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YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG is heading to Consoles and PC/Mac on Jan. 17, 2019!

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG, is a surreal Japanese-style RPG that is set at the end of the last millennium.  After witnessing a woman vanish from an elevator, college graduate Alex embarks on an adventure to rescue her, which spirals into an epic quest with stakes higher than he could have ever imagined. Alex’s search for the woman and the truth behind her disappearance lead him and his companions on a journey rife with mystery and danger. What does that mean? Dungeons!

Players will traverse dungeons that are littered with puzzles, traps and bizarre monsters with a party whose members can be swapped out mid-battle on the fly in a combat system that blends twitchy minigames with turn-based combat. Brandish records, cameras, musical instruments and more against enemies ranging from floating, yammering skulls to tortoise samurais.

YIIK has more than 30 hours of content to fight and quest your way through and it also has a fully-voiced main story campaign featuring talents such as Chris Niosi (Tales of Zestiria), Clifford Chapin (Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel) and more!

The graphics also look on point. A cross between the retro look of the classic PS1 JRPG’s and today’s modernistic looks. The polygonal rendering, lack of textures and a rich, saturated colour scheme lend to the dreamlike, otherworldly qualities of the environments and their inhabitants.
“YIIK is an unusual mix of almost hallucinatory imagery and cross-genre gameplay,” said Andrew Allanson, founder and co-director, Ackk Studios. “These elements will draw the player deep into a bizarre, dreamlike world as Alex pursues his quest for answers. But what truths will he discover? How many layers does the onion have?”

From the early looks at the game, its shaping up to be something special. Check out the new trailer below!

For more information, please visit the YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG official website or follow @YsbrydGames and @ackkstudios on Twitter.

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NewsTabletop

Tabletop News!10/12/18

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

Gather round people. We have interesting news. Metal Gear Solid is back and a certain Kickstarter is taking in a ton of money!

Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game

First up. Wow! This IP has been ripe for a board game since for whenever. IDW Games has stepped up and is in the process of making it a reality. Designer? Non-other than Emerson Matsuuchi! Another wow! He describes the games as follows:

Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game is a co-operative “tactical espionage action” game that’s scenario-based, with each scenario having its own playing time, but with most of them in the 60-90 minute range. The game will include miniatures, but it’s not classified as a miniatures game. Hmm. We have absolutely nothing else on this game. Stealthy…

 

Clank! Legacy

Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated extends the deck-building fun of Clank! with legacy-style gameplay! Found your own franchise of the legendary adventuring company Acquisitions Incorporated, and shepherd your fledgeling treasure-hunters to immortal corporate glory over the course of multiple games. Your game board, your deck, and your world change as you play to create a unique campaign tailored to your adventuring party. Be cunning, be bold, and most importantly be ready to destroy most of your game. This is due out Q4 2019.

Godsforge

Now, this has us intrigued. We are not big fans of simultaneous play but this is looking top quality. The box art is also very easy on the eye.

From the publisher:

Godsforge features simultaneous play, with each player attacking the player to their left and defending against the player on their right. On a turn, everyone simultaneously rolls four dice up to three times using standard Yahtzee rules, then each player lays one of their four cards face down in front of them. In any order you want, players reveal those cards, paying the cost of them via specific numbers on rolled dice, the sum of rolled dice, veilstones, or a combination of the above. On the dice, 1s can be any number you wish, while an unused 6 can be spent to acquire a veilstone. Spells provide one-shot effects, while creations go into play in front of you, with some of them providing one-shot “enter play” abilities in addition to possible attack and defence values and sacrifice abilities. Once all the cards have been resolved, players assess damage comparing their attack value against their target’s defence. You then ditch any cards you don’t want, then refill your hand to four.

Once a player is eliminated, everyone still in the game starts taking damage from them each round in order to hasten the endgame.

Niepodległa

One for all you war game fanatics and history buffs out there.

Niepodległa, which is Polish for “independent”, is a board game published by Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the rebirth of Poland. The game illustrates the events that led to the restoration of Poland’s sovereignty. This co-operative game played with dice and cards is for 2–4 players aged 12 or over and has two variants: basic, mostly aimed at education (30 minutes) and advanced for intermediate or experienced players (90 minutes). Nice to see this kind of thing in such games.

The scope of the gameplay are the events of the years 1910–1920 with an emphasis on the period between the outbreak of the First World War and the restoration of Poland’s sovereignty in 1918. The board represents the former and — eventually — the future territory of Poland. The players immerse themselves in the operations undertaken by the key characters of the battle for the independence; they try to spread the ideas of independence, seek a national consensus, and strengthen Poland’s position in the world. If they fulfil certain conditions, Poland will regain sovereignty in the grand finale in 1918.

However, despite regaining independence, if the players fail to meet decisive challenges — the Peace Conference in Paris, the development of a new state administration, the struggle over Poland’s borders as well as the uprisings in Greater Poland and Silesia and the Poland-Bolshevik war — Poland may well cease to exist.

Niepodległa has 50 wooden pieces (including 19 special dice), 110 beautifully illustrated large playing cards and 24 smaller ones, as well as 88 cardboard pieces, 2 instruction leaflets (for both variants) and a richly illustrated booklet with a historical essay. On our watch list.

Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

This weeks Kickstarter has already taken an insane amount of money. It’s currently sitting at $3.5 million! Their target was only $70k! Well done! There are still 18 days left in the campaign and we suggest heading over HERE to take a look. The game looks fantastic!

Designed by Krzysztof Piskorski (one of the most well-known Polish fantasy writers) and Marcin Świerkot (owner of Awaken Realms, developer of Lords of Hellas, Nemesis, The Edge: Dawnfall), Tainted Grail will bring you adventure, survival and exploration mechanics perfectly paired with character development and exciting combat and diplomatic systems.

