Product-One Night Ultimate Vampire

Producer–Bezier Games

Price– $25  here http://www.amazon.com/Night-Ultimate-Vampire-Board-Game/dp/B013TRQSWY/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1454300120&sr=1-1&keywords=one+night+ultimate+vampire

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 10 minutes (3-10 players!)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Even I get to play! 96%

Basics-Are you a vampire?  One Night Ultimate Vampire is the latest instalment of the hit Werewolf franchise.  In this incantation, players all are members of a village plagued by vampires.  During set up, players elected a number of different roles for the players to take equal to the number of players plus three.  Each player get a secret role card as well as a mark of clarity.  This is a token that states you have no effects currently on your characters.  The three unused roles are set in the middle of the table, but not revealed to the players.  Then all players close their eyes.  Much like One Night Ultimate Werewolf, there is an IOs and Android app that the players can use to have an automated game master.    Each of these characters all have different actions that the computer will tell you when to take them.   The computer will then move through the roles, and one by one tell the characters to take their actions and when.  These actions range from the vampires all selecting another, non-vampire and changing that characters face down mark of clarity for a bite mark.  That character is now a vampire!  Another action could be the priest.  That character removed his or her current mark, unseen, and takes a mark of clarity for himself/herself and another character as well.  Midway through the game, the players look at their current marks, and then close their eyes again.  Other characters and roles then take their actions such as the marksmen who then looks at one players mark and another player’s card.  Once all characters have taken their actions, the game instructs you to wake up and to choose a player to kill!  If members of the village team kill a vampire, they win!  If the vampires all survive, then they win.  But, the game throws monkey wrenches into things like an assassin who isn’t a villager, but has to convince the town to kill his/her target to win.

Mechanics– This game is pure, orchestrated chaos and that is beautiful!  Every player gets a role and action.  No player just sits tight is a pure improvement of the game.  All the actions are simple, and what happens to your character is pretty simple as well.  This game takes less than 10 minutes to play, and that’s’ hard to pull off with up to 10 people!  However the best part for me is that all people get to play.  Instead of me running the game and not being able to play, the app makes this a fun experience for everyone you can find!  This is the definition of simple, fast, party fun.  5/5

Theme–  So the game is pretty strange, but  honestly you will have a blast and feel tension.  This game has honest to god tention!  You try so hard to do your action in a way where you won’t cause yourself to out yourself as a vampire or a villager.  The apps simple music helps paint a story.  Sure, you won’t get the amazing story of a DnD game, but it’s 10 minutes frantic voting to try to keep yourself alive and find the monsters among you. 5/5

Instructions– The one problem I have with this game is the instruction.  A cheat sheet would help this game, and maybe a few more explicit instructions.  Sure, the game isn’t hard to play, but unless your read every detail of the book, players miss hiding marks, keeping only one mark at a time, and most players won’t always remember the mark’s functions.  Reading the rules cover to cover will get you those rules, but I think that something else might be able to get the players hitting the ground running a little faster. 4.25/5

Execution– I love chunky cardboard.  I love quick games.  And, I love the app for this game.  It’s available to almost everyone, and now even I, the ever GM for my home games, gets to play the game.  A little more volume might help, but that might be my phone’s quite nature.  I can’t gush enough about how this game is put together.  If you want to see all the pieces check out our unboxing video here: https://youtu.be/54qa9yOJ98c.  5/5

Summary-Ok, this review took longer to read then for the game to play.  If you want a fun, quick, party game for up to 10 people, go buy this game.  For about $20, you get a phenomenal game that everyone gets to play in.  This series has shown some significant changes over time, but from what I’ve seen they’ve keep the games soul while finding the improvements that are need to keep it viable.  Just go get this game! 96%

 

Product-A.D.A.P.T.

Producer-Gate Keeper Games

Price– Free via print and play, but on kickstarter now! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnwrot/adapt-the-card-and-dice-game-0

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 20-30 minutes (2-3 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light/Medium

TL; DR-Evolve for dominance in the sea! 96%

 

