters, activate robots, or just look out the window (no, we're not even joking about that final one!). Each Action Card includes a movement arrow and one of those three actions, so players can choose to use them to either move around the ship or activate one of the ship's systems.

The trick in Space Alert is to make sure that the crew are accounting for all of the ship's systems.  Firing the lasers and charging the shields both draw energy from the ship's reactor, and that reactor must be periodically refilled.

Now pay attention, crew, for this is where the second role of the captain comes into effect!

Actions are resolved in order, starting from the captain and working clockwise around the board, so it's important for players to keep this in mind when planning their moves.  It's great to charge the reactor in preparation for a full-on laser bombardment, but if the person charging the reactor is taking their turn after those firing the weapons, then all you'll be left with is a crew member hammering on an innefective 'fire' button whilst a colossal alien warship descends upon you!

Let's have a look at an example below...

In this scenario, the blue player has locked their choices in for the first two mission sections, but the third has not yet begun.  When deciding whether to move or activate a system, the top half of the Action Card is the one to go by.  In this run here the player fired the ship's lasers (A), moved to the room on the left, charged the shields (B), took the elevator down, refilled the reactor (B), went back up in the elevator, and then fired the lasers (A).

Obviously players may not always have the cards in their hands for the actions they'd like to take, and this is where it becomes important to organise amongst eachother.  It's not all doom and gloom though, as the computer will occasionally call out "incoming data" or "data transfer", which allow players to draw new cards or exchange between eachother respectively.

The most important thing which the computer will call out are threats.  Only one threat can appear during each turn, so if the computer calls out "Time T-1, threat blue", it means that a threat will start approaching in turn 1 on the right hand section of the ship (the blue section)...

Here a sneaky Stealth Fighter has just appeared.  It begins at the top of the Threat Vector and advances each turn.  Every time it passes a letter on the Vector, it carries out the action marked on the card - for example, the Stealth Fighter cannot be attacked until it hits the X.  Once it hits the Y it deals 2 damage to the ship, and then another 2 when it hits Z, so it's in the best interests of the crew to blow it out of the stars before that can happen.

The mission continues for 12 minutes, as the crew tries to keep everything in working order and the ship in one piece, up until the computer mercifully calls out "hyperspace jump in 3, 2, 1... *whoosh*", and you all live to fight another day.

...or do you?

At the end of the box contents article there was a board we skipped over, so this comes into effect now.  It turns out that during the 12 minutes of real-time action the players are basically just planning out which actions they're going to take in each of the 12 turns.  This card is effectively the black box recording for the crew's (probably) ill-fated mission, and only once the CD/app track has finished do the players finally play through the actions and see how everything actually panned out.

This part of the game can prove absolutely hilarious, and it's fun for the players to now imagine themselves as a board of directors, face-palming their way through a 12-minute recording of the most inept crew in existence.

Indeed, in one of the USS Games & Tea's first outings, our illustrious communications officer was convinced he'd saved the day against that pesky Stealth Fighter.  In reality, he hadn't realised the targeting restriction on it, spent two turns firing the laser at empty space until the reactor was empty, and then watched in absent-minded glory as the Stealth Fighter proceeded to tear the ship to pieces.  We can only imagine the letter which must have been handed over to his next of kin.  

Now it might seem fairly straightforward from this description, but it's the little things which make Space Alert special.  For example, as the "How to..." manual states, there is no video link between the rooms on the ship, only audio, so players must place their Action Cards face-down on the Action Boards.  This means that all players MUST communicate with eachother, as they can't simply sneak a peek over at their shipmates' boards to see what they're up to.  One of the problems with this is that there will occasionally be a communications malfunction replacing the CD track with static, during which period the crew must continue without speaking to eachother until it's resolved.

Other little touches can involve tripping over, being delayed in the elevators, running into bulkheads... if an incompetent crew of space-wannabes can do it, it's probably in Space Alert somewhere (one of our captains still tells heroic tales of the time he spent 3 turns staring out of the window as the ship disintegrated around him).

In terms of mechanics, there's not much more to tell really.  We've skimmed over some of the finer points, but those are for you discover on your own!  What did we think of it as a game though?