The game is built around immersive, story-driven exploration that will bring the world of Avalon to life, confronting you and your team with difficult choices that have far-reaching consequences. Over 100,000 words of branching story scripts provide many different paths to your goal as well as several different endings to your adventures!

This game looks incredible from top to bottom. The components and artwork are all outstanding. Must have Kickstarters only come along once in a while and this is one of those times! Hyped!

Quick and easy this week! See you next time!

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NewsReviewTabletop

Review: Mountains of Madness

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

What’s it about?

1931. During an expedition to Antarctica, scientists have exposed the vestiges of an ancient city of gigantic proportions behind a chain of -to all appearances- impassable mountains. Players must work together and communicate well to successfully scale the mountain, find mysterious relics and then escape from the accursed place that you have found yourself in. Above all, you must be careful not to lose your health and most importantly your sanity…

What’s in the box?

Lots and lots of lovely things! Cards, cards and more cards. There are a lot of cards. There is the main game board, location boards, a sand timer, an evil looking die and plenty more. Have a look:

  • 1 Mountain Board
  • 5 Double-sided Character Boards
  • 1 Airplane Figurine
  • 1 Sand Timer (30 seconds)
  • 1 Sled Board
  • 6 Leadership Tokens
  • 1 Penalty Die
  • 36 Encounter Tiles
  • 66 Madness Cards
  • 11 Relic Tokens
  • 48 Equipment Cards
  • 11 Relic Cards
  • 15 Injury Cards

How Does it Play?

The goal of the game is to recover relics hidden on the mountain and then escape. Sounds easy enough. Well…it isn’t.

As members of this strange expedition, you will face challenges whose horror you cannot fully comprehend. By using the equipment on your cards, you must work together to overcome these horrifying challenges. Do your best, since time matters! Each challenge overcome makes the road to victory easier, but if—despite your best efforts—you do not succeed, you will suffer injuries or even lose your sanity. The closer you get to the summit, the greater your madness will become. And as madness seizes each member of your team, it becomes that much harder to communicate with each other, as you head towards your inevitable demise…

If by chance, you manage to escape, you will need to assess your team. At the end of the game, if you have more Relic cards (Specimen, Ruin, Knowledge) than Injuries, your expedition was a success and you win the game. If the opposite is true, the expedition turned out to be much too costly for the few discoveries made and you lose the game. But that is nothing compared to losing all hope of surviving in this hostile terrain.

The game is broken up into the following phases: Movement, Encounter, Resolution, Draw and Rest. Let’s take a look at each one.

Movement

During the movement phase, the leader will decide which direction to move the expedition in. When you first begin the game, you can only select a space on the bottom row. Once you start moving up the mountain, you can move to any adjacent space, including back down. You can discuss with your group on what the best direction is to take. Once the movement has been agreed upon, the leader will place the aeroplane on that space and take the tile from it and place it facedown where all the group can see it easily. This now triggers the next phase.

Encounter

This is where things get…hectic. The leader turns over the tile that was selected earlier and the sand timer at the same time. The group now has 30 seconds to complete the challenges listed on the tile. For example, the tile might list 10-12 guns and 14 crates. Players will need to discuss what cards they have and what they will be playing. All within 30 seconds. The cards they have in their hands will have a symbol (guns, tools, books and crates) and a number ) from (2 to 6). they need to play cards to meet the title requirement. If they are above or below the number when the cards are revealed, they fail the challenge. Any cards that are not played facedown to the table when the timer runs out are ignored. Well, why not just play them immediately? Good question. The thing is, once a card is placed on the table…nobody can talk. If they do, the group loses a leadership token. Oh, and there are madness cards…

Madness cards only come into effect while the timer is active. They cards alter the way you can interact with the group members. They can make communication difficult or eat up your time by forcing you to do tasks before playing a card. Once the timer runs out though, the player cannot discuss their madness. It’s like it never happened. Players begin with a level one madness but as the game progresses, level two and three cards will begin to appear.

Resolution

Once the timer has run out and the madness has faded, the leader determines if the challenges were successes or failures. If you successfully overcame at least on the challenges listed on the tile, you gain the listed reward. For every failure, the leader must choose either to give a player a new madness card. If they already have a madness card then they have to take the next level up version and go a little more insane. The leader can also roll the penalty die if they don’t want to give a card. Rolling the die can lead to three possibilities: Accident, Confusion and Loss of Confidence. All not good.

Draw

The draw phase is very simple. The leader deals out cards until each player is back to their hand limit.

Rest

The rest phase is the only optional phase of the game. Here the leader can decide if they want to take all the leadership tokens back from the discard area, at the cost of permanently removing one of the tokens from the game. The equipment deck is also shuffled with any cards in the discard pile. Watch out for those injury cards!

So that is a game round. Players keep doing this as they progress up the mountain collecting relics. In order to win the game players must reach the final tile and have equal to or more relic cards than injury cards combined. One way to win! Many ways to lose. Yes, you can lose if all the leadership tokens are returned to the box. You can lose if there are no injury cards in the deck when you need to draw one. You can lose escaping with fewer relic cards than injury cards. Who said it was going to be easy?

A quick word on the leadership tokens as we’ve mentioned them a few times. These tokens are like a currency. You can choose to use them during each phase to make things a little easier. You could discard one token to say add an extra 30 seconds to the timer in the encounter phase.

Components

The components to this game are top notch. The board is wonderful and the tiles are nice thick. The cards of a good quality and what limited artwork there is in this game is faithful to the theme. Even the player token is fantastic. A lovely little aeroplane. The leaderships tokens are weighty, poker chip type things and the sand timer is also of good quality and quick big too. Easy to grab and see! The player boards are double-sided, with one side being male and the other female. A nice touch.

Overall, this is a solidly put together and good looking game.