Basics-This here ocean isn’t big enough for all of us….A.D.A.P.T. is a simple card game where players all take the roles of different fish.  Every players is attempting to be the last one standing in a free-for-all.  Play starts with each player rolling on a percent table to find who goes first and what extra options the other players gain to make up for that.  Next, is the basic turns.  First players gain experience points.  Then you have five options: adapt, buy, attack, special, and wipe.  Adapt is where players place a new evolution cards on your fish over any current cards in that slot.  These cards come in several types from fins to organs, but the most important cards are body cards.  Body cards provide a hit point total as well as a body level.  Your body level  plus two is the max type of card you can place on your board, but you can only buy a body level one greater at a time.  Buy is spend experience points to get new cards.  If your body level is high enough, you can immediately place this card, but otherwise you can set this card to the side and upgrade via an adapt action.  If no cards are bought after any turn, then remove the oldest card and place a new one.  Special is use a special actions provided by your new, evolved fish cards.  Wipe is remove all three current cards, gain extra experience points, and then place three new cards.  Attacking is the meat of the game.  Each body provides a die type (four-sided die to twelve-sided die).  When you attack, you roll the die indicated by your body and add you current ferocity score and compare against the target’s survival score.  If you beat the survival score, you deal damage equal to the difference plus your lethality score.  If you match you do one damage plus your lethality score and gain two experience.  If your score is lower than the survival score of the target, you gain experience equal to the difference of the scores.  After a player takes an action and the available cards cycle, the next player takes his or her turn, and this continues until only one fish remains swimming!

Mechanics-What you read above is enough rules to open the box and start playing.  Sure there is some nitty gritty, but overall the rules are sleek and simple.  Nothing is wasted here, and everyone gets to have fun right away.  The actions you get always give you something to do, so I never felt like I was wasting a turn.  Combat is the most complicated part of the game, but it’s pretty simple.  Some abilities feel somewhat less useful like hiding.  Taking an action, you can force an opponent to roll a die to see if they can target you.  The die value starts at a 1 or higher on a d8.  I’d like some options to be a bit more viable right out of the evolution gate.  If you focus on it, it’s powerful, but nothing you could splash into a fish.  Overall, it’s a more complex Munchkin that isn’t overburdened by its own rules.  4.5/5

Theme-This game also feels like a more complex version of Munchkin that is all screw your neighbor card game.  The only way for me to win is for you to lose.  That theme might throw a few other players, but it also is much more inline with biology.  Only one fish gets to be the top of the food chain.  I did feel like a fish struggling up the chain, so that was a fun addition.  The evolutions feel more like Pokemon evolutions then true evolutions, but it’s fun none the less making frankenstein fish as you randomly evolve new body parts.  If you are ok with a pure combat to win a short card game, you will have a blast! 5/5

Instructions-The instruction currently are pretty simple with little art, but that’s because it’s a print and play game.  The kickstarter will have fancier rules, but currently they do the job well if a bit wordy.  It gets you playing quickly, and the currently available guide cards really help you understand how to play the game quickly.  I’d like more pictures and art for the rules, but for a kickstarter and print and play rules, this is a well done write up that will get you into the game with ease.  NOTE-i’ve spoken the the creator and the rules will indeed have more art, so makes them even better. 5/5

Execution-I was provided a kickstarter pre printing, but honestly I’ve seen a lot worse from current production games.  The cards all look great and have simple icons to tell you what they need.  The boarders tell you where they socket, and that really help you know what you’re doing.  The art is fun, and the pieces looks like the fish they come from.  The player mats all look great and again help you play the game.  The only things that are keeping this game from being out now is some of the cards only had base words on them instead of art.  But for a game that’s almost in kickstarter, the only thing slowing this down is some art and printing!  Well done!  My own problems were some of the symbols were a bit small.  The body score is listed as a number of concentric highlighted fins.  It’s a bit hard to see.  The attack die is also the same way with the die being a bit small in the circle.  If the fin level and attack die had a faint number or sided number to make things a little more readable, I’d be tickled pink.  Want to see the preproduction parts?  Check out our unboxing video here: https://youtu.be/-blQE4UB0YA  NOTE-I’ve also spoken to the publisher and the final will make the die and fins easier to read as well!  4.7 5/5

Summary-If you want a more complex Munchkin game of ocean dominance, then you can’t do better than this.  It plays in about 30 minutes for three people if you know the rules.  Nothing here feels off or breaks the game.  Some options are a bit better than others in terms of cards to take, but I never felt like I was going to lose from the cards I got.  This game does use lots of dice, but as an American style game, luck and randomness will be an important factors in your win or loss.  The theme feel spot on, but that’s an acquired taste-you will only win if you’re the last person standing, so killing the other players has to be something you’re ok with doing.  You can’t let the game do that work for you.  As a veteran of these kinds of games, that’s something I found fun in this game.  As for where the game is in terms of being ready, this game just need a bit of art and a fresh coat of paint for the rules, and it’s ready for the road.  I can’t wait to hit the water and decimate the other fishies in my sea!  It’s currently on kickstarter, so right now is a great time to hit the waves!  96%