Game– Ticket to Ride

Producer-Days of Wonder

Price– $35-45

TL;DR– Theme doesn’t stop this train! 92.5%

 

Basics– Around America in seven days!  In Ticket to Ride, you play one of five different friends who are obsessed with  Phileas Fogg, the man who went around the world in 80 days.  Based on Fogg’s story, the players make a one million dollar bet to see who can make it to the most cities in seven days.  In the game, players can do one of three different things on their turn to travel across America:  collect tickets, collect routes, or spend tickets to travel.  When a player collects tickets, they draw one or two tickets.  These tickets can be one of five revealed tickets or from the draw pile.  If a player draws a wild card from the revealed tickets that is the only ticket they can draw that turn.  When a player collects routes, they draw three routes and must keep one.  Routes are worth positive points if a player has connected the cities on the card at the end of the game, but, the card could be worth negative points if the player does not complete the route.  The last action a player can do is spending tickets to place trains on the board.  To place trains on a path on the board, a player must spend enough tickets of the same color as the path.  Some paths are gray and allow the player to spend any color ticket as long as they spend the same color tickets.  Each time a player places trains on the board, they earn points based on how long the path is.  Play continues until one player has two or less trains in reserve.  Then all players get one last turn, and then the game is over.  After counting points from route cards the player with the most points wins!

 

Theme-I’ll be honest.  I’ve played this game a lot, but, I didn’t read the story until I finally bought the game.  The story reinforces the theme decently and helps makes the title “Ticket to Ride” make sense.  Some of the mechanics don’t quite reinforce the theme as once you have a route it doesn’t leave the board.  Do you get to keep the tickets you have for that route in the game?  Do you get to keep riding the trains for free?  Why can’t other players ride the same train as me?  It’s not perfect, but I do feel like I’m busy trying to make it across America as fast as I can. 3.5/5

 

Mechanics-Ticket to Ride has some of the slickest mechanics out there.  My simple summary above is almost all the rules you need to play the game.  The game is quick, fun, and family friendly for almost all ages.  Even though the game doesn’t have the insane depth of some other games, a surprising amount of strategy emerges in this game.  Since goals are secrete, you never know when your best laid plans will go up in smoke.  That tension is amazing for a simple game. 5/5

 

Instructions-The instructions are four pages.  Not four pages front and back, two pages front and back.  Since the rules are not complex, the rules don’t need an epic to teach the players.  I do like the art and pictures that help to teach how to play.  Brevity is the height of wit with these rules. 5/5

 

Execution-The box is nice and hardy.  The path indicators are cute plastic trains that are a nice addition to the game.  The board has a nice layout and is easy to read.  AND, I know the Days of Wonder LOVES me since the game comes with plastic bags for each player’s components.  I absolutely love when a company does that! 5/5

 

Summary-I love this game.  It’s quick, family friendly, and always good to see making it to the table.  The theme is slightly off, but the mechanics, instructions, and execution of the game make up for that hands down.  Really worth trying if you get the chance. 92.5%

Product-Pathfinder Campaign Setting-Inner Sea Combat

Producer– Paizo

Price– $20

TL; DR– A little long to keep me entertained. 77%

 

Basics– MORTAL COMBAT!  Inner Sea Combat focuses on marital characters and how to build these characters and their world into your Pathfinder Game.  The book starts by discussing nations and their interactions with martial characters.  Next, the book adds feats and a discussion on how specialized martial characters function within the rules of Pathfinder.  After specialization, the book moves to schools/guilds and rules to operate these in Pathfinder.  From schools, the books present new prestige classes and archetypes for classes from barbarian to the rogue.  The last section of the book focuses on magic items that specialized characters from this book might need.

 

Mechanics or Crunch-This books adds a bunch of ideas for a GM to add to his/her game, but the ideas are not ground breaking awesome that you would expect for hidden techniques grown on the mountain top monasteries of the world.  The book adds lost arts that are the talk of many a hushed conversation, but when you look over the options, they might fit will in just a player line book.  Also, the book adds schools and guilds.  I don’t hate the mechanics behind these, but I think the numbers are off.  I think the DCs are too high and will likely make life very hard for anyone who wants to go after a school and not get kicked out.  Some of the options are well done, but it’s more diamonds in the rough then a constant flow.  I did like the items that were added to this book. 3/5

 