Overall

This is a fantastic game. It’s a party game at heart and a really fun one to boot. The madness cards really make the game shine along with the limited time to get the challenges completed. The horror as players madnesses creep into the game can be unnerving. When asking a fellow player what cards they had, they screamed and remained silent for the remaining 30 seconds. It didn’t help that another player kept looking under the table for something each time they played a card. Couple that with the person to the right who was high fiving everybody it seemed we were doomed to fail. We did. But it was hilarious. There is a massive collection of madness cards meaning that the game has a huge replayability factor.

This is a must-have party game that plays best with the full player count of 5. The only thing we would put against the game is that you do really need a good group to get the most out of it. If anybody gets uncomfortable acting out or being silly then this is not for them and would a detriment to this wonderfully crafted game.

 

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NewsTabletop

TableTop News! 30/11/18

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

Greetings! The year is nearly done! It went fast didn’t it? 2018 has had some fantastic games and 2019 looks like it’s going to be just as good. We’ll have a top 10 most anticipated games for 2019 list hitting soon so your wallet can cry and give its arguments over why you shouldn’t buy any more boardgames but anyway, let’s get to this weeks news!

In the Hall of the Mountain King

They say never judge a book by its cover and the same principle applies to board games. However, we are going to ignore that principle for this title as all we have is a cover. Look:

We like this cover a lot. We hope to like the game too. The only other pieces of information we have is that it’s hitting Kickstarter on February 5th and it’s a territory building fantasy game where you play as Trolls rebuilding your abandoned kingdom at the heart of the mountain. It uses various gameplay mechanics such as Area Control, Tile Placement, Resource Management and Pick Up and Deliver. We have our eye on this.

Dead Man’s Cabal

What do you do when you’ve conquered death and mastered all nine dimensions of space-time? Well, let’s see.

From the box:

Reality bends to your every whim and desire. You are the absolute best there ever has been, a necromancer at the top of their game. The only downside is that no one likes you on account of the creeping around with dead bodies and the lack of sunlight. But who needs friends when you can make them?

Dead Man’s Cabal is a mid-weight strategy game from Daniel Newman, with game development from Jonathan Gilmour (Dead of Winter, Dinosaur Island). In the game, 2-4 players compete to bring the dead back to life so that they can throw a party with actual, you know, guests.

The gameplay is a clever interplay of a unique action selection mechanism that allows players to choose both a private action followed by a group action, requiring tense decision-making on the timing of the different phases of the game. Collect bodies, crystal skulls, and runes, then bring the dead back to life. This might sound simple enough, but triggering the actions in just the right order requires careful planning to make sure you aren’t helping your competitors more than yourself.

Sounds pretty interesting and anything from Jonathan Gilmour piques out interest. This is available now and would make an excellent gift for the festive season. Just look at the cover. No complaints there.

Cat Nap

We’ve seen a lot of strange games but this…this is a whole lot of strange.

Cat Nap is a press your luck game dexterity game. Nervous hands time! Players take turns to place plastic ducks one by one on the sleeping cat’s tummy (don’t ask, please don’t ask). After a duck is placed you draw a card to see where and how the cat will twitch in its sleep. Hopefully, none of the ducks will fall…

This is straight up bonkers. We want it so bad! It is currently available in Japan from publisher Kuondou. Sadly, no word on a release outside of Japan yet.

Reichbusters: Projekt Vril

This weeks Kickstarter is a big one. Big on scope. Big on miniatures. Big on price. You all still in?

From the Kickstarter:

Reichbusters: Projekt Vril is a fast and furious game with lots of weird science, witty one-liners, and heroic moments set during World War II. It is late December 1944 and, on the face of it, history has unfolded as we know it, but that could be about to change.

The Nazis have discovered a source of “vril” that has been brought back to the Reich for study. Vril is a source of energy that can control all types of matter. It can destroy like lightning or replenish life, heal, or cure. It is used to rend through solid matter. Its light is said to be steadier, softer and healthier than that from any flammable material. It can also be used as a power source for animating mechanisms.

If the Nazis work out how to harness this power it will be more potent than the atomic bomb. The secret Nazi experiments are not just a threat to the outcome of the war, but to the entire world. Many different secret bunkers hold all manner of research into the properties of the enigmatic vril and we’re sending you, the Reichbusters, on a mission to stop this research in its tracks!

No pressure then. Take a look at the base pledge. No stretch goals. Just the lonesome, cheapest pledge.

That’s a lot of stuff! We absolutely love co-op games here and this one is shaping up to be something special. If you are interested like us, you can back the game HERE! There are only a few hours left but don’t fret. The game has been funded. Over $1 million has been pledged so far. The only downside..you won’t see it until at least November 2019.

Happy gaming! See you next week!

 

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ConsoleNews

Red Dead Redemption 2 Online Is Here!

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

Over the next few days, the online component for Red Dead Redemption 2 will be made available to players. Those who purchased the special editions will get first dibs at while all those who bought the regular version will have to sit tight and wait for Friday. Let’s take a look at what the beta has to offer.

The Red Dead Online Open World

The main part of the online experience will be the open world to roam about in. When first starting out you will need to create a character. Male and Female options are available. Once you are happy with your setup you will find yourself at the Sisika Penitentiary. From there the world is yours. You can Posse up with friends, camp, hunt for treasures, explore, take part in free roam challenges, go hunting, help strangers (or not) and engage in co-op story missions. Maybe we will be able to find Gavin also…

While you play online you will gather XP from all the activities you take part in. This will allow you to rank up your character and gain more abilities. The honour system from the single player makes it way over to the online portion also. Honour will change the world around you and because of this missions will change depending on what honour standing you have.

The Showdown Series

As you travel the world of Red Dead Online, you will come across various Showdown Series signposts. Interact with the signpost and you will be taken to the multiplayer lobby for that game type. Let’s take a look at the modes available in the beta.

Name Your Weapon

This mode sees player teaming up or battling out in a free for all. Gain the most points to win by using as many different weapons as possible to get kills. Sort of like a classic Gun Game type mode.

