Board game review: Zombie!!!

A week doesn't go by without another zombie apocalypse or two so while you're waiting for the next one, why not play it out yourself?  That's the reasoning behind this board game, released by Twilight Creations in 2004.

Run like the wind.

Players take turns laying out map tiles making up a city.  As the city grows, more and more zombies shuffle into view, awaiting quick despatch at the hands of the few meagre survivors.  The objective of the game is to kill as many zombies as possible or escape via the helicopter.  Of course, you can't rely on your fellow survivalists to help you, they'll stab you in the back given the first opportunity (you know, as humans do).

For 23 quid or so, there are a LOT of components.  100 plastic zombie figures in two different flavours, a whole slew of counters, cards and nicely-drawn city map tiles.  Quality is not bad but for the low price, compromise has had to be made.  For instance, the health and bullet tokens are punched out of flimsy card and are quite tiny.  The map tiles in particular are of thin stock and move way too easily on the gaming table.  Even heavy breathing will shift your growing city around. The plastic figures are decent enough though and there sure are a lot of them.

Lots of luvverly bits

Rules are moderately easy.  During a turn, players will place a map tile, draw cards, move, attack zombies, move zombies and play cards.  Or something like that anyway.  Combat is easy.  Roll a die.  Over 4 is a hit, zombie dies.  Less than 4 and you're hit.  Lose a health token or use a bullet token to make up to 4.  Weapons or other cards can be utilized to make zombie despatch easier but be careful, other players will hinder your progress.

Actually, for the low price, it's a pretty decent game.  There aren't many tactics - kill or die, but the tension mounts up as more and more undead crowd the board.  Sticking it to other players is where the most fun is to be had.  Oh, you want to use that grenade to kill a whole building full of zombies do you?  Whoops, butter fingers, drop the grenade army-boy.  You know, that kind of thing.

The dreaded 'miss a turn' card is ever present and I really hate that.  There's nothing worse than giving up time to spend it on a lunchtime or evening board game club only to frustratingly spend it on the sidelines, watching others play, not able to do anything.  It's a lazy tactic by the game designers and takes me back to Snakes 'n' Ladders, a misspent youth, older sister rubbing butter in my hair while shouting 'He's toast! He's toast!'.  I shudder, thinking about it.  Combine the horrible missing a turn card with 5 players and not a huge amount of player-interaction in between turns, sitting around and picking ones nose is a real possibility.  Now I know how Michael Owen feels.

For an occasional slaughter-fest, Zombie!!! is good fun as well as good value.  It's pretty brainless and will provide a laugh or two but those looking for a bit more depth and strategy will feel disappointed.  In larger games, be prepared to sit out for a while so take along a cross-stitch or something.

Board game review: Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is a 2 to 5 player board game produced by publisher Days of Wonder.  Initially released in 2004, it has sold over 750,000 copies and won several awards along the way including the prestigious Spiel Des Jahres in the year of its release.  There have been several expansions and editions released since but this is a review of the original game.

The box.

At the heart of the game is a card collecting mechanic with the aim of connecting routes between cities on the gaming board.  Players are dealt 'ticket' cards which define their objective in the game and are kept secret from other players.  Tickets define a route between two cities on the board and after completing a ticket, ie connecting two cities via the train routes offered, points are accrued at the end of the game.  Points are also awarded for completing single 'legs' with the amount depending on the length.  Individual routes are completed by collecting cards matching to that routes colour and the route is then filled in on the board with the plastic train pieces.  Any uncompleted tickets at the end of the game means the score for the ticket is deducted from that players overall total.

More tickets can be claimed if the original ones are completed in-game but be careful, because as soon as one player runs out of train carriages to place on the board, the game is over.  There is an additional 10-point bonus at the end of game for players with the longest route.

There's not much more to it and the rules are easily mastered within, at most, a couple of turns.  It is considered a 'Gateway' game, that is, one being easy to play and a great introduction to other, more complicated board games.  Playing time is around 45 minutes and from experience, even up to 5 players can complete a game in about an hour.

Ooh, lots of bits to play with.

