Gen Con 2019 games wrap-up part 2
Who continues to be a lousy blogger? *holds hand up*
I did not, in fact, only play games on the Wednesday evening before the convention began, but throughout the convention as well! Thursday and Friday games below, Saturday to follow (hopefully not a week from now, though).
Thursday 8:00-10:00 p.m. – Get Me a Fresh Brain!
[image error]“Congratulations! You’ve just completed your Evil Doctorate and have returned to the small eastern European village where you grew up to exact your revenge.”
The premise of this game tickled me to no end, and kicked off a weekend of B-movie-themed board games. Players take a randomly drawn crew of evil doctor and two henchmen (well, one -man and one henchwoman) and try to gather body parts to create a monster, while preventing other players from doing the same. In the second part of the game, players build their monster and unleash it on the unwitting village. The player whose monster causes the most destruction, or is the last one standing, wins.
Thematically, the game was great, and the cards provided plenty of humour to support it. Turns being one action each, game play got a little sluggish at times, particularly when one’s carefully laid plans were abruptly kiboshed before one gets around to their turn again. It became a game of trying to build a monster quickest versus trying to obtain the best body parts and thus create the best monster, all while other players target anyone who seems to be close to doing well.
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It was an interesting game, and one I’d be willing to play again, but it’s not necessarily high on my list.
Thursday 10:00-11:30 p.m. – Chocobo Party Up!
[image error]This was a late addition to my schedule, found after an advertisement for new Square-Enix board games on the Gen Con Facebook page and which slotted perfectly into the one gap I had left in my schedule at that point. Plus, it’s chocobos, so I’m automatically in.
Players roll dice and move around the board to try to collect Chocobo pals and return them to their own nest. Cards help that and players can try to steal Chocobo pals from other players. Game play was simple, though a few rules made it slightly more complex than it first appeared. It was cute, but pretty much what I was expecting: more gimmicky than having truly engaging game play. I had fun enough while playing it, but am not particularly interested in picking up the game.
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Friday 7:00-8:00 p.m. – Animalchemists
[image error]This card game was another that caught my eye from title alone. Players each take the role of an animal alchemist, gathering ingredients and crafting potions to collect spells, trying to have the highest value collection before the game ends.
As promised, the game was cute, and the game play was simple but fun and moved quickly. Some of the animals to choose from (pangolin, sloth) were hard-pressed to compete against some of the others (fennec fox, red panda) but this production-ready game which should be Kickstarting next week had beautiful artwork and was a quick, enjoyable play.
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Friday 8:00-10:00 p.m. – Santa vs the Space Invaders
[image error]Continuing my B-movie theme, I went on to this variation of the board/card game Shuffling Horror, though, seeing as it was the first time I’ve played Shuffling Horror, I’m not certain how much of the game play was this particular variant and how much is part of the original game. Players take the role of characters, or survivors, in a B movie, and play against the Director through three acts, trying to defeat the monsters and challenges the Director presents, in an attempt to make it to the end credits.
I’m sorry to say that this was my least favourite game of the convention. Again, it was thematically very fitting and generally made a lot of sense for how it was laid out, as well as inserting some humour into the way it played and some of the cards used (as it would be for something called Santa vs the Space Invaders). However, game play was very slow, there was very little cooperation needed for what was supposed to be a co-op game, and honestly, much of the game seemed to be spent just sitting and dealing with the problems the Director dished out at us. I don’t think many of the players really enjoyed themselves and suffice to say, it wasn’t a ringing endorsement either of this expansion or of Shuffling Horror in general.
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Friday 10:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. – Venus Needs Men! [image error]
I did mention I was on a B-movie kick, didn’t I? In this Earth invasion game, players take the roles of different alien invaders (Venus is just one of the factions available) and try to take back as many humans as possible for their own purposes. Different factions have different abilities, Zap! cards can cause a multitude of effects, and players can also upgrade their ships or other equipment.
Immediately following up Santa vs the Space Invaders, I went into this game a little ambivalent, but this ended up being my favourite game of the weekend. Not an amazing game, but definitely fun. Game play moved fast and between the player abilities and particularly the Zap! cards, things could turn around quickly for any player at any time. Even when my initial burst of human gathering was swiftly smothered, I still had fun and still felt like I had a chance. Overall, this game was just plain fun to play, and I certainly wouldn’t mind ordering it sometime.
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