Most Wanted

This is more like a standard deathmatch mode where players win by being top of the leaderboard at the end of the match. You gain points for kills but if you are at the top of the leaderboard at any point during the match, the player who kills you gets double the points. you need to be top to win but you become….the most wanted.

Hostile Territory

Teams battle it out for control of all the territories on the map. The score will increase for each capture you make and the team with the most points at the end wins. However, if at any point a team captures all the territories then they win immediately.

Shootout

This Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. Players fight it out. First to the designated kill score wins. Simple.

Make It Count

Oh boy. A Battle Royale mode. With a twist. There are 2 modes to this. One where you can only use a bow and arrow and the other where it’s throwing knives only. As with all BR games, the play area slowly decreases over time. Last man standing wins.

All in all this a solid start for Red Dead Online. It’s a little sparse at the moment but there will be many, many things added to it in its lifetime. Just look at GTA Online right now. The amount of content is insane. If it follows that model, then Red Dead Online is going to be one wild ride…

 

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FeatureTabletop

Top 5 Party Games That No Party Should Be Without!

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

There’s nothing quite like a good old party game. They are easy to learn and a whole lot of fun to play. If you have the right group of people playing (and include copious amounts of booze) then things will probably get insanely ridiculous pretty quickly. Party games need a good group of friends to play. If the group doesn’t gel or some are socially awkward then the games can fall flat. So grab those friends that don’t mind making a fool out of themselves, get some booze (if needed) and let’s take a look at 5 of the best!

5. Say Anything

Say Anything is a game about what you and your friends think. From the get-go, to get the best out of this game, you need to play with people you really know. We mean it. REALLY know!. All the darkest details…

On your turn, you draw a card and then select a question from it. For example, “What is the worst thing you have ever bought?”. The rest of the players will write on their answer boards and place it in the middle of the table face-up as quickly as possible. No duplicates are allowed in this game. So you have to be fast! Players will then bet on which answer the question giver will choose.

It’s a super simple game that is a ton of fun. As mentioned earlier, the more people know about each other the better it is as you can have some hilariously specific answers and everybody will probably give answers that could be correct. This leads to crazy voting rounds where players have to choose from several fantastic options. A great way to start or end a party/game night.

4. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

There’s been a murder. One of the players at the table did it. There could be an accomplice too. A witness maybe. We need to get to the bottom of this.

From the publisher:

In the game, players take on the roles of investigators attempting to solve a murder case – but there’s a twist. The killer is one of the investigators! Each player’s role and team are randomly assigned at the start of play and include the unique roles of Forensic Scientist, Witness, Investigator, Murderer, and Accomplice. While the Investigators attempt to deduce the truth, the murderer’s team must deceive and mislead. This is a battle of wits!

The Forensic Scientist has the solution but can express the clues only using special scene tiles while the investigators (and the murderer) attempt to interpret the evidence. In order to succeed, the investigators must not only deduce the truth from the clues of the Forensic Scientist, they must also see through the misdirection being injected into the equation by the Murderer and Accomplice!

Find out who among you can cut through deception to find the truth and who is capable of getting away with murder!

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a great large group deduction game that again is much better when you play with people you know really well (this is going to be a common theme). We are not going to go into the fine details of the game as going into depth on all the roles is a separate article in itself. What we tell you is that you will have a lot of fun playing this. As the clues slowly get revealed, more information about the location and weapon used is potentially revealed to the group. All good. Maybe. You glance down at your collection of cards and realise you look guilty as hell. You need to make a case that it’s not you and deflect back the suspicion to somebody else…

The social interaction between all players in the game is the best part. You talk through the clues, you defend yourself against wrongful accusations, plead innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence and do your best to implicate somebody else in the crime. Couple all this with the various roles and you get a wonderful group game that can be played in 20 minutes or less.

3. Secret Hitler

Ah. Where would a party game list be without Secret Hitler. A game of political intrigue and betrayal that could go terribly wrong at any moment. Especially if alcohol is involved…

Players are randomly and secretly assigned to be either a liberal or a fascist, and of course, one player is Secret Hitler. The fascists must coordinate to sow distrust and install their cold-blooded leader and the liberals must find and stop the Secret Hitler before it’s too late.

At the beginning of the game, players close their eyes, and the fascists reveal themselves to one another. Secret Hitler keeps his eyes closed, but puts his thumb up so the fascists can see who he is. The fascists learn who Hitler is, but Hitler doesn’t know who his fellow fascists are, and the liberals don’t know who anyone is.

Each round, players elect a President and a Chancellor who will work together to enact a law from a random deck. If the government passes a fascist law, players must try to figure out if they were betrayed or simply unlucky. Secret Hitler also features government powers that come into play as fascism advances. The fascists will use those powers to create chaos unless liberals can pull the nation back from the brink of war.

The objective of the liberal team is to pass five liberal policies or assassinate Secret Hitler. The objective of the fascist team is to pass six fascist policies or elect Secret Hitler chancellor after three fascist policies have passed.

What great game for a party. Do you trust your friends well enough to play this game? A super fun game for large groups, it hits many high spots. Deduction. Social interaction. Lying. Scheming. Just don’t drink too much when playing this game. It could lead to some very unfortunate outcomes. Very funny ones. But unfortunate. Like a fascist assassinating Hitler by mistake as the rest of the fascists looked on in horror…yeah that happened.

2. Telestrations

The number of times this game reduced the entire group to tears of laughter is…every time we play it. A classic party game.

Each player begins by sketching a word dictated by the roll of a die from the card given to them at the beginning. You are given 90 seconds to draw what is listed. Once the time is up, all players, all at the same time, pass their sketch to the next player, who must guess what’s been drawn. Players then simultaneously pass their guess to the next player who must try to draw the word they see and so on. Once the booklet is returned to the starting player, they will go through each panel and see how the drawing and descriptions evolved.