Fluff or Story- I liked this the most in this book.  The story provides lots of ideas for a GM to add to his/her game.  I didn’t like the distribution of focus in the world, though.  There isn’t much love for the pirates of the Shackles in terms of schools or options as well as a few other key areas.  But, what is there are options it’s well done. 4.5/5

 

Execution-I think this book suffers from a “textbook problem.”  This book has a few too many sections of just text that make the book less fun to read.  It’s not hard to read, but it does tend to drag on a bit.  The book does have some nice new art to help make reading a bit easier, but the format makes things feel long.  The text is not bad, just a bit of a drag. 4/5

 

Summary-I didn’t hate this book, but it’s not one of my favorites.  The mechanics and the textbook nature of the 64 page format are just a little bit off making this book slightly drag on a bit.  I would have preferred this to be a few shorter 32 page books focusing on monks, fighters, or some other class.  I did like the story that this book adds to the world.  Also, knowing who the best of the best fighters are can give the characters goals for whom to fight later.  It’s not a bad book, but just a bit long to keep me completely interested all the way through. 77%

Game-Trailer Park Wars

Price-$30

Set-up/Play/Clean-up-1 hour

Producer– Gut Bustin’ Games

TL; DR– Great game not for all audiences 95%

 

Basics-Get ‘er Done!  Time to enter the exciting world of trailer park management in this game full of crude humor.  The Game starts by naming your trailer park by drawing tiles from three random stacks.  After naming your trailer park, you and all players get an equal number of trailers to manage that you arrange in a circle around your park name.  Once you have your trailer park set up, you draw cards and play.  Each turn you play three cards then draw up to five.  These cards are residents, events, or items for your park.  Residents are worth point.  These can be positive or negative as some residents do harmful things to your park like meth cooks.  Events are single use cards the steal residents, kill residents, or other random effects.  Items for the park are amenities such as a beer vending machine that give you points and prevent residents from getting DUI’s.  After you play your cards, you get pink flamingos equal to the total number of points of your park.  When the last flamingo is drawn, the game is over and the person with the most points wins.

 

Mechanics-This game is amazingly simple to play.  You play three cards, draw, and your turn is done.  The game is very random, so you may have the smartest strategy, but you could still lose hard.  Also, you have to be very perceptive to see where different cards can be played.  If you don’t keep tabs on your opponents, you might lose this game quickly.  There are no mechanics besides players to keep winners in check.  Some of my friends complain that they can’t see all the other players’ boards very well.  Its fun, by it’s not without its problems. 4/5

 

Theme-This game oozes theme out of every pore. Lots of funny art, great text, and amazing pictures of trailers all make you think about the funniest redneck stereotypes.  Also, any game that starts by naming a trailer park is phenomenal.  It makes fun of rednecks with gusto.  I’m a redneck, so I find it amazingly funny.  However, you have to know who you will play with.  This game does have some not safe for work themes such as DUI’s and other events that some players might find offensive.  I love it though! 5/5

 

Instructions-This is another home run.  Any rules that start off by telling you to stop reading these stupid rules and start playing definitely make me think redneck.  Since the mechanics are simple, the rules don’t have much to cover.  So, the rules spend most of their time being funny.  That’s an excellent use of their space.  5/5

 

Execution-I love this game through and through.  Great cards, funny art, plastic pink flamingos, and amazing trailer park pictures all combine to make this a well done game.  The box is nice, and fits all the pieces well. 5/5

 

Summary-I love this game!  It’s a great game for some quick fun with your friends who might be the same people you play Cards Against Humanity with.  This would NOT be the game you bring to church group, but this is the game you bring with you to your friends house and you sit around drinking Pabst when you don’t want to think too hard.  If your friends don’t admire toilet humor or want a seven hour euro game, this isn’t the game for them.  Know who you’re playing with and this is an awesome game. 95%

Product– Taking the Narrative By the Tail: GM Intrusions and Special Effects

System-Numenera

Price– $0.99

TL; DR-Length hurts this short book 83%

 

Basics-This small, six-page guide give ideas and suggestions for how to better implement GM intrusions and new ways critical successes and failures can impact your game.

