Gen Con 2018 Game Reviews

My Top 5 Games of Gen Con 2018

1. Cryptid

   Unfortunately, my favorite game of this year’s Gen Con was also one that I couldn’t buy (the publisher says it should release in late September). Cryptid captured my attention because it centers around a deduction mechanic that I loved in Alchemists, but that I’ve yet to see done except in an overcomplicated way. I’m buying this game as soon as I can.

2. Spirits of the Forest

   Okay, so this one was a lesson for me in not judging a game before playing it. I added this to my demo list in large part because of the box art (the publisher description certainly helped), but after glancing at the components and the board while some other folks were demoing it, I lost interest—it just didn’t capture my attention the way the box did.

   But in the airport on the way home, a friend of mine who did try it told me about his impressions of it and grabbed his copy so that we could play it. I was super impressed by it, and I’ll be grabbing a copy for myself.

3. Rise of Tribes

   Rise of Tribes combines action allocation and territory control mechanics in a way I haven’t previously seen. The dice mechanic used to select actions does a great job of capturing the feeling of passing seasons varying the effectiveness of the actions. The only reason I passed on this at Gen Con was the size of the box—I didn’t get to demo it until the last day because the publisher’s booth was constantly mobbed.

4. The Game

   While I feel The Game could have been named better, it’s a fun little cooperative tableau-building game. It’ll occupy the same space in my collection as Hanabi.

5. Detective

   Portal Games definitely came up with a interesting twist on the cooperative CYOA-style games popularized by the likes of Time Stories. In Detective, your state is tracked primarily through a website respresenting the database of the company you work for in-game. I played through a demo session at Gen Con and felt like they did a great job of integrating the game and the companion site.

   When I play this with friends, I’m definitely going to have a corkboard, some index cards, and red string handy.

Honorable Mention: Paper Tales

I’m going to cheat on my top 5 because I had trouble narrowing it down from 6. Paper Tales is an engine-building drafting game, so there was basically a 0% chance I wouldn’t enjoy playing it. Beyond the mechanics, it’s got some beautiful art, including a box I want to figure out how to display on my shelf.

Games I’m looking forward to

1. Cryptid

   Cryptid is the only game on this list that I’ve actually played, and I eagerly await its release.

2. Treasure Island

   Treasure Island is a hidden movement game (think Letters from Whitechapel, Fury of Dracula, or Hunt for the Ring) in which one player takes on the role of Long John Silver and the rest members of his mutinous crew. The lone pirate hides his treasure throughout the island, and the crew tries to find it before he can recover all of it and escape.

   There was no playable copy of the game at Gen Con, but they did have the preproduction components on hand to view. I was exceited enough going in because of the themes and the gorgeous art, but I was delighted to discover that the game board is glossy and comes with a dry-erase compass. Unlike similar games, it appears as though there aren’t specific locations marked on the board—players will actually measure distances. Also, the art looks even better in person.

   The Matagot representative who showed me the game said that they’re hoping to have playable copies of the game at Essen, with copies in stores before Christmas.

3. Betrayal Legacy

   No news at Gen Con, but I’m super psyched about this release, which should be sometime early- to mid-November.

4. KeyForge

   KeyForge is a new Richard Garfield-designed card game from Fanatsy Flight which hopes to be the first entry in a brand new genre of card games. Every deck of KeyForge is completely unique. They even have different card backs so you can’t mix the cards from different decks. MSRP for a single deck is $10. The game itself looks fun, and the unique deck model is at least intriguing, so I’m looking forward to picking up a few decks when this releases later this year.