We have never had a single game where we got anything correct and that is fine. We had a fantastic time playing. It’s amazing to see just far off track people can go by bad drawings or poor descriptions. This would have easily been at the top spot if not for…

1. The Chameleon

Simple and brilliant. The Chameleon is easily the best party game we’ve played in a long time. A bluffing game at heart but it is oh so much more.

At the beginning of the round, each player receives a card that tells them if they are the Chameleon or hunting the Chameleon. If you are hunting the chameleon you will get a bunch of codes on the card. If you are the Chameleon, you won’t.

A topic card containing 16 related words to the topic is then placed out face down and 2 dice are rolled. The dice result is compared to the codes on the card and then players flip over the topic card which gives all players apart from the Chameleon – the Secret Word. So depending on who you are the following happens:

You are the Chameleon. No one knows your identity except you. Your mission is the blend in, not get caught and to work out the Secret Word.

You are not the Chameleon. Try to work out who the Chameleon is without giving away the Secret Word.

Players must now go in player order around the table and say a word that relates to the Secret Word. The thing is you can’t be too obvious or the Chameleon will be alerted to the word. If you are too vague, players will think you are the Chameleon. If you pause or stutter, it’s viewed as suspicious. Argh! As the Chameleon, you have no idea on what the word is and must make a formulated guess when listening to other players. If you are in the unfortunate position of going first, then good luck!

Once everybody has said a single word it goes to the discussion phase. This is where your word is viewed under a microscope. You need to explain why you said the word you did. Players will then vote who they think the Chameleon is.

There are a ton of topic cards included in the game but the greatest inclusion is the blank topic card where you can make up your own topics and words. Just wipe clean after each game!

Simple, quick and fun. What more do you want from a party game?

More? The Chameleon also makes a fantastic drinking game too. Well of course it does!

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NewsTabletop

Tabletop News! 21/11/18

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

Co-op games. One of our favourite genres here at GameStart Tabletop. Whether you’re facing an Elder God, a World War 2 stealth mission or even the day to day survival on a deserted island, you know one thing with co-op games…you will be punished. So whenever a new co-op game is announced we all get a gleeful look in the eye. Will it be brutally hard? We hope so. Which brings us to…

Greenville 1989

This is interesting. A co-op narrative game set in the late 80’s. Interest peaked. Information on this is super limited but we know this from the publisher:

In Greenville 1989, each player represents a character who has experienced or witnessed supernatural events. They must describe these events to their fellow players, who must then locate this character and save them. This lead role changes each round, giving everyone the chance to be lost or found — and you want to be found or else the group is pulled closer to the void engulfing the town that threatens to consume you all.

This sound pretty unique for a co-op game. What we need to know though is just how hard it will be…

Gen 7

This has been on our radar for a while and the release date is slowly approaching. The sci-fi follow up to Dead of Winter sees players uncovering a mystery on an international colony ship heading to a distant planet. As with Dead of Winter, it uses the wonderful Crossroads card system to weave its narrative story. Is there a hidden traitor this time? Time will tell…

From the publisher:

An international colony ship has left an exhausted Earth, headed for a distant planet in the Epsilon Eridani system. Thirteen generations will be born on this vessel before it reaches its destination, each generation a steward of the hopes and ideals of the human species. For six generations, everything has gone as planned. Now, just as a new command team takes control of the ship, a terrible mystery emerges that will threaten the entire mission. The commanders of Gen7 are about to discover that everything is not as it seems, and the fate of the human species will hang on the choices they make.

The choices players make as they play will alter the direction of the story. Gen7 will constantly challenge its players with a variety of unique situations that force them to make difficult moral decisions. Will you compromise your integrity to ensure the safety of your crew? Will you value their lives over the safety of the mission?

Black Mirror: Nosedive

This is a turn up for the books. A Black Mirror game based on the wonderful episode ‘Nosedive’.

Players are challenged to create a “perfect” life by collecting lifestyle cards while avoiding any “dings” to their social score. The game is integrated with the free Nosedive smartphone app available on iOS and Android and the game includes over one thousand unique experiences to impress players important friends and improve their social standing.

This looks quite fun if it plays out like the episode but it could just as easily fall flat without the right gaming group. Hopeful.

Treasure Island

This is a pretty fantastic looking game. Top quality components too. One player is Long John Silver who has buried his treasure on the island. The rest of the players must search the island and find it. Simple? Yes and no. Long John can bluff players once per turn and try to get them to search in useless places. As players get more information they can write on the board and mark out search areas. It looks like it can all get a bit hectic.

From the publisher:

Treasure Island is a game of bluffing and adventure in which one player embodies Long John, trying to mislead the others in their search for his treasure. The hunt reaches its climax with Long John’s escape when he will make a final run to get the pirate booty for himself!

If you are still not sure what this game is, check out the wonderful No Pun Included review:

Oddbods Go-Kards

This weeks Kickstarter comes from our very own sunny Singapore! As of this moment, it’s been funded! This is great news. The campaign ends December 12th, so you can still back this great looking game. Right here -> BACK IT!

What is this game all about you may ask? Here is the description from the designer himself:

Oddbods Go-Kards is a new take on the ‘family’ game genre. It’s a family game for ‘gamer’ families with multiple games in one box.

At its most basic, it is a play-a-card-and-move-the-meeple party race game that lasts 10 to 15 minutes and can be picked up in a few minutes even by small children. The game has players perform fun real-life social challenges to reap in-game rewards.

In its more advanced forms, it features tactical take-that and power-up cards, modular and constructible tracks, a variety of rule-altering pit-stops and an emergent power-up marketplace. Players can set up and duke it out in races that take up to an hour or even more to finish.

The game is based on Oddbods, a Singaporean-British CGI-animated comedy television series produced by the Singapore-based studio One Animation.