 

Crunch or Mechanics AND Fluff or Story-GM intrusions are a mixed bag.  As the guide and main book point out, the GM doesn’t roll dice.  Therefore, this is HOW the GM rolls dice.  Want a character to trip and make a scene?  Offer an intrusion.  Want an item to start beeping strangely?  Offer an intrusion.  This book honestly offers NO new mechanics, but it really explains mechanics that are already part of the system.  And it explains the hardest to grasp of the Numenera core rules.  For that, I really liked it.  There is no story whatsoever, but this is all about how to tell the story.  You’re adding to the story through these intrusions since its part experience offer and story alteration.  It’s the same story as mechanics. Here is HOW to write a Numenera story, and, HOW to mess with the players/story on the fly.  For that goal, it’s done really well and taught me how to better execute that part of the rules and story.  I would have liked more discussions on how often to do intrusions.  I’ve never been in a game of Numenera, so I don’t know how often other GMs add intrusion.  Are they a major way to add experience points to a game?  This guide should have addressed that.  Special effects kind of get half a page.  For an idea that gets top billing in the title, it really needed more! 8.5/10

 

Execution– This is an extremely short book, but it’s also less than a buck.  The product does have some new art, which is nice for such a short book.  It reads quick and well, but there isn’t a lot there to make it long.  Its well done, but I would have liked a bit more.  I’d suggest a few more suggestions for both the intrusions and especially the special effects.  Also, if you publish a six page minibook, the seventh page should not be a giant advertisement!  I’ve bought all those books, but for a dollar, I don’t like 1/7th of my book to be an add or half a page is old art from the bestiary! 4/5

 

Summary– This is a short book that any Numenera GM should really read.  There is nothing for players in this book.  I can say from experience that the hardest part of GMing Numenera is intrusions.  When/how should I do it is a major problem when I run my games.  I do feel better equipped to add better thought out intrusions into my game more often.  However, I do have some remaining problems.  The addition of special effects was kind of a joke.  It’s got equal billing, but less than one half a pages.  That should have been its own six page guide.  All said, this is a decent guide to GM intrusions, but not much in the way of special effects and its extreme short length hurts the guide. 83%

Game-Loonacy

Price-$15

Producer-Looney Labs

Players-Two to Five

Set-Up/Play/Clean-Up- Five minutes (YEP!  FIVE MINUTES)

TL;DR-SLAM DOWN CARD FUN! 93%

 

Basics-I usually do long, drawn out, complicated games, but here goes a quickie.  Loonacy is a quick shape matching game.  Each card has two shapes dividing the card in two.  If you play Fluxx, you will recognize all the shapes are former card art from all the different Fluxx games.  There will be between four and one piles of cards.  Players rapidly SLAM cards onto piles where at least one shape matches.  There are NO turns, and no quarter given!  Can’t play a card?  Then you point to the draw deck, and when all players are pointing, you draw, and start again.  No turns, not long thought process, just slamming cards down as quick as possible.  AMAZING!  First one out of cards wins!

 

Theme-There is no theme here, but then again, there should never be theme in this kind game. 0/0

 

Mechanics-The game is quick and simple.  It’s not bad, but for my crowd, some of the hard-core Eurogamers got in fights over how to draw cards.  REALLY GUYS!?  It’s fun, but a bit simple. 4.5/5

 

Instructions-The instructions cover one side of a page.  That’s it.  But, you don’t need any more instructions than that! 5/5

 

Execution-Cards are nice, and the art is good.  BUT, I really hate recicled art.  This product is ONLY recycled art as it’s all the art from every fluxx game out there.  It’s not bad art, but it’s recycled.  If you can get past that, it’s a great product. 4.5/5

 

Summary-Want a card slapping game you and your friend can play at Burger King at 4AM after a marathon DnD game?  Here you go!  Want a game you will spend weeks organizing at making sure all the players can make it?  This is not it!  This is a fun, simple game designed to get players having fun quick.  Honestly this is Uno if all the players just played at the same time and all the offensive cards were removed.  If you like the Fluxx team, buy this.  If you want a quick family game, buy this.  It’s ~15 bucks.  For a simple, quick game, that’s a good value. 93%

Product– Pathfinder Player Companion Alchemy Manual

Producer-Paizo

Price-$13(PDF)

System-Pathfinder

TL; DR-Lot’s of alchemy types, but not much depth. 87%

 

Basics- Let’s Cook!  Alchemy Manual is a splat book in the truest sense.  This book moves at a rapid fire pace presenting over 10 different types of alchemy traditions in the Pathfinder world.  Each tradition gets two pages to introduce the story behind the alchemy type as well as a few potions or poisons that distinguish one from another.  In addition, numerous items, small additions to spells/alchemical items, and new ways to craft alchemical items are presented.

