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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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First off, favorite title ever. Hands off my Morpork!
Time once more for the rotating thumb to cover some of my recent plays. November was an odd month full of good and bad games, and hardly anything in between. The great news is that I might have found a game that hit my Top 10 all-time, so let's get to that.
Flash Point: Fire Rescue
So, wow! I certainly do like co-ops, as evidenced by so many in my Top 25, but knowing all that I still wasn't quite prepared for Flash Point to hit the table. And this game was HYPED to heck and back, even. The Kickstarter campaign was a success, and once I got my copy I was very pleased with the components and quality of the presentation. Being a game that plays well solo has its advantages, as the first thing I did when I received it was to open it up and dig in. Ever had one of those first plays that stick with you? Especially in a co-op type, save-the-world kind of game? Yeah, my first time playing I barely got the dog out of the house before the whole thing came crushing down. It was thematic, it was tense, and it was exciting. Since then, I've played Flash Point with all the player numbers ranging from 2-6, and very few times has the game not produced an exciting experience. Flash Point is one of those games that after it's played, you sit there wondering how in the world this game hadn't been invented sooner. Rescuing victims from a burning building is a terrific theme for a co-op, and it's handled well from pillar to post so far. The expansion board, Flash Point: Fire Rescue Urban Structures, is even better than I first imagined it would be, as the high rise and duplex scenarios are varied and quite different. We finally beat the high rise the other day, and that's no small feat!
All in all, if you like having fun, and if you like co-ops, this game is for you. I don't care about random dice-rolling for fires, or whatever else people could come up with to complain about. Fires are inherently random, and any firefighter will tell you how risky and volatile the situation is. The game does an EXCELLENT job portraying the theme, and the game itself is solid and fun. My highest recommendation for what is one of my Top 10 co-op games and perhaps one of my favorite games, period.
Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game
Another co-op, this time a bit different. Well, different if you haven't played the first two D&D-based co-op games, Ravenloft and Ashardalon. This is the latest entry to the series, focused on the world of Drizzt, and I have to say that I haven't seen a lot of progression in the system. The differences between the three games is very little, mechanics-wise. But while I thought Ravenloft was okay (haven't gotten to play with the red dragon Ashardalon yet) Drizzt stands above it's older brother tall and proud. For one thing, Drizzt is less ugly than Ravenloft. Notice I didn't say "better looking". The tiles in Drizzt are illustrated much better, and even the traps have a nice-looking drawing on them, so you have an idea what's trying to kill you. The character cards are more fleshed-out, and the introduction of a few tweaks make them more enjoyable to play with. But at the heart of it, this is a continuation of the system that you're either going to like or dislike, really. I can't imagine anyone LOVING the system, unless they haven't played other co-ops. But for what it does, it does it well. My son and I will play through the quests, like we did with Ravenloft, and then sell or trade the copy. In my opinion, it's worth the "rental" -- keeping Drizzt for anything long-term, though, seems fruitless.
Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
I have to apologize for the title, but not knowing anything about the books had me stumped. And perhaps that's one of the reasons why this title did a huge bellyflop for me -- I really know nothing about Discworld. To be honest, from what a friend told me about the world as we played, I don't think I'd be very interested. I tend to take my fantasy reading quite seriously (Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, Pillars of the Earth -- needs an "of" in the title, evidently) and the Discworld universe seems a bit ... whimsical. So while the books probably aren't for me, I discovered that the game wasn't either. Oh, perhaps it's not all that bad, and I will admit that I'm sure after four or five plays it might be quite tense, but after one play I came across quite sour on it.
You see, Discworld contains something that I DESPISE in games. DESPISE, all caps. Hidden objectives. And it's not just hidden objectives, it's hidden END THE GAME RIGHT NOW THIS SECOND objectives. That means that you can do what I was doing in my game, and trying to wind down the time so all the cards get played so I can win, and all of a sudden, someone slaps down a tower 15 minutes through and proclaims the game over. To me, this is not fun. Again, if I had known every single power then perhaps I could try and stop it. That would most likely lead to someone announcing to the group, "Hey! Todd has six towers and he needs one more to win if he had that objective! We must destroy his towers now!" kind of thing. And that can have its place and be fun. But I'm just not sure there's enough in this game to even get to that place. I understand Mr. Wallace wanting to design a game that a non-gaming fan of the series would get, and to be honest, I think he wins with that. But this game, and the series, isn't for me.
     
All right! That's it for today. I take my sweet time in getting these things out, but I enjoy doing them when I can. Next around the corner I will take a look at 2010 (yup, not 2011) and hand out some gleaming trophies to my favorites. Expect a lot of groaning. Thanks for reading.
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While there are 7 goals, 3 of them are identical so that there are only 5 you have to know. And they are clearly pointed out on the player aids (in the standard edition as well)
They victory conditions need to be met at the START of your turn. So you can't just "slap down a tower..and proclaim the game over"