The series focuses on seven different, sometimes battling characters called the Oddbods – Fuse, Pogo, Zee, Jeff, Bubbles, Slick and Newt.

We are looking forward to this here. A refreshing and oh so colourful take on a card based racing game. Should be fun. Even more with drinks. 🙂

That’s it for this week! Go forth and play games!

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ConsoleMobileNewsPC

Game News! 19/11/18

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

Golden Joystick Awards 2018

The winners of this year’s Golden Joystick Awards have been announced and with no surprise, God of War took most of the accolades. List of all the winners:

  • Best Storytelling: God of War
  • Best Competitive Game: Fortnite Battle Royale
  • Best Cooperative Game: Monster Hunter: World
  • Best Visual Design: God of War
  • Best Indie Game: Dead Cells
  • Best Audio: God of War
  • Still Playing Award: World of Tanks
  • Best Performer: Bryan Dechart, Detroit: Become Human
  • Esports Game of the Year: Overwatch
  • Best VR Game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
  • Studio of the Year: SIE Santa Monica Studio
  • Best New Streamer / Broadcaster: Bryan Dechart and Amelia Rose Blaire
  • Mobile Game of the Year: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile
  • PC Game of the Year: Subnautica
  • PlayStation Game of the Year: God of War
  • Xbox Game of the Year: Forza Horizon 4
  • Nintendo Game of the Year: Octopath Traveler
  • Breakthrough Award: Unknown Worlds
  • Most Wanted Game: Cyberpunk 2077
  • Critics Choice Award: Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Lifetime Achievement Award: Hidetaka Miyazaki
  • Outstanding Contribution: Xbox Adaptive Controller
  • Ultimate Game of the Year: Fortnite Battle Royale

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Square Enix has announced that the third expansion for Final Fantasy XIV is releasing during the summer of 2019. Named Shadowbringers, the next great chapter will take players on new adventures to battle against the threats to the realm as they become Warriors of Darkness.

The new expansion will bring an abundance of new content, including a new player race, multiple new jobs, an increased level cap up, sprawling new areas, adjustments to the battle system, as well as a variety of new battle, crafter and gatherer content. In addition to these core features, a number of new systems will be introduced with Shadowbringers.

  • NPC “Trust” System – Players will now be able to fight alongside familiar NPCs.
  • New Game+ Feature – A feature that allows players to “replay” the Final Fantasy XIV main scenario stories.
  • World Visit System – Players will be able to travel to other servers on the same data center and interact with more players than ever before.

Boxing Apocalypse

VR Games. They all seem to be just a bit…weird. We were half expecting an underground boxing simulation type game. But no. We get this.

Boxing Apocalypse allows you to fight through 5 levels of the alien hordes to defeat the boss and wear the crown to win the game.  Battle your friends in your own fight club tournaments and feel the adrenaline rush of this fast-paced combat system. Hmmm…

Scriptum

This looks super cool! An augmented reality escape room type game. We are down for this.

Scriptum is a mystery puzzle game which uses augmented reality to set an interactive environment in which you’ll have to find the clues to reach the exit in less than 15 minutes. Scan the floor, get in the portal, and squeeze your mind to search your way out of the room in a limited time!

One Piece: World Seeker

The Pirate King Collectors edition is looking mighty fine. Releasing on the 15th March 2009, the Pirate King edition contains:

  • A copy of the game.
  • The Season Pass.
  • An exclusive 21cm Luffy figurine.
  • A replica of the Gum-Gum devil fruit.
  • The original soundtrack of the game composed by Kohei Tanaka.

Darksiders III

With the launch just around the corner, it’s time for a launch trailer!

In Darksiders III, players will return to an apocalyptic planet Earth, where they will partake in all manner of hack-n-slash action-adventures. Players take on the role of Fury in her quest to hunt down and dispose of the Seven Deadly Sins. The Charred Council calls upon Furt to battle from the heights of heaven down through the depths of hell in a quest to restore the balance between good and evil and prove that she is the fiercest of the Four Horsemen. Fury is a mage, her form evolving throughout gameplay and with it, her powers and weaponry. The expansive Darksiders III game world is presented as an open-ended, living, free-form planet Earth, dilapidated by war and decay, and overrun by nature. Fury will traverse back and forth between environments, battling other-worldly creatures and unlocking puzzles while advancing the Darksiders story.

 

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FeatureTabletop

Top 5 Small Box Games That Pack a Punch!

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

When you see a small box game in a shop or online you might quite rightly think that there won’t be anything substantial to it. How much gaming goodness can they cram into such a small box? You will be quite surprised to learn that sometimes they can rival any big boxed title and the bonus being is that they can be easily brought to and played anywhere! Let’s take a look.

5. Cat Lady

Cats. Put a cat on anything and it’s instantly good but let’s put our cat bias away for a moment. Cat Lady is a super simple card game for 2-4 players from AEG. Inside the small box, you get a deck of cards and some resource cubes. Cat food. It’s cat food. You also get an instruction booklet and that’s it. You are good to go!

From the publisher:

In Cat Lady, players are cat ladies, part of an elite group of people including Marie Antoinette and Ernest Hemingway. During the game, you and your fellow cat ladies will draft cards three at a time, collecting toys, food, catnip, costumes, and of course lovable cats. But watch out! Make sure you have enough food for all of your feline friends or your hungry cats will subtract points from your score. The player with the highest total victory points wins the game!

So yes, it’s a card drafting / set collection game. You put the cards out in a 3×3 grid and players, in turn, select a row or column and then collect those cards. That row then gets blocked for the next player. This continues until 3×3 grid cannot be replenished. Cards can give you cats to place in front of you which will score points for you if fed (or lose points if not fed), food to feed them, toys to play with and other items.

We have to admit we were surprised at how many times we have played this game and the hours sunk into it. It really is a fun game that offers a lot inside its small box.

