The Grizzled

The Grizzled

Boardgames don’t really have an equivalent to literature. We gamers don’t usually consider the categories of literary fiction versus genre fiction, we think about light games and heavy games instead, or about different game mechanics. But by most criteria, the vast majority of games are more like genre fiction: advancing linearly, focused on a big payoff at the end, and made to entertain, not to invite reflection on their subject.

What you might call literary games are not entirely unheard of, though. One fine example is The Grizzled by Fabien Riffaud and Juan Rodriguez, a cooperative game set in World War One. The setting in itself is not what sets The Grizzled apart, though. Plenty of games are set in the two big wars. But in this one you don’t move tanks across a map, you don’t heroically storm beaches, and you don’t go home to live happily ever after, even if you win.

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Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

I’ve been a long-time sufferer from collectible card games, buying way too many booster packs to find that one card I really wanted. I’m out of that now, but I’ve been reluctant to get into Fantasy Flight’s Living Card Games because of it. They are much nicer than CCGs, of course. There are no booster packs that always have the same worthless cards. But their business model is still to keep you buying cards to remain competitive every time a new expansion comes out. But that’s not a concern with Arkham Horror: The Card Game. It’s a cooperative game, so no one has to buy cards just to be able to compete. You just buy an expansion when you want more story to experience.

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Betrayal at House on the Hill – Widow’s Walk

Betrayal at House on the Hill – Widow’s Walk

When we did the nostalgia piece about Betrayal at House on the Hill last week, there was one thing we didn’t mention: there is an expansion. The 2016 release Widow’s Walk was created after years and years of fans asking for more haunts. An understandable request since playing the same haunts again and again loses its appeal as well as some of its challenge when you know the other side’s secret rules. And so a monumental nine people design team was put together to give us fresh haunts. And that’s exactly what they did.

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Betrayal at House on the Hill

Betrayal at House on the Hill

Why did I want this game so badly? Mainly because I am a huge horror movie geek, especially for haunted house movies, and Betrayal at House on the Hill lets you play through exactly that kind of story. It is also a classic American style boardgame, so it focuses strongly on narrative over mechanics. It’s halfway to a role-playing game, really, exactly what I would want from this experience. And I’d been wanting it for a long time before I finally got it.

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The Game

The Game

This is the game you will never find on Google. Because the name of the game is The Game, and that’s just not very distinctive. The Game is a cooperative card game that was nominated for the 2015 Spiel des Jahres. It’s small and abstract, but that doesn’t say anything about how much fun it is.

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The X-Files

The X-Files

It’s safe to say that The X-Files was one of the most popular TV series created to date. (Or maybe still is, with the 2016 revival mini series ending on a huge cliffhanger.) So finding a new The X-Files boardgame published 13 years after the last episode of the original series was aired wasn’t a big surprise. There are millions of people out there with nostalgia for agents Mulder and Scully digging up alien conspiracies, and nostalgia sells. If you know me, then you know that’s why I’m skeptical towards licensed games in general. Nostalgia sells irrespective of quality. But there are good games made on a license, so lets see what side of that spectrum Kevin Wilson’s The X-Files falls on.

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T.I.M.E. Stories

T.I.M.E. Stories

Consumable games, games that you play a number of times and then they are over for you, are a new thing. Pioneered by Risk Legacy, the idea has spread. More games are coming with the Legacy system, but that’s not the only way to make a game “expire”. T.I.M.E. Stories tries a different approach, one that leaves the game material unchanged and changes what you know instead.

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The Big Book of Madness

The Big Book of Madness

You didn’t get your Hogwarts letter, did you? Yeah, me neither. I heard good things about the Elementary College, though. They have the Book of Madness in the library. Yes, THE Book of Madness. I have heard really, really bad things about their health and safety procedures, but they teach their students how to really work together and deal with a crisis. I’ll apply there right now!

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Pandemic Legacy

Pandemic Legacy

Legacy games, games where every time you play you make permanent changes to the game, are the big, new thing. Ever since I heard about Risk Legacy, the founder of the genre, I’ve been thinking what other games would work with the addition of Legacy mechanics, and Pandemic was at the top of that list. Now there is Pandemic Legacy, and we all finally get to find out if I was right.

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Eldritch Horror

Eldritch Horror

The stars have aligned again to allow the Great Old Ones, beings of such immense power that we are like insects to them, to stir in their slumber. Their cultists, madmen who would do anything for power, may be able to awaken them. Only a few people, those who stumbled upon their conspiracy by accident, may still be able to stop them. With no help from the rest of the world, for who would believe their tales, they must try to prevent the end of the world.

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