In a nutshell, this might be the finest co-operative game we've ever played.  It's intensive for those 12 real-time minutes, but that's a short-enough time to be fun rather than stressful.  Once the real-time section ends and the turn-based resolution begins, then it just becomes a very light hearted and humour-based game, and is terrific fun to have with friends.

One of the greatest things about Space Alert is that each player still very much feels like they're part of the game.  A big problem with many co-op games (Pandemic being a perfect example), is that the turns often devolve into 'turns by committee'.  Rather than each player taking their own actions, their turns end up being weighed up and discussed based on the actions of the preceeding and following players, and so individuality becomes lost entirely.  The fact that Space Alert is a real-time game eliminates this entirely, as there is simply not time to weigh up every option.  Players call out their planned actions, and have to work around eachother as they go, but their decisions and actions still feel very much their own, and this is an unbelievably rare thing in co-op games.

There are a lot of random elements to the game, especially with the addition of the smartphone app - the encounters are randomised, threats are randomised, Action Cards are randomised, damage to the shop is randomised... basically, there's enough to make sure that you'll never play the same game of Space Alert twice.

The short play time is also a massive bonus.  It's difficult to get bored when you're playing a game which only takes around half an hour, and is keeping you on your toes for every minute!  Whilst it's possible to customise the app with various difficulty settings, the default setting for Space Alert is incredibly challenging, and so it's very easy to fall into the "one more round" mentality, in an attempt to finally beat the game.  It's worth noting that here at Games & Tea we've never managed to win a game on the default setting yet, but the fact we'll still shout the game's praises from the rooftops shows that we consider it an enjoyable challenge, rather than a frustrating one.

As we've mentioned in previous reviews though, no game is perfect.  Space Alert comes pretty darn close, but we strongly doubt we'll ever see the unicorn that is the perfect game.  We stated above that there are a lot of random elements, and one criticism of the game is that there are perhaps too many.  The real-time section of the game is all about planning out your course of action, so when virtually every facet of the game is unpredictable, this can be a monumental challenge.  The counter argument to this would be that it makes for a more authentic gaming experience, but this is perhaps one of those times were authenticity and playability should perhaps be weighed against eachother.

The next downside is the learning curve.  The 'training program' is an inspired decision, and is a fool-proof way of teaching the complexities of Space Alert to new players.  The problem with this is that every time another new player joins the group, the experienced players have to sit through the comparatively slow-paced training missions again until everyone's up to speed.  In fact the first few weeks with the game at our FLGS seemed to be mired in training missions, as there was always someone new who wanted to try it out, taking us all back to square one.

The other negative point to Space Alert is that it doens't work quite as well with fewer players.  It's impossible to play the game with fewer than four crew members, so if there are three players or less then the extra crew members are controlled by everyone, and each player received extra Action Cards in each section to make up for this.  While this is probably the best way to resolve the issue of fewer players, it still doesn't work particularly well, and a single-player game of Space Alert is pretty much unplayable.

The Good Points

• Space Alert is the first truly co-operative game we've played, as opposed to a 'turn by committee' game.
• 4 and 5 players are accommodated nicely, making it a good game for slightly larger groups.
• The real-time element makes it a fun and frantic game, and the 'black box' resolution card brings the game to a very entertaining conclusion.
• There are enough random elements to make every single playthrough different.
• Excellent tutorial mode.
• Extremely challenging.
• The computer soundtrack makes the game very immersive.

The Bad Points

• Perhaps too many random elements, leaving little room for planning.
• The game fails to deliver with only 1 or 2 players.
• Constantly repeating the training missions for new players can be frustrating.

Recommended Number of Players: 4-5

As mentioned above, Space Alert doesn't really work with 1 or 2 players.  3 should be considered the minimum for a decent game, but it plays best with 4 or 5, as this eliminates the need for a collectively-controlled extra crew member.

Average Game Time: 30 minutues

The playthrough time on Space Alert is pretty standard.  The real-time section is always around 12 minutes (once the training missions have been passed), and the resolution stage usually takes a little longer, so a single sitting clocks in around the half-hour mark.

