I’ve always been told not to judge a book by its cover, but does anyone actually listen to that advice? At first glance, Ethnos is a drab, stark-looking game filled with a dozen generic high fantasy races, a map of muted colors and uninspired names, and tiny, fickle plastic pieces that have no thematic connection…
There’s always a lighthouse, there’s always a man, there’s always a city. And in this case, there’s always a game. Loosely based on the hit sequel to 2007’s BioShock, the board game adaptation of BioShock Infinite takes some liberties with its electronic source material. Set in the same world, at the same time, while the…
Adrenaline, so aptly named by Czech Games Edition, is a 3 to 5 player area control game under the pretense of a first-person shooter. Like its electronic forebears, in Adrenaline’s cardboard version of deathmatch, each player will be running around an arena, scavenging for weapons and ammunition, and trying to score the most shots against other players. Land the killing blow to earn a higher score, but watch out, because the more often a player is killed, the less points they will be worth – and when they respawn, they’ll be hungry for blood.
What do you get when you combine the premise of the film Alien with the gameplay mechanisms of Battleship? A really weird mash-up is what. But, if you also answered Escape From the Aliens in Outer Space, then you’d be right. Although you don’t get any credit because of course that was the answer. It’s…
Are you an armchair Television executive? Have you ever thought that you could do a better job at running a Television network than the suits currently in charge? Well, you’re probably wrong, but now’s your chance to find out. Stripped down to its most basic principles, in The Networks, you will be leading one of…
Have you ever cultivated your own bamboo garden only to have a pesky panda come and eat your entire harvest? If so, then this game might trigger some Vietnam-style flashbacks for you and I’d advise you to stay clear. Otherwise, for the rest of us, Takenoko is a 2-4 player set collection game with a…
There are a lot of board games that require a significant investment of time, upwards of an hour on the low end, and sometimes even that’s being generous. If your gaming group is full of talkers, you could easily add 30 minutes to anything you play. But sometimes you just want a game to kill…
In the fifth expansion and sixth scenario of T.I.M.E. Stories, the Consortium is sending the agents back to 15th century Spain during a period known as the Reconquista, the attempt by Christians to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula controlled by the Muslims. Your receptacles are part of a delegation tasked with accompanying Michael d’Ailly, the Legate of Pope Martin V., to a secret gathering.
One of the hottest Kickstarter success stories arose last year when UK board game publisher Steamforged Games announced that they had acquired the license to make the Dark Souls board game that most fans didn’t know they wanted. Within 3 minutes of the Kickstarter campaign launching, the game reached its initial goal of $72,000, and…
There was a time, not too long ago, when board games based on existing intellectual properties were an immediate pass. They were often seen as cheap or uninspired cash grabs, attempts by the large-scale board game manufacturers to leech off the success of the property upon which their game would be based. Look no further…
“On the fringe, blood and bullets are the rule of law and if you’re a man with convictions, violence is inevitable.” This quote from John Teller, the titular club’s founding member, is among the first words printed within the rulebook of Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem, a 3 to 4 player area control/resource acquisition…
The barbarians have come. You always knew they would, it was just a matter of time. Running for your lives, you managed to grab what little supplies you could salvage before everything was lost for good. The few that made it out alive have escaped the slaughter, but the toughest part is yet to come.…