4. The Grizzled

The Grizzled is a magnificent cooperative game that is set in the trenches of World War One and sees players trying to survive until the war ends. It’s tough. Very tough. You either win together or lose together. In the box, you get a deck of cards, tokens and some wonderful character standees.

The game is a card-driven survival game. Each round, the current team leader will choose how many cards every player draws. Then, going around the table, players must either play a card in their hand or back out of the mission. When they back out of a mission they must secretly choose to support a teammate. This support phase triggers when the mission is over. Each card represents either threats to the team (such as mortar shells and weather conditions) or negative personality traits (such as frightened or obsessive). At the end of the round, more cards are added to the draw deck. The game ends only if the players can deplete the draw deck as well as their hands without letting time run out.

If one threat shows up too many times, the team fails the mission. The team must play their threats correctly in order to gain any progress. However, and this is a big HOWEVER. Players cannot communicate with each other. The cards in their hands are kept secret, they cannot say what cards they have or are going to play. This may seem a little strange at first but thematically it’s given a reason in the rule book. You are soldiers in the trenches. Shelling is happening. Chaos. Noise. You won’t be able to hear what your comrades are saying.

Cooperative games are usually sprawling big box games that hog tablespace (which is not a bad thing!) but The Grizzled manages to hit all the right notes with such limited components. A wonderful and truly unique experience.

3. Tiny Epic Quest

We bet you were all waiting for when the Tiny Epic series of games would show up. Well, here you go. Tiny Epic Quest. Our favourite of the series by far. The box is super small but contains so much its mind-boggling. This box must have some TARDIS like qualities to it as there is no way you can fit all that stuff in there.

From the publisher:

In Tiny Epic Quest, players embark on a sandbox adventure. Each player controls a band of three elf heroes questing to save the world and the sacred mushroom folk from the intruding goblins.

Each round is broken into two phases: day and night. During the day, players travel far and wide, visiting villages to acquire quests, monuments to learn powerful spells, mushroom groves to seek guidance, and treacherous locations in search of artefacts! Acquiring artefacts empower the heroes with unique abilities; this may improve a heroes’ movement or combat, or their ability to learn spells or mitigate harmful dice rolls. Heroes must travel by foot, by horse, by raft, by boat and by gryphon (represented by a set of travel cards) to get to everywhere they need to go to satisfy their quests — or to position themselves for what night brings. As each type of movement is different and limited, players need to take careful consideration when travelling, and how they travel, if they wish to accomplish all of their goals.

During the night, players must face the challenge of their quests, and decisions, by rolling dice, hoping for fortune, and knowing when to quit. Will you press on? Or is it time to save your progress and rest? Tomorrow is another day. The game ends once the portal is closed or all the goblins have been eradicated. The player who has acquired the most victory points by slaying goblins, learning spells, and completing quests are crowned the winner!

The amount of content in this box is insane. Just look at the above picture. Luckily the game is fantastic. It has all the elements of a great RPG. You can go on quests and level up, find armour and weapons, kill some goblins and various other things. There are two great mechanics in this game. Travel and the dice rolling. The travel system is mentioned above but the dice rolling mechanic is also great as each players rolls also affect all other players. It leads to some really funny situations. All in all, this is very much worth your time. A small box game that puts some big box games to shame.

2. Jaipur

Probably one of the most well known small box games out there. Jaipur is an instant 2 player classic. In the box, you get a deck of cards and several goods tokens. That’s it! You are good to go.

From the publisher:

As players, you are one of the two most powerful traders in the city. But that’s not enough for you, because only the merchant with two Seals of Excellence will have the privilege of being invited to the Maharaja’s court. You are therefore going to have to do better than your direct competitor by buying, exchanging and selling at better prices, all while keeping an eye on both your camel herds.

Yes, Jaipur is a trading game. A very fun one at that. On your turn, you must decide whether to take or sell cards. Very simple.

If you take cards, you have to choose between taking all the camels, taking one card from the market or swapping two to five cards between the market and your cards in hand. If you decide to sell your cards, you only get to sell only one type of good per turn, and you get as many chips from that good as you sold cards. Again, very simple. However, as goods get sold they decrease in value. You might be holding onto some rare gems in order to get maybe a fifth one to earn big money but then the second player swoops in and sells just two and decreases the value of that item for you on your turn. Swine! You need trade and sell by watching the market.

For the camel cards, you can’t sell them, but they’re paramount for trading as they can be used in the swapping of goods. They are even worth a few points at the end of the game for the player who has the most. We have had many tight games where the game was decided by the extra points from the camels. So use them wisely!

Jaipur is a fantastic game. Worthy to be placed in any game collection and it can be played just about anywhere! Joy!

1. Harbour

Oh boy. This is an amazing game. Harbour. Crack open the box and you will see 4 meeples, resource tokens, a deck of cards, a marketplace card and player cards. It’s quite a lot for such a small box. Oh, it’s by Scott Almes. The Tiny Epic series creator. Now we know why.

From the box:

Dockmaster Schlibble and Constable O’Brady cordially invite you to visit their bustling Harbour town! Attend to business at the Trader’s Guild or the Masoner’s Hall. Break for lunch at the Sushi Shop, or stop off for a drink at the Pub. Don’t forget to check out the Wizard’s Traveling Imaginarium before you go! But no matter where you go, keep on the lookout for a bargain… the denizens of this town are always wheeling and dealing! Collect and trade resources as you visit the various buildings of Harbour, and cash them in to buy your way into the town. Whoever has the most points worth of buildings when the game ends, wins!