Games I wanted to demo but didn’t get a chance

• Root was definitely the game everyone was talking about this year. It’s a completely asymmetric territory control game, and by “completely asymmetric” I mean that the players are effectively each playing different games all on the same board. Even so, the game was built to support a good deal of player interaction (a few people I know who did play it called it aggressive). Interesting concept, and great creative treatment.
• GoodCritters is a bluffing and negotiation game about dividing the loot after a heist.
• Rising 5 is a cooperative deduction game with a Mastermind-like subgame managed by a companion app. The publisher didn’t have any demo copies of the game, so all I got was a brief description from the publisher (“Pandemic meets Mastermind”), but I’m excited that the genre is exapnding beyond Alchemists.
• 1001 Odysseys seems like an interesting co-op adventure/storytelling game, but all the demos at Gen Con were ticketed.
• Before There Were Stars looks like a fun, light storytelling game where players spin myths based on constellations composed of cards and dice.
• Realm of Sand never wound up appearing at Gen Con, but what art has surfaced online looks really nice.

Full Review List

Games are listed alphabetically. BGG ratings are my own.

Arboretum

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Dan Cassar
• Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
• Notes: Brutal backstabbing hidden beneath a charming, beautifully-illustrated game about planting trees in aesthetically pleasing configurations. Normally I don’t like games where players can undo a lot of your work with one action, but I think it works here since all the scoring is hidden until the end of the game. Also, you’ll probably have ruined something they did as well.
• Bottom Line: It’s on my wishlist now. 8/10 on BGG.

Catalyst

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Permar Rodaser
• Publisher: dV Giochi
• Notes: Set collection and engine-building card game. Chaining together the individual effects was satisfying enough that I could see picking up this game in the future. I’d definitely play it again.
• Bottom Line: 7/10 on BGG.

Criss Cross

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Reiner Knizia
• Publisher: Grail Games
• Notes: Criss Cross is a simple, quick roll-and-write (explains in about 2 minutes and plays in about 10). There’s no real limit to the number of players, but it probably gets unwieldy over 6. The publisher was selling this at Gen Con for $10, but I think the normal price is either $12 or $15. Either way, well worth the money if you’re in the market for a light game to play in between heavier games or when space is at a premium (e.g., in an airport or the back seat of a car).
• Bottom Line: I bought Criss Cross. 8/10 on BGG.

Critical Mass

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Kevin Chang
• Publisher: Arcane Wonders
• Notes: Critical Mass is a quick, adaptive mech-fighting card game. The unique aspect is that each player starts with an identical deck but has a sideboard-type thing that they can bring cards in from over the course of the game, letting them adapt to their opponent’s strategy. I found it intriguing enough to pick up a copy—there are two $25 sets that are playable separately or together—but I don’t know how often I’ll wind up playing it.
• Bottom Line: I bought one of the two Critical Mass sets. 6/10 on BGG.

Cryptid

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Hal Duncan and Ruth Veevers
• Publisher: Osprey Games
• Notes: I’ve been fascinated by games that are a race to discover some kind of secret (like the identities of the potion ingredients in Alchemists, or the code in Rising 5). Most such games require either a companion app or a neutral player, but Cryptid avoids this by assigning each player a clue such that knowledge of all the clues uniquely identifies the solution. And this is presented in a game that’s super easy to start playing: there’s only two different things a player can do on their turn, and both of those are just asking other players questions and updating the board with their answers.
• Bottom Line: I would have bought Cryptid had it been available, and I’m reserving a copy at my LGS to make sure I get one as soon as I can. 9/10 on BGG.

Decrypto

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance
• Publisher: IELLO
• Notes: Team-based word-guessing game based on code excahnge. This won’t replace Codenames, but it’s an inventive enough twist on the genre that I think it deserves a spot on my shelf.
• Bottom Line: 8/10 on BGG.

Detective

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Ignacy Trzewiczek
• Publisher: Portal Games

• Notes: Detective presently comes with five cases to solve, each of which feeds into the next one. It’s definitely intended to be played as a campaign. There’s not much to the game mechanically; it’s mostly a framework for tying together series of clues in a CYOA-type way and limiting the total number of clues you get to see. The most interesting thing about Detective’s mechanics is that there’s no “victory” state. Once your time is up, you’ll take a quiz that will evaluate how much critical information you’ve discovered and score you based on the results.