Replay Value: Very High

With a relatively short play time, high number of randomly-generated elements, and challenging gameplay, Space Alert has all of the right ingredients for a highly replayable game.  With expansions available to enhance the game further, this is one which we can't imagine gathering dust for a very long time.

The Future: Lost to the Depths of Space...

Space Alert is a fantastic game, and the The New Frontier expansion adds even more to this, but as far as we can tell this is the extend of the Space Alert story.

Price: £40

Space Alert will set you back £40, meaning it's not one of the cheapest games out there, but not one of the most expensive either.  We'd certainly say that we've got our money's worth out of it.  In terms of availability, we rarely see it on the shelves in gaming stores, but being from a large manufacturer it should be easy enough to order in.

OVERALL SCORE: 9.5/10

Tea consumed during this review: Twinings English Afternoon, 3 minutes brew time, 2 sweeteners, dash of milk. Brew rating: 10/10

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Arkham Horror, A Call of Cthulhu Board Game, Part 2: Gameplay & Verdict

A few days ago we made a start on our first Fantasy Flight big box review, taking a look at the box contents of one of their flagship games: Arkham Horror.  Now that we've given you lovely folk some time to let your Christmas indulgences work their way out of your collective systems, we're going to push on with our gameplay analysis and see just how well that plethora of gaming pieces mesh together into a tabletop experience.
 

Arkham Horror is a fully co-operative game, in which 1-8 players must work together to investigate the strange occurrences throughout the titular city of Arkham, and prevent the incursion of an Ancient One (colossal monster, to you and me) into our world.  As we demonstrated in Part 1 of our review, this game does feature a lot of components, and so the initial setup process takes up a fair amount of time and space.

Once the gargantuan game board has been laid out and the starting tokens and cards have been placed in their appropriate locations, it's time for the players to receive their investigator alter-egos with which they must tread these dark and dangerous streets.  This can be done by either randomly dealing out the character cards or by each player choosing their character from the set.  We personally prefer adding a semi-random element to the process, by dealing out two investigators to each player and then allowing them to choose which of the two to keep.  There are 16 investigators to choose from, so even in full 8 player games this still allows for a bit of variation from one playthrough to the next.

Whilst the various attributes of each investigator can be adjusted from one turn to the next (there'll be more on that later), each character in Arkham Horror does excel in certain areas.  In larger games this means that a team can be assembled to deal with almost anything the other worldly horrors can throw their way, whereas in smaller games it leaves players having to vastly tailor their strategies to accommodate their investigators' strengths.  Some characters are combat heavy, and can play a blunt force game, thundering their way across the board leaving a trail of dead monsters in their wake.  Some are good at evading trouble, and can sneak untouched across the city, preventing the Ancient One's incursion before it even knew it faced opposition!  Some are good supporting characters, keeping their fellow investigators both healthy and sane as they battle the forces of darkness.  And some are simply good all-rounders, excelling at nothing but having no overall weak spots.  If playing a solo game we'd thoroughly recommend hand-picking an investigator, as drawing a support character with no other characters to support is a fairly fast path to a devastating defeat.

Each investigator also starts the game with an inventory, containing some set items and some randomly assigned.  For example one character may start with the Tommy Gun, in which case it will need to be sorted from the Common Items deck, whereas one may start with two random Unique Items, which will simply be dealt off the top of the appropriate deck.

The only remaining element of Arkham Horror is the Ancient One itself.  With 8 to choose from these can also be either hand-picked or selected at random.  Seeing as each Ancient One presents different challenges throughout the course of the game, we've always preferred to hand-pick ours, allowing us to effectively set a difficulty level dependant upon how much of a challenge we want.

Vote Cthulhu for a quick and painful death!

With the Ancient One and investigators all selected it's time for the horror to begin!

Each turn of the game consists of 5 phases; Upkeep, Movement, Arkham Encounters, Other World Encounters, and Mythos.  The Upkeep phase allows players to refresh exhausted spells and items and, more importantly, to shuffle their investigator's stats around.