Harbour is a worker placement game. Yes, a small box worker placement game. Players will move their sole worker from building to building and collect various resources from those buildings. We are talking fish, livestock, wood and stone. You will then sell these resources in order to buy the buildings. Buildings give you points and points win you the game. The game end is triggered when the first player buys their fourth building. Owning a building has another benefit. Other players who visit your buildings have to pay you a single resource in order to use that space. So if you notice players using a building a lot, buy it! Whenever a building is bought, it is replenished from the building deck so there is always a set number of buildings for purchase depending on the number of players.

The main part of the game is the market manipulation and it’s brilliant. Whenever a player purchases a building, the value of the resources they used decreases and any resource that wasn’t used in the purchase increases. This means you have to have to watch the market and see what other players are doing so you can take advantage of the market prices. Wait too long and you will get burnt, your high-value stock is now worth nearly nothing. Sell too early at a lower price and you also might lose out as the next player might just change the market in your favour. Do wait? Do you sell?

Harbour is just about perfect. There are a ton of buildings and different character boards that each have their own skills so the replay value of this game is off the charts. An amazing small box experience and an amazing game in its own right regardless of box size. If you see this game when you are out and about next time, buy it. Don’t think. Just buy.

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NewsTabletop

Tabletop News! 09/11/18

by GameStart Asia
written by GameStart Asia

How was your week of gaming? What are you looking forward to as we near the yeas end? We have Betrayal Legacy making its way to us soon. We can’t wait! Look out for a review later in the month. Anyway, enough of our wants, what news do we have? A few bits and bobs.

Patchwork Doodle

The roll-and-write genre of games are very popular right (hehe!) now and the classic Patchwork game gets a version of its own.

Each player gets their own 9×9 grid to fill in over the course of the game. Players set up by drawing (not literally) a unique polyomino card from the starting deck, then drawing (yes, now you can!) that on their sheet.

Each round, players lay out a number of polyomino cards in a circle, then place the rabbit between two cards. On a turn, someone rolls the die, moves the rabbit forward, then removes the card indicated by the rabbit. Each player must draw the polyomino indicated on this card in their grid. Once a certain number of cards have been played, the round ends, players score points, then you lay out more cards for the next round. Whoever has the most points at the end of the games wins. Don’t forget though, if there are any blank spaces left on your sheet, you lose points!

Mixed into all this are various special powers that can be used to gain an advantage. It plays pretty much like Patchwork but without all the fiddliness, which is a great thing. The market is pretty much flooded with roll-and-write games at the moment with many of them average at best. But as long as quality games come along like Patchwork Doodle, Railroad Ink and Welcome To the genre can hold its head up high.

Ghostbusters x Men in Black: Ecto-terrestrial Invasion

Well, well. IDW Games have obtained the licence for Ghostbusters and Men in Black. The previous 2 Ghostbusters games from Cryptozoic were not great at all so let’s hope IDW can do better and from this announcement they have gone all in. Their first game being a crossover of both franchises!

From the publisher:

Men In Black/Ghostbusters: Ecto-terrestrial Invasion is a miniatures games that pairs the world’s foremost protection teams to take down a threat like they’ve never faced. The Ghostbusters team includes Peter Venkman, Egon Spangler, Ray Stanz, and Winston Zeddmore, and the MIB team includes Agent J, Agent K, Agent L, and Zed. The game features fast dice-rolling and take-that card play as well as detailed miniatures from Ninja Division.

We optimistically await more news on this one.

Underwater Cities

Vladimir Suchy is one of our favourite designers out there. His wonderful Pulsar 2849 is a favourite here along with Last Will. We are super happy that Rio Grande Games have picked up his latest game for publication.

In Underwater Cities, players represent the most powerful brains in the world, who are tasked with the job to establish the best and most livable underwater areas possible. The main principle of the game is card placement. Cards! We love em! Three coloured cards are placed along the edge of the main board into 3 x 5 slots, which are also coloured. Players then place cards into slots of the same colour. Once this is done they can take the action depicted in the slot on the main board and also the advantage of the card.

These actions and advantages allow players to intake raw materials; to build and upgrade city domes, tunnels and production buildings such as farms, desalination devices and laboratories in their personal underwater area; to move their marker on the initiative track (which is important for player order in the next turn – like Pulsar 2849); to activate the player’s “A-cards”; and to collect cards, both special ones and basic ones that allow for better decision possibilities during gameplay. All of the nearly 220 cards — whether special or basic — are divided into four types according to the way and time of use. Underwater areas are planned to be double-sided, giving players many opportunities to achieve VPs and finally win.

Coming in early 2019 this is definitely on our watch list.

Atlantis Rising

This weeks Kickstarter highlight is the easy on the eye, Atlantis Rising. Already funded (which is a good thing) and is in the process of trying to get all those stretch goals unlocked. If you want to splash your cash and help out then go here.

Atlantis Rising is a co-operative worker placement game in which you must work together with up to five other players to deploy citizens across your homeland, gathering resources in order to build a cosmic gate that can save your people. Workers placed close to the shoreline are more rewarding, but are more likely to be flooded and the actions lost.

Every turn, each player draws a misfortune card that will flood certain locations along the ever-shrinking Atlantis shoreline, or may otherwise work to undermine your efforts to save your people. So you must race to gather the necessary resources to build and power the gate before the island disappears beneath the waves forever.

The Kickstarter campaign is actually to get a second edition out to the masses. It contains all new art and graphic design, created to bring even more attention to the thematic setting of the game. The Athenians Attack phase has been replaced with the Wrath of the Gods phase, requiring more strategic planning and adding to the sense of urgency. Now, instead of placing workers in an Atlantean Navy, players must cooperatively decide to flood a set number of tiles at the end of each round. To further aid them in their task, Councilor player powers have been expanded and made more impactful, and the knowledge deck has similarly been revised and expanded. The variable gate components, once built, no longer offer one-time bonuses, but create new worker placement spots where players can send Atlantean workers to unleash actions to help save their island.

Worker placement. Check. Co-op. Check. Beautiful art. Check. Must have? CHECK.

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