Tom P
United Kingdom
One day I shall have overtext on my avatar as well; then I'll be a PROPER geek.
-
I've been tracking my game purchases in this geeklist, but as the posts seem to be more like 'impression reviews', it makes sense to post them as such, too.
Background: I was bored so I ordered Pandemic off the interweb. Liked the sound of co-operative play, all against the board and the theme seemed intriguing.
First impressions: What a lovely box. No really, that was my first thought. Smooth, compact, nice artwork...yep, I do like a nice box. Inside the joy continued, and then I read the rules. And again. At this point I knew this game was a little different to my usual fayre, and I liked the sound of it. Couldn't wait to crack open a play.
First play: Even though I'd read the rules in advance it still took a bit of working out at set-up, but no matter. Our first play was probably a little slow as we got to grips with the mechanics, and kept forgetting to do one of the actions or getting them in the wrong order. Eventually though, we got into the swing of things and managed to win right at the end, although I confess this was only by (unintentional) cheating.
Ongoing play: It doesn't take long to realise which role cards are more useful than others. When we play as two we diligently pick them at random, even though we both know we'd rather play with Medic-Scientist to have the best chance of a win. It's also quite difficult to explain the rules to a larger group; my explanation when we tried to play with four ended up a jumbled mess and I wouldn't have blamed our friends if they were thinking this was going to be the most boring game in the history of boring games ever. I probably didn't help the cause by taking over the game and giving everyone 'tips' each turn on what actions to take so that we won, but to my surprise they all seemed up for another round having grasped the concept and I managed to curb my bossiness for a second go. I guess it's just one of those games you need to play through once to get the hang of how it works in practice.
In sum: A slow starter, but I really like this game. The downside is the slightly complicated play which could put people off first time round, but I like the co-operative aspect (sense a theme?) as it forces interaction and gives a feeling of all or nothing, which is much more satisfying when you win, I think. Probably a game I will want to play more often than I am able to, if you see what I mean.
Most quoted: "Ah. Epidemic."
Seldom seen: Look of pure joy as someone picks the Operations Expert.
Postscript: I rate this 8/10.After several plays I realise this is not that complex a game as I thought at first - rather, there are just quite a few things to remember to do; this was an introduction to 'action points' for me, so it took a bit of getting used to that, but with the likes of Tikal in my collection it has become quite familiar.
I also own Pandemic: On the Brink, and rate that 8.5/10 to reflect the fact that it really does improve the base game - I'm not a fan of expansions normally, but this is such a good one it seemed silly not to get it. Yet to try the bio-terrorist, but the other variations are superb.
-
Bob Archer
United States
Tampa
Florida
-
Really.. .I don't know why to poor Op Expert gets poo pooed so much.
You might also want to play with the "fixed" op expert rule adding in On The Brink even with the base game.
BOb
-
Tom P
United Kingdom
One day I shall have overtext on my avatar as well; then I'll be a PROPER geek.
-
I have the expansion, which only makes the original Op Exp seem even more...average. I think s/he just doesn't seem to have enough usefulness - although this is certainly fixed with the updated version. I still keep the original card, sometimes nice to make things a little more tricky for ourselves
-
Bob Archer
United States
Tampa
Florida
-
You really have to work with the team you are dealt though right.
The Op Expert has the advantage that they don't have to travel to a research station to cure... they can just build one. Also having a large network of stations makes travel much easier. When we have the little green guy on the team we always use all the stations.
If you have a researcher and an Op Expert the researcher can give him a card or two, he can build a station where he is and cure. Sure, it takes an action to build one...but no need to use a card. Normally to build a station you have to have the card for that city. I don't know how many times we had someone with a cure that was 1 or 2 actions away from a station.
BOb
-
|
|