The bottom half of each investigator's character card is devoted to that investigator's attributes - there are some skills and items which can increase these, but the numbers on the card are that investigator's base value.  Each skill track is marked by one of the 0-shaped tokens, and these keep track of each stat's current value.  The character's Focus is shown above the skill tracks, and this dictated how far a player may adjust their skills during the Upkeep phase.  The character above, for example, has a Focus of 1, so one of his skill tracks can be moved one space left or right.  As you can see, skills are paired, meaning that as one stat is increased another is reduced, which means that players must plan their move ahead and decide just how they want their investigator to behave in the coming turn.  You may want your investigator to be fast on their feet, but the downside to this is that they're unlikely to sneak past any monsters with the amount of noise they're making!

The values on the skill tracks are used to attempt various skill tests as and when the game presents them to the investigators, and they follow a nice and simple mechanic which is easy to remember.  The skill value is the number of dice the investigator has to roll, and any dice which land on a 5 or 6 are counted as a success.  For example, the character above has to pass a Luck check.  His Luck value is 3, so he rolls 3 dice, and if any one of them lands on a 5 or 6 then the check is passed - it really is that simple!  Some checks will have modifiers, such as "Pass a WILL(-1) check", but they always work on the basis that 1-4 is a failure and 5-6 is a success.  This is a very good way of working skill checks, as it requires no memorising of complex stat tables - all that players need to do is read their investigator's stat line and roll that many dice.

After Upkeep comes Movement, and this is where players have to choose between fight or flight.  Any time an investigator ends their movement on a space with a monster or attempts to leave that space, they have to attempt to either evade or fight the creature.  Evading is usually the easier of the two options, but leaves the monster on the board to continue prowling, and once the number of monsters reaches critical levels all hell starts to break loose (literally!).  On the other hand, jumping recklessly into a fight can often end badly, sending the investigator to the hospital and causing them to lose much of their valuable inventory.

This adds further to the forward planning aspect of Arkham Horror, as players must toe the line between taking a full-on fight to these other-worldly terrors, and tip-toeing around the city in the hope of not being spotted.  In large multi player games it can often be worth loading one player up with weapons and sending them on the rampage whilst the others attempt to secure the win for the team!

The way to win at Arkham Horror is to seal the transdimensional Gates which are cropping up across the city, and to do this players need Clue tokens (as shown above).  Once players have gathered enough of these they can head through a Gate and attempt to close it.

Depending on whether they are in Arkham or one of the Other Worlds, the players then have an encounter, which is determined by the appropriate deck of cards.  Some of these will require skill checks to prevent the loss of health or sanity, some simply involve a monster appearing which the investigator must then deal with, and some will reward investigators with Clues, items or allies.  One criticism of the Arkham Horror base game is that there aren't a great deal of cards for encounters within the city of Arkham itself, so in larger games players will see the same cards coming out on more than one occasion.

Following the two Encounter phases, the turn ends with the Mythos phase.  The Mythos phase determines the location of the next Gate, the movement of monsters already on the board, the appearance of new Clues, and events which will either be instantaneous or long-standing.

The opening of a new Gate has two effects on the game; first of all it spawns a new monster into the city, and second of all it brings the Ancient One one step closer to its awakening...

Each Ancient One in Arkham Horror has a Doom Track along the bottom of the card.  Each time a Gate opens inside of Arkham, a Doom Token is placed on the next available number on the track - if the final number is ever covered up then the Ancient One awakens, and the board is abandoned as the investigators dedicate themselves to the singular task of defeating this abomination.  If they succeed then they win the game and can give themselves a firm pat on the back, but when the Ancient One does come out then the odds of success are extremely long!

The turns continue as such with the first player being passed around the board; players move, collect Clues, have encounters, and then allow the horrors to take their turn in the Mythos phase.  The game only ends when the final Gate is closed, or the Ancient One is defeated in combat.

All in all our impressions on Arkham Horror have been mixed.  To prevent this review from turning into an epic of Tolkien proportions we've stripped down the gameplay to its very basics, but we have to emphasise that this is the most complex board game we've ever played.  Most of the games we've learnt in the past generally involve one tutorial playthrough with the rulebook open, and then subsequent playthroughs usually run pretty smoothly with minimal rules consultation.  With Arkham Horror it took roughly 2 months of regular games to fully get to grips with the complicated ruleset, and this degree of commitment to a single game may put off a lot of potential players.  That said, once we'd got our heads around it we did find it very enjoyable, and it's nice to have something that we can throw ourselves into for a whole afternoon.