 

Mechanics or Crunch- First things first, alchemy has always been somewhat tricky in the 3.X systems.  You end up with things that are two broken for the rules or underpowered to uselessness.  This book tends to be closer to underpowered.  The items presented are on par with the standard alchemy items, but those items tend to be useless as the player has better options with spells or abilities.  The book does introduce some nice new feats and items, but those same items may not be the first thing a player will grab for when looking how to battle a problem.  Also, the book introduces several different types of alchemy.  That’s nice from a flavor standpoint, but no one type gets enough of a foundation to stand alone.  Each tends to get 3/4 of a page of items, so you left wanting more for each one. 3/5

 

Story of Fluff-While this is an item book, I was honestly impressed with the detail each type of alchemy was given in its presentation.  Readers learn a lot about several different types of alchemist in the Pathfinder world.  The stories do make for some rather interesting reading.  I enjoyed this far more then I enjoyed the mechanics of the book. 5/5

 

Execution-This is a Paizo book.  I have a tradition of giving them high marks, but that’s because the consistently know how to may a book look nice and be readable.  I’d like the text bigger, but I mostly read on an IPad, so the page is smaller than the print version.  Great art and a well done layout lead to excellent ease of reading. 5/5

 

Summary-Alchemy is always a touchy subject in Pathfinder and 3.X games.  To powerful and all the players use it.  To underpowered and it’s a waste of time to introduce it.  This book is an ok.  Honestly, it won’t change your opinion of alchemy.  It’s well done for the story aspect, but if you are deciding if you want to buy a mechanics supplement, you really have to ask yourself “Do I like alchemy already?”

Game-Eminent Domain

Price-$40

Producer-Tasty Minstrel Games

Set-Up/Play/Clean-Up-1 Hour

TL;DR-Only a few faults make this game great instead of excellent. 87.5%

 

Basics- Compete for the Galaxy!  In Eminent Domain, players take the roles of different groups trying to conquer the most locations across the galaxy.  This is a deck building game with a twist.  Each turn players do three things in order.  First, they can play a card from their hand as an action.  These actions either build fighters, settle planets, produce resources, removes cards from your deck, or other things.  Then, players draw one card from the central board as their role.  This new card goes into the players deck, hence the deck building aspect.  These roles produce/sell resources for points, settle attack or settle planets for points, research advanced cards with new actions, or search for new planets.  Here is where things become interesting.  When the first player selects a role, all other players may follow that role doing the exact same thing as the lead player.  For an example, if the lead player searches for more planets, they draw a card from the center and play as many cards with the search for planets symbol as they can from their hand to draw planets to settle/conquer.  All other plays may play as many cards with search for planets symbols from their hands to draw planets off turn.  After role selection, then the lead player discards as many cards as they want and draws up to five cards.  Play continues until one or two of the role card stacks is empty.  Player with the most points wins the galaxy.

 

Mechanics-As I mentioned above, this is a deck building game.  I like those games, but this one has the novel twist of letting all players do the same action as the lead player.  Now, if you’re lucky/smart, you can take an action each turn instead of just waiting for your turn like in Dominion.  Also, the mechanics are very simple.  Play a card, draw a card and play cards that match symbols for more results, and discard/draw.  Easy as pie!  But, don’t let the simplicity of this game make you think that the game doesn’t have some depth to it. 5/5

 

Theme-This game has a decent theme, but I don’t think it oozes out of every pore.  The different ways to capture planets have diverse enough mechanics that you do feel you’re doing something different when you do them. The art brings you into the game universe as you play cards.  However, the game doesn’t really hammer you over the head with space conquest.  It’s very subtle. 3.5/5

 

Instructions-The games instructions are fairly well done, but an extra page or two would really help.  You can start playing this game in less than 10 minutes after opening the box for the first time without having played it before.  However, even I, an experienced player, still have to check board game geek if some things are allowed or intended.  The major issue has to do with symbols.  Advanced cards and planets have symbols on them.  Lots of people have questions if the advanced cards count as symbols for play.  Adding a discussion on that would have really knocked these instructions out of the park. 4.5/5

 

Execution- This is well put together game.  The game has nice plastic ships!   In fact they are exactly the same ships as Eclipse.  They are as awesome here as they were there.  The box is nice, and the main play board is well done.  I like the art and card quality.  What I would like would be a bit larger play board with spaces for the advanced cards, the points, and the ships.  A little bit more would have really made this game excellent. 4.5/5

 

Summary-This is an awesome game.  It’s a quick deck building game that is easy to learn and play.  This game gives me a 4X feel without the 4X time or rules depth.  This game won’t replace Twilight Imperium, but I promise you will play Eminent Domain far more often than that game!  This is another well done game from Tasty Minstrel Games.