Component quality, as always from Days of Wonder, is excellent.  There are 240 plastic train carriages in various colours that are placed on the board which allows players to claim routes.  In addition, there are 140 full-colour cards symbolizing the different resources and tickets used in the game.  A criticism here is directed at the size of the cards - they aren't of the normal full-size playing card, instead are about 3/4 size.  This makes for difficulty when shuffling and indeed, in the first expansion entitled 1910, DoW released a full-size set of cards to replace these smaller ones.  A good move.  The board itself is large, colourful and maintains the high-standard of artwork as seen on all DoW games.  The scoring track (ho ho) goes round the edge of the board - a nice touch.  The only problem here is portability - it's a large game to play, say on a train or to take camping.  No bad thing of course, a big board that is, but it's worth mentioning if you're thinking of taking it on your jollies.

It's a big, hefty thing.

It's all in the gameplay of course and Ticket To Ride doesn't disappoint.  As mentioned, it's very easy for players new to the game to pick up the rules.  It's also very engaging and is equally at home in our lunchtime board game club here at work or for a family-orientated gamefest on an evening.  My wife declares it her favourite boardgame, supplanting even the mighty Carcassonne.  Following the traditional German-style boardgame, it's hard to see who has won until the end of the game and no-one is eliminated until then - very friendly for families.  Also, play is fast with little downtime between turns, an added bonus for those with attention spans of goldfish.

Tactics in Ticket to Ride are subtle.  You can go for lots of small routes but with smaller points totals while the longer routes obviously have more points but with higher risk.  Blocking is also a tactic and can be quite effective, especially when an opponents route is obvious (such as completing the first and last legs of a well-known route).  However, even blocking can backfire as precious carriages are used up on non-ticketed routes.   The 10-point longest route bonus can often be a game-changer with many of our games being won and lost on this bonus.

Interestingly, in the sequel to this game, Ticket To Ride: Europe, players can place stations in cities that allow them to claim routes held by other players, thus almost negating blocking altogether.  This has led to a debate in our board game club with some members considering the Europe version quite boring.  I can see where they are coming from as blocking in this original game can be quite devastating.  In the sequel, a block can be easily navigated with prudent application of a station (and a low cost of 4 points).

Overall, this is an excellent game and like Carcassonne is a good gateway into some of the more advanced board-games out there.  It's easy to understand, playing time is quick and the game moves on at a fast pace.  It's perfect for families looking for an antidote to the terminally dull Monopoly or Frustration and its subtle nuances make it a decent game for the more serious gaming afficionado.  Like the advertising blurb says, it's definitely not your father's boring train game.

Costs around £35.00.

Board game review: The Stars are Right

What is it?

The Stars Are Right is a multiplayer card game with puzzle elements loosely wrapped around the Cthulhu mythos as depicted by H.P Lovecraft.  It sounds weird, it IS weird and by gosh golly gumdrops, it's a difficult game.

What's in the box?

25 double-sided constellation tiles
80 creature cards
Rule sheet (4 sides of A4)
A Little Book of Evil reference card for each player.

How to play

The playing board is made up of 25 square tiles, arranged in a 5 x 5 grid.  On either side of each tile is a constellation or other celestial body.  By moving tiles around the board in a way similar to those old-fashioned sliding block puzzles, intricate patterns of these symbols have to be arranged to 'summon' different kinds of horrific beasty.  At first, the monsters are small and no more dangerous than a slightly-annoyed nun with a rolling pin but as the game progresses, the patterns become ever more complex as players attempt to summon the biggest of them all, 'The Great Old One'. 

Essentially, the turn order is thus:

• Invoke a creature by discarding its card and the powers it possesses will allow you to rearrange the constellation tiles. 
• Depending on the creatures invoked, there are 3 different types of move 'powers' to rearrange the constellation tiles: Pushing (moving a row in the grid), Swap two neighbouring tiles or Flip a single tile over.
• If the stars are right, that is you can find a constellation that matches one of the creatures in your hand, you may summon it to gain the point(s) and possibly more powers to re-arrange the stars on your next turn.  If a creature is summoned, it is placed on the table in front of the player.  That player is then considered to 'control' the creature.  The first to 10 points wins.
• Fill your hand up to 5 cards (or 6 in certain circumstances) and turn progresses to the next player.