  I’ve played the demo case at Gen Con, and I’m excited to get a group together to play through the main campaign now.

• Bottom Line: I bought Detective. Withholding a BGG rating until I’ve played through a few non-demo cases.

Forbidden Sky

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Matt Leacock
• Publisher: Gamewright
• Notes: The third installment in the cooperative Forbidden series, the core mechanic in Forbidden Sky is completing a circuit of small electrical components in order to make a plastic rocket light up. If you already own one of the other two games, I don’t think this one adds enough to be worth it.
• Bottom Line: 6/10 on BGG.

Greedy Kingdoms

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Hayato Kisaragi and Bruno Faidutti
• Publisher: AEG
• Notes: Bluffing game with a little minor engine/economy building. My biggest concern is balance. In the one game I played, one player was able to run away with the game by getting a powerful resource engine early, and that same thing happened in several other games people I know played. It seems to lack an adequate catch-up mechanic, since once you’re far enough behind the bluffing element goes away: it becomes easy enough for your opponent to predict your moves.
• Bottom Line: 4/10 on BGG.

Guild Master

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Chris Antony
• Publisher: Good Games

• Notes: Guild Master pleasantly surprised me. There are a lot of components, and there’s a hefty rulebook for how all of the different pieces interact. But playing the game, it feels quite a bit lighter than it actually is.

  At its core, Guild Master is a secret movement programming game: you assign teams of recruits to various tasks, then everyone reveals their assignments and carries everything out. Two players can’t do the same thing at the same stage, so there’s some conflict resolution rules, but even if you can’t take the action you wanted the backup action (“wandering”) is always available and still somewhat productive, if inefficient.

  I went into the demo thinking I was going to be bored and/or frustrated, but I really enjoyed the flow of the game.

• Bottom Line: The game is set to hit Kickstarter Q3 2018, and I’ll probably be a backer. I played with preprint rules, so I’ll be holding off on rating the game on BGG until I’ve played with final rules.

Istanbul: The Dice Game

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Rüdiger Dorn
• Publisher: AEG
• Notes: A great, medium-to-light dice rolling and set collection game. If you like any of those attributes, you’ll probably enjoy this game.
• Bottom Line: 7/10 on BGG.

Lovelace & Babbage

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Scott Almes
• Publisher: Artana
• Notes: Timed programming game, where the “programs” are sequences of arithmetic operations on a single register. Interesting historical tie-in, but I just didn’t find the game to be that fun. It was like homework, but not in a good way.
• Bottom Line: I played with a prototype, so I’ll withhold a rating.

Lucidity

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Shannon Kelly
• Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
• Notes: Fun press-your-luck dice game (including a lot of dice), with an interesting twist on player elimination: players who get too many of certain types of dice get corrupted and continue playing with a different set of rules.
• Bottom Line: 7/10 on BGG.

Magical Treehouse

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Hiroki Kasawa
• Publisher: AEG
• Notes: Magical treehouse is a charming but somewhat flawed drafting game, with elements of territory control and tableau building. The territory control element is not fully realized, and there’s a few mechanics mixed into the draft that I feel were misguided. In particular, all drafting is real-time and there are some cards which are played during the draft (many of which sound better on paper than they actually play). I got this game in a swag bag, and I’ll probably try to develop a set of house rules that improve the game.
• Bottom Line: 4/10 on BGG.

Paper Tales

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Masato Uesugi
• Publisher: Stronghold Games
• Notes: In Paper Tales, players draft characters to recruit into their town, over a series of four rounds (generations). Between generations, characters generate gold, fight wars with neighboring towns, and gather resources. All the while, they age and eventually die, so you’ll be limited in how long you can use their abilities. The heart of the game lies in finding interactions between characters.
• Bottom Line: I bought Paper Tales, surprising no one. 8/10 on BGG.