Product– Pathfinder Player Companion-Undead Slayer’s Handbook

System-Pathfinder

Price-$13(PDF), $20 print

Producer-Paizo

TL;DR-Great introduction and options for fighting undead. 97%

 

Basics– Time to fight the things that go bump in the night!  Undead Slayer’s Handbook gives a general overview of how to fight undead from the simple zombie to the most complex, scheming lich.  The book starts with different groups that slay undead and how they may help you.  After that, the book focus on fighting different kinds of undead giving feat, spells, items, traits, and class abilities that focus on killing each kind of horror.  Moving from the kinds of undead to kill, the book shifts to what kinds of people kill undead giving new class options and feats.  The book finishes in classic Pathfinder Player Companion style offering more spells, items, and a prestige class called the Soul Warden.

 

Mechanics or Crunch– The book provides lots of new options for those focusing on undead.  These all look well balanced as you get a large bang for your buck if you fight undead, but won’t really help you against the standard goblin.  My only complaint is the alchemical items.  The book provides several, varied alchemical items to fight undead, but these seem underpowered or far too expensive to use.  There are items that do significant damage, but you have to pay too much for them to the practical.  There are cheap items that are not that useful. 4.5/5

 

Story or Fluff– This book is full of story.  Lots of new traits provide stories on the background of an adventurer.  Also, each section gets almost a full page providing story and background for each monster or monster hunter.  It’s simply well done! 5/5

 

Execution-This is Paizo, so the layout is well done.  The art is great, but, it might be a bit more than some people can handle.  Since, undead tend to be pretty gory.  The centerfold is a beautiful haunted house that describes how to fight a haunt, while the front cover provides details on how to fight each type of undead.  In addition, the back cover gives information on how undead are viewed in different towns.  This book is a pleasure to read and look through. 5/5

 

Summary- Again, another solid effort by Paizo.  Undead are my favorite creatures to fight or throw at my players.  This book gives a solid introduction on how to fight the monsters to a new player, and to the older players out there, it provides enough new options to make it useful. 97%

Game– Catan: Cities and Knights

Price– $40

Producer-Mayfair Games

Set-Up/Play/Clean-Up-1.5 Hours

Players-2 to 4, up to 6 with an expansion

TL;DR-New life in a classic game 80%

 

Basics-Return to the island of Catan, this time to defend it from barbarians and build metropolises.  In this big box expansion to the base game, players continue with the standard Catan mechanics of building roads and settlements to harvest resources and amass points.  What are new are players now roll an extra die, can build automatic soldier called knights, and collect different resources called commodities from cities.  Some tiles give you commodities like the forest tiles.  Cities on forest now produce paper and wood instead of just two wood.  You can spend paper on your turn to upgrade your cities.  Each player has a flip book showing how upgraded each city type is in science, politics, or military.  There are three city types to correspond to the new die.  The extra die has green, yellow, or blue cities on it or three barbarian sides.  When you role a city color on the city die and have upgraded your city of that color enough, you get automatic development cards.  You no longer get to buy development cards, you have to earn them through upgrading your city and random chance.  When you role a barbarian, you move the barbarian ship closer.  When the ship reaches Catan, all players send knights to defend the isle.  If you don’t sent enough knights, then the player with the fewest knights has a city downgraded to a settlement.  If you do have enough knights, then the player who sent the most get a victory point for being the defender of Catan.  The barbarians reset, and play continues as normal.  Play keeps going until someone has 13 points instead of the original 10.

 

Mechanics-Settlers of Catan is how you fix Monopoly.  It’s a quick game that is easy to play without a lot of complicated rules.  I love it.  This big box expansion adds some complications, but the new stuff doesn’t break what already works, but adds some new options to the mix.  It’s an excellent way to add new life to the game.  However, the new mechanics are very chance heavy.  If you loved Catan before, but thought it was a little too American styled because of the random element to the game, you will hate this expansion as it add more randomness to your game. 4.5/5

 

Theme-Catan isn’t a theme heavy game.  It’s got terrain control for being the governor, but there isn’t much story besides 2 to 6 people settle an island and hate to share it.  This game gives a bit more depth as you get more characters, buildings, and more themed cards, but there isn’t a lot here. 3/5

 