As you summon more creatures and the powers they possess, whole sequences of commands can be built up to flip, push and and swap the stars around in the sky to summon ever more powerful creatures.  There's a bit more to it than this with players joining the ranks of cultists and gaining bonus points for certain creatures and such-like.  Also, summoned creatures in play can 'augment' commands available to the player by, for example, turning 1 push into 2 flips or 2 flips into 2 swaps etc.  It sounds complicated but after only one game, we had the rules sorted.

What's it like to play?

First of all, monsters are not *actually* summoned.  We spent ages waiting for something to appear and even the offer of human sacrifice didn't seem to speed up the process.  Saying that, we're from Doncaster so the chances of finding a virgin were remote in the extreme.  It's one of those games with a simple mechanic but is incredibly difficult to play well.  Some members of our board games club took to it like a duck does to Hoi Sin sauce while others were left scratching their heads like the waiting room of an STD clinic. 

I must admit, I fell into the latter category and trying to fathom out the patterns amongst the grid of tiled cards was frustratingly challenging, challengingly frustrating and bloody difficult.  Not only can the tiles be 'shuffled' along the lines of, as mentioned, those sliding block puzzles, but they can also be turned over, swapped with their neighbour and along with the other creature modifiers, it becomes very complex trying to find patterns amongst the stars.  If only I'd got Russell Grant with me. 

The complexity doesn't stop there as you can match the stars to any of the 5 creatures in your hand.  I found myself constantly shuffling through my cards, trying to find the slightest inkling of a connection and what should be a fun game, rapidly turns into an arduous mental challenge.

There is no real competition except for you and your brain and other players are there merely to mess up the board moments before you make your big move.  They don't mean to do it as they are just trying to win the game for themselves but there is little interaction between you and anyone else.

Analysis Paralysis is a big problem with the game and as it's so difficult trying to figure out where to move or how to change the tiles in a meaningful way, turns took way longer than our patience allowed.  More often than not, as you're scanning the board, trying to work out the moves, someone else will have changed it by the time it gets to your turn.  You then have to start from scratch in your deliberations.

It sounds like I'm down with the game but really I'm not and there's a lot to like.  The artwork, by Goomi this time, is excellent and amusing as per all Steve Jackson games.  A vein of humour threads its way throughout and while not quite as silly or irreverent as say, Munchkin, it's certainly got its tongue firmly in cheek.  It takes the Lovecraftian Cthulu mythos and puts a neat, cartoon-y spin on it albeit with that venerable authors madness, if you can imagine that.  The game IS quite abstract from the theme and would work just as easily without all the monster and cultist references.

It's possible to play strategically by scuppering the playing board for other players.  In reality though, it's hard enough concentrating on your own cards without having to worry about what anyone else is doing.  The challenge is part of the fun though, it's just when playing at lunchtime and you're trying to have a break from all that hard work (yeah, right), it's nice to have something light and fluffy to play as opposed to this which is dark, heavy-going and liable to cause mind-fracturing.  I suppose it's the difference between a banana and a double-choc cream cake with extra cream and chocolate.  They're both good for you but you could only eat one after a big meal.

To conclude, it is a game worth checking out especially if you're of a more cerebral nature.  Looking beyond the simple mechanic is a mind-bending puzzle game with a surprising amount of depth to the challenge it offers.  It's just a shame there is so little interaction between players and your mind will have melted by the end.

About £25 for the box.  Unusually for Steve Jackson Games, there are currently no expansion sets available (as of September 2011).

Mechanic: Hand management and pattern recognition
Suitable for ages 12 and up but if your kids are good at this, get them enrolled into Mensa or something.

Movie Review: Bad Lieutenant, Port of Call (2009)

Synopsis

Taking its cue from the 1992 Harvey Keitel vehicle of the same name (except the 'Port of Call' bit), this reboot stars Nicholas Cage and Eva Mendes and while maintaining the same sense of descent into madness, it's an altogether different film.

Lieutenant Terence McDonagh of the New Orleans Police Department is addicted to painkillers for a debilitating back condition and this invokes a rapid free-fall into a drug-fuelled frenzy of career-wrecking proportions while investigating a multiple homicide.