Rise of Tribes

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Brad Brooks
• Publisher: Breaking Games

• Notes: Rise of Tribes generated a decent amount of buzz prior to the convention, for good reason. It was described as a dice placement game, so I went in expecting some kind of worker placement, when in reality the action selection is much closer to action point allocation than worker placement—other players’ choices of actions don’t exclude any actions from you. However, the strength of the action varies according to which dice are allocated to each action (and which have been over the last few turns).

  Over the course of the game, playrs will move and grow their tribes, build villages, develop technologies, and respond to the occasional random event. There is some player interaction, but unlike in many similar games, players have the option of peacefully coexisting on the same board space.

• Bottom Line: Rise of Tribes is on my list of games to buy. 8/10 on BGG.

Spirits of the Forest

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Michael Schacht
• Publisher: ThunderGryph Games
• Notes: Spirits of the Forest is an elegant drafting and set collection game in which players select tiles representing different spirits from a central grid, trying to create a diverse collection while still domination other players in as many spirit types as possible. There’s very little randomness and hidden information, so the game can feel brutal if there’s a high skill delta between players. Yet despite the fact that I’m bad at it, the game is short and interesting enough that I can have fun while losing.
• Bottom Line: High on my buy list. 9/10 on BGG.

Swordcrafters

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Adam Rehberg and Chris Neuman
• Publisher: Adam’s Apple Games
• Notes: Simple, fun sword-building game. Players divide up a grid of tiles and then pick from the resulting groups and add them to their swords. The game is simple enough that it can be played while drunk. Seems well-placed as a pallete cleanser between heavier games or if you’re with a group that just wants to swing cardboard swords and make fun of the fact that the first thing you do during scoring is compare sword lengths. Component quality is good enough that it doesn’t seem like it’ll fall apart too quickly.
• Bottom Line: 7/10 on BGG.

Team UP!

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Sébastien Pauchon and Hadi Barkat
• Publisher: Helvetiq
• Notes: Cooperative box-stacking puzzle game. Fun and challenging, with great components, but the fact that it’s not as portable as something like Hanabi makes me less likely to buy it.
• Bottom Line: 7/10 on BGG.

The Game

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Steffen Benndorf
• Publisher: Pandasaurus Games

• Notes: The Game is a great cooperative puzzle game that fits squarely into the same category as Hanabi: players are trying to play all of the cards in their hands into a shared tableau according to a set of rules, while limited in how they can communicate. The game seems reasonably difficult, but it also includes suggestions for makign it harder if your group gets better at it.

  One important note about the art: Previously, the game had a weird and unnecessary horror theme, but it has just recently been republished with nice (and, in my opinion, more fitting) abstract art. I suspect this change was made to make the game more mass market friendly, as Target looks to be carrying it.

• Bottom Line: I bought a copy. 8/10 on BGG.

Troika

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Jun Sasaki
• Publisher: Oink Games
• Notes: Mahjong-inspired set collection game. Box size, component quality, and cuteness level are all consistent with what we’ve come to expect from Oink Games.
• Bottom Line: Bought it. 7/10 on BGG.

War Chest

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson
• Publisher: AEG
• Notes: War Chest went up a lot in my estimation once I actually sat down and played it. The game is not terribly mechanically interesting, but I found it somewhat satisfying to play, in part due to the clean, simple art and nice clay chips; and in part due to the pace of play, which starts out slow and plodding and speeds up in a nice way once everyone has troops on board.
• Bottom Line: War Chest is not high on my buy list, but I’ll probably own it at some point. 7/10 on BGG, largely for aesthetic reasons.

World Championship Russian Roulette

• BoardGameGeek
• Designer: Anthony Burch
• Publisher: Tuesday Knight Games
• Notes: WCRR looked at first like a microgame—and not a particularly interesting one—but the action cards elevate the game above the pure random bluffing of the base rules. The combination of the simplicity of the core game, the interesting action cards, and the game’s sense of humor make this something I’ll probably own at some point.
• Bottom Line: 7/10 on BGG.