Instructions-The instructions are well done.  The rules are crisp while getting the point across.  They also have a few examples that will help get the point across.  Again, the rules don’t really build the theme, but they do teach you how to play the game well.  And these rules get my personal blessing because I didn’t have to run to Board Game Geek to figure out a sticky point mid game!  4.5/5

 

Execution-What you get is good, but you might not get all you need.  Catan has a lot of editions, even for the very first base game.  Some editions don’t work well with different editions of the expansions.  My game didn’t come with two different colors of dice, so to find if I got development cards, I had to mark one of my two basic dice with a sharpie to know when I got development cards with the ship/barbarian die!  Adding a second colored die numbered one to six would have been a real nice small touch.  Also, you have to put stickers on wood.  Not a big thing, but that is always a pain!  But, what you get is nice.  Not perfect, but well done and good quality.  The flip books are cool.  The new boards are great.  I liked what I got.  It wasn’t love at first sight, but it was nice. 4/5

 

Summary-I like this game more than I like the original.  The original is a well done classic, but just like any other classic; you need to spice it up.  This expansion gave new life to a well loved game.  It’s a bit pricy as you are paying over $40 bucks for the base expansion and at least $20 more for the 5/6 player expansion to the expansion.  But, you do get a relatively lot of stuff.  Don’t look for a complete American style game with lots of story from the board or a complete Euro style game with no randomness in this one do.  It’s a fun mix of the two concepts heading a bit more toward Euro styling. 80%

Game– Shadowrun Online

Producer-Cliffhanger Productions

Price– ~$30

TL;DR– It’s up to you. Do you like preorders?

 

Basics- Hoi Chummers!  Time to step into the world of Shadowrun again, but this time online!  Shadowrun Online will be coming out later this year, but if you did the kickstarter OR pay to join on Steam, you get a preview of the game.  Right now you are NOT getting the full game, but if you join, later you will.  The game features a short campaign where you play a mage and a gunner as you plow you way trying to find a kidnapped girl or a multiplayer death match.

 

Mechanics-This game feels like Shadowrun Returns.  That isn’t a bad thing as I liked Shadowrun Returns, but some reviewers feel this game was made for the tablets like my Ipad.  Again, that’s not bad, but it is a thing to consider.  Basically, this game is a turn-based, small squad tactical battle in the Shadowrun world.  Each turn you move a character and have them attack.  My biggest complaint is that I can’t attack then move.  Not huge, but its something to consider.

 

Visuals-The game looks nice.  The parts you get to play in all look like they belong in Shadowrun.  You can rotate the screen which is a nice feature that’s not in Shadowrun Returns.  All the buttons for your character do look really pretty too.  However, I don’t like the tilt that the screen has.  I found it sometimes hard to visualize where my character was standing in comparison to other people.  This lead to me missing a few shots and dying!

 

Story-Here is the meat and potatoes.  Shadowrun Online has to have a decent, cyberpunk, dystopian story. This is where the game lives or dies.  The story you get to play is pretty short, but done well enough.  The characters do speak to one another in the missions, but between missions the characters mostly get walls of text expanding on what’s going on.  I’d like more to engage me, but it’s not bad.  I sit and read walls of text in Shadowrun Returns, and I love that story.  What I see from this game, I like.  But, this game HAS to keep up what it brought to the table as a minimum!  More story telling will keep this game from the fate of so many MMO’s littered at WoW’s feet.  This game can’t beat WoW through anything else but story.

 

Summary-I’m not grading this one.  I usually do, but this one is just a nice tech and story demo of what coming out later this year.  What I see happening is a simple MMORPG that will do well with the touch screens set in the Shadowrun Universe.  It you take out the MMO part, that describes Shadowrun Returns.  Both games use an extremely similar, simple interface.  I don’t mean that as an insult, as the simplicity doesn’t bog down the experience with clutter and won’t keep newer players who have never heard of Shadowrun from coming to the table.  The visuals are very similar which is good for not only bringing players in.  The story is fun, but it’s short.  I played the demo in 1.5 hours.  For $30, that’s a bit much, but I have to keep in mind that I’m paying for the full game and getting delivery in pieces.  Most of us hardcore Shadowrun fans want more like riggers, deckers, astral combat, customizable characters, more missions et al.  I do recommend this game, but you have to decide if you are ok with buying a game ahead of its being ready.  Right now, you don’t get much of a game as it’s a 2 hour tech demo.  I love kickstarter, so I’m fine with one year lead times and paying way ahead for a game.  If you love Shadowrun Returns, then you will love this.  Now, you just have to decide WHEN you buy it.