The Film

Set in the year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, McDonagh and partner Stevie Pruit (played by a very hirsute and plump Val Kilmer), are investigating the execution of a family of 5 in an apparent drug war turf battle.  Already addicted to Cocaine, McDonagh sees this opportunity to not only solve the crime, but to fuel his enormously rapacious appetite for drugs due to the nature of low-life scum he has to deal with.  Lurching dangerously from one vile criminal to the next, McDonagh is never far away from the opportunity to screw someone over.

It's an interesting premise for a film but there are some glaring faults and some not so obvious.  For one, the aftermath of the hurricane is merely a footnote and already New Orleans is shown to be back on it's feet.  This is a complete misnomer and as history tells us, it would take much longer than the six months suggested by the film for it to be in such a state of normality.  Indeed, the widespread flooding only serves as a plot device to explain McDonaghs painful back condition.

Cages depiction is all wild-eyed laughter, drug-fuelled sleep deprivation and manic behaviour.  Along with his gambling addiction, this probably rings most true to the original but where Keitel's Lieutenant was seeking some kind of absolution, the script here sees the lunacy as a means to an end.  The tart with a heart is played by Eva Mendes, too pretty and innocent to be a prosser but that's possibly the reason behind McDonaghs fascination with her, a counterpoint of light in the dark depraved world he normally inhabits.

No doubt dividing opinion once again, Nicholas Cage brings an atypical over-the-top performance, complete with bad hair syrup.  As McDonagh, he's cast well and director Herzog plays to his frenzied strengths.  Afflicted by a permanent hunch and sloping shoulder, the pain that brings on his madness is shared by the audience.  But, despite this pain and anguish, the script never allows him to strike a sympathetic chord due to his entirely unsympathetic behaviour.  Witness one extraordinarily distasteful scene where he forces a quite ordinary couple to smoke crack while he humps the girl.

There are some outstanding moments.  One where McDonagh loses it with the Grandmother of a vital witness makes for uncomfortable but riveting viewing none-the-less.  Cutting off the air supply to an elderly, oxygenated woman to garner some information before threatening her with a gun and calling her some pretty crude names was unpleasant but showed the depths McDonagh had plumbed to.

The rest of the cast brings up some pretty interesting actors with the always excellent Brad Dourif, the aforementioned Val Kilmer (he's huge, did he really once play a svelte and slinky Jim Morrison?), even Stifflers mom cropping up in a grungy, greasy-haired role.  But its Cage's film and all of them pale in comparison to his colourful histrionics, which is a shame because as an ensemble they should add up to more than the whole.

There are some bizarre Hunter S. Thompson-esque moments, no doubt reflecting McDonaghs increasingly erratic behaviour.  A preoccupation with lizards that's never fully explained, an utterly off-the-wall break-dancing soul as its owner dies under a hail of bullets and a crocodiles eye-view of a car-crash scene (literally).  Knowing Herzog's background, it should have come as no surprise to find such moments of eclecticity but at least they are rare shards of light relief, as head-scratching and puzzling as they are.

The movie appears to have suffered from some quite drastic editing to fit it in to a barely manageable 122 minutes.  The ending is resolved in an unsatisfactory two minute segment that left this viewer cold and given more leeway, one can't help feeling the director wouldn't have bowed to some kind of focus-group pressure.

Conclusion

For all its bluster, Bad Lieutenant blows too cold and all the elements don't add up to the sum of its parts.  Cage will either dazzle or annoy but either way, his performance is let down by a script that tries to be outlandish but falls short of the mark.  The film has said very little by the time the end credits are rolling and for such a raw subject, that is its biggest fault.

Running time: 122 minutes
Rated: 18 for scenes of violence, sexual or otherwise and extremely crude offensive language.
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Xzibit (the rapper).

Board Game Review: The Palace Extension

What is it?

The Palace is an expansion set to the original Revolution! board game by Steve Jackson Games.

What's so good about it?

One of the main criticisms of the original Revolution! board game was the number of players - it could only be played by 3 or 4 people.  The Palace Expansion Set provides rules and counters for another 2, bringing the total up to a very sociable 6 players.  Due to the 'closed-bid' nature of the game, it can never work with less than 3 players, a problem not exclusive to Revolution! by any means.  This expansion also adds more options available to the player when bidding.

What's in the box?