The second issue is that of space.  With so many components, Arkham Horror does need a lot of space to set up and play, and gamers who don't have a great deal of space at home may struggle to play.

This is a 4 player game set up and ready to go, to give an idea of the amount of playing space needed!

The final issue we had was that Arkham Horror is not a well-balanced game. At all.  The ease of the game is directly related to the number of players involved in our experience, with 1-player games verging on being impossible, 2-players being extremely difficult, and 3/4-player games presenting a decent balance.  We've yet to try out games with higher player numbers than this, but it does point to a trend of more players meaning easier games.

Negative points aside, we have enjoyed our experience on the streets of Arkham.  There are enough variables to keep the game from going stale (aside from the previously mentioned issue with  the Arkham Encounter cards), and it's an extremely intricate and involving game.  It's also a big box game which doesn't break the bank, which makes a refreshing change.

So let's break it down and see what the final verdict is...

The Good Points

• Arkham Horror is a very involving game, allowing players to lose themselves in a single campaign against the other worldly monsters for an entire evening.
• It's a beautifully presented game, with nice quality artwork throughout.
• The skill checks work off a nice simple D6 system, preventing the need for complicated skill tables.
• As a game for 1-8 players, this is something that can be played by a gaming group of pretty much any size, and can also be practiced alone to help gain a better understanding of the rules.
• With 16 investigators and 8 Ancient Ones, there are enough variables to prevent playthroughs from becoming too similar.

The Bad Points

• Arkham Horror is very complicated, and so it will take a long time and a lot of commitment for players to have a firm grip on the rules.
• It takes up a lot of space, so players living in small apartments may not have room to set up and play the game.
• The game could do with more Arkham Encounter cards, as these will be quickly re-used in larger games.
• It's very poorly balanced, with the ease of the game increasing with the number of the players.

Recommended Number of Players: 3-4

Whilst Arkham Horror is advertised as being for 1-8 players, 1-player mode is really a waste of the players' time, as they'll be unable to keep on top of the Gate openings before the Ancient One awakens.  The flipside of this is that with lots of players on the board it's easier to run around and keep on top of things from one turn to the next.  In our experience 3-4 players presents the best balance, forcing players to keep their wits about them without becoming too difficult.

Average Game Time: 3 hours

That's right, we weren't kidding when we said that Arkham Horror would take over your evening.  With such a complex ruleset and deeply involved game turns, a playthrough of Arkham Horror clocks in at roughly the 3 hour mark.

Replay Value: Medium

Arkham Horror does have a lot of variable elements, with the stack of Other World Encounter and Mythos cards, and the selection of investigators and Ancient Ones.  This helps to give a random element to the game which can prevent it from being too samey from one playthrough to the next.  However, the Arkham Encounter cards will be exhausted very quickly, and the extreme length of the game may put some people off coming back for more.

The Future: Bright (if Cthulhu doesn't devour you)

Arkham Horror is one of Fantasy Flight's flagship games, and as such has been blessed with a wealth of expansions.  These add extra sections onto the game board, new investigators, new mechanics, new items, new encounter cards... basically everything needed to refresh the base game.  There are currently 8 expansions to choose from, but it's a safe bet that Fantasy Flight aren't done with the franchise just yet.

Price: £35

For a big box game, Arkham Horror carries a refreshingly small price tag.  Most games of this size will set you back around the £50 mark, but Arkham Horror comes in at roughly £35.  As one of Fantasy Flight's biggest games it's widely available, with a lot of FLGS carrying it on their shelves as standard fare.  For those that don't, however, it should be very easy to order in.

OVERALL SCORE: 7.5/10

Tea consumed during this review: PG tips with milk and 2 sweeteners... it went cold before drinking.  Brew rating 5/10

If you enjoyed this article and want to see more of the same, come and like us on our Facebook page to keep up to date with our reviews, as well as our general day-to-day ramblings!