A gameboard piece designed to fit over the redundant space in the middle of the original board.  Enough counters for a couple of extra players as well as 2 more screens.  6 new player boards as there are more spaces to place bids / bribes.  50 cubes (25 of each new colour).  A scant 2-page rulesheet.  The components, as per all Steve Jackson Games erm, games, are excellent.  The artwork, by Ben Williams is top-notch and everything is printed on thick card-stock meaning they will stand up well to repeated play.

How does it all work?

Revolution! is a game where players bribe certain members of a city in an attempt to increase their overall influence of said city.  Influence is represented by small, coloured wooden cubes.  For example, successfully bribing the Priest allows a player to influence the Cathedral, bribing the Captain allows influence to spread into the Harbour area and so on.  Each area of the city is worth a different amount of support 'points', awarded at the end of the game, depending on how many 'squares' of influence it has.

Be careful though, the bidding system is on a sliding scale and there are three methods of bribing.  Gold is beaten by blackmail which in turn is beaten by force.  Some members of the city can only be blackmailed (and won't be swayed by force) while others can only be forced and won't submit to blackmail.  Then there are 'rogue' elements such as Spies and Apothecaries that allow influence cubes to be moved around the board and/or swapped with other players'.  Bribing is achieved by the use of tokens which are granted by certain members and each turn brings a new and different set of tokens to assign.

The new gameboard piece of this expansion set represents the titular Palace and fits quite snugly over the old fountain graphic (that didn't do anything) in the centre of the original board.  The new player bid boards add an extra 4 options available when bidding.  These are:

Viceroy: Give them gold, blackmail or force your way into the Palace.  The Viceroy will also grant you access to the Guardhouse that stops you being affected by the actions of Spies or Apothecaries.

Messenger: Allows a player to reassign up to 2 of their influence cubes elsewhere on blank squares.  Messengers can be bribed with gold, blackmail or force. 

Mayor: Only responding to gold, the Mayor allows you to place an influence cube in any blank square.

Constable: Possibly the most straightforward of the new playing options as buying a Constable with gold grants you 5 support points and a blackmail token for the next turn.

What's it like to play?

It sounds complicated but really, it's a very straightforward and easy game to play.  The extra rules are printed on the bid boards so there's none of the dreaded 'rulelookupiteus'.  There are hints also on the inside of the players' screens.  We found with extra players, there are more cancelled bids.  A cancelled bid happens when the same amount is bid by two players on the same square.  Obviously this increases the playing time.  With fewer players, the reverse happens as there are more options to choose from and hence less opportunity to queer another players pitch.  We can happily fit in a four player game inside a lunch hour, for example.

Strategically, the new bid options range from subtle to almost match-winning.  The new Palace building is hard to fill but is worth 55 points at the end of the game - the biggest building in the game.  The GuardHouse is also worth fighting for as it protects your existing influence cubes from the Spy and Apothecary and becomes very useful in the latter stages.  The Messenger and the Mayor are more subtle, allowing your own influence cubes to be placed in other areas.  These can be used to either strengthen the hold over a building or to surreptitously move into one held by another player.  Used together, they form a powerful alliance and can instigate a three-cube swing in any one area.  The Mayor is also useful in forcing the end of the game by allowing the last remaining influence squares to be taken up. 

The Constable is perhaps the least effective, simply being there as a means of gaining an extra blackmail token for the next turn.  Our fears of too many blackmail tokens in play thus making the game imbalanced were ungrounded.  In fact, the game seems to have become more evenly balanced.  While my mate Tim *always* wins (he does look like Jesus so I reckon there's a bit of divine intervention going on), the scrap for second place is much closer.  As with any Euro-style game, the true winner is not determined until the final points tally.

Conclusion

For an RRP of £19.99, it's quite an expensive add-on for not a huge amount of components and with the original game at only £29.99, it's value is in question.  I can't help feeling this expansion set is the game that Steve Jackson wanted to release initially.  The ability to have up to 6 players is not something we have not had call to use on too many occasions.  Hardly ever, in fact.  A couple of evening meetings of our board game club and that's it. 

But, the new rules *are* fun to play, are easy to pick up and *do* add an extra dimension to an already-interesting game.  With a much more regular 4 players, games seem more balanced and while Tim still wins, he's never massively in the lead as he seemed to with the original.