Game On Board Abyss Review

this is a first so alphabetical order seems logical after setting aside the games not worth mentioning I fround abyss. The game abyss I recently bought deviates a little from the standard front cover technique no title no company logo no designer no catchphrase nothing just the face of a merman slash mermaid but wait the games company sure knows how to compensate for the absence of title company logo etc in the front of the box alternate box covers 5 of them I got the green one and this one remi

nds me of Charlie the unicorn covered in fungi the game itself has a board huge cardboard locations small cards bigger cards and the only board game currency that you must compulsively leave inside your shell of a wallet if you don't want to spend the rest of your gaming night searching for it under the furniture the game even has an extra cell just for the bank. A player's turn is comprised by three options explore the abyss recruit from the council recruit a Lord when exploring the abyss you m

ight encounter a potential ally and even if it is the ally you craved and always wanted even before you learn the game hold your horses you can't just take the card you have to be a gentleman and ask other players if they want your precious ally they have to pay you of course but still one pearl might be a small compensation for that great ally that might give one the opportunity to purchase a Lord thematically it might seem a little bewildering but if you think of the great scheme of political

things that might be happening in the council but don't happen inside the game at all it makes some sense or not By exploring the abyss further you leave more allies behind allies that are frustrated and feel alone for not been recruited they have decided to be elected in the council of the abyss and somehow they make it the next player might see these allies with abandonment issues and say hey you wanna join my cause and help me gather influence even if I would probably ditch you 20,000 leagues

below the surface of the sea if I encountered you during one of my expeditions and the shellifsh would instantly say yeay living its shelfishness behind taking a lord under your hood is even more absurd you go to a Lord and say hey mister mrs Lord I have a shellfish a crab and a seahorse by my side wanna join us and the Lord responds I will join you but you have to let go of the crab and the shell fish I don't like them you're the boss maybe that Lord kept an old grudge oe vendetta against the

poor crab and shellfish or just liked his seafood. Seafood consumption kinda feels like cannibalism when playing this game but you get to keep the seahorse which is now upgraded to a badass influence points seahorse because it no longer is in your hand, oh well just another ally with abandonment issues that now might help me win if the available Lords aren't good enough to satisfy your plans of abysmal domination you may bring in another Lord by means a bribery a pearl is all that is needed for

that greedy fish to show its scales on the board as you continue exploring the abyss during the game you might come across a monster that yields rewards when defeated the reward for the next monster becomes more generous if you just ignore that evil threat but nine out of 10 times you want ignore it is expected in such occasions the have a rudimentary battle system but no this is the dark abyssal abyss we won't waste time with such details you either kill the bloody thing or you don't it's a bin

ary system speaking of binaries there are only one or two cases of monster rewards since no player with common logic and probability awareness is going to leave the reward to skyrocket for the next player who will be lucky enough to encounter a monster card so don't expect to be getting any keys as a monster reward unless of course your gaming group are a bunch of ravenous baboons keys are essential three keys grant you access to a location that gives even more points that might help you win but

the same mechanic with the abyss exploration applies you want more free locations you want more options fine just be a gentleman and leave some out in the open for other players to take if they see it fits their plans for abysmal domination balance in this game truly becomes a lesson in equality I was always trying to convince the other players to further explore since all their leftovers were potentially mine for the taking but if another player before me had an IQ above the room's temperature

he might take some of those leftovers so you have an abyss to explore but you're always living bread crumbs for other players to play with like you are some dimwit who can't handle his own stuff there is a council that totally lacks initiative and will join anyone who's lucky enough to have cards left over there when it is their turn to play like picking fruit that fell off a tree you have Lords that will join anyone who can cut a good deal for them as long as it feeds their caniballistic urges

the balance of theme and mechanics isn't a thing that's always cherished and taken into account abyss has theme thrawn off a balcony like scientists threw Doomsday off a balcony to make him stronger the theme is now so strong that every Jedi senses that the theme is strong with this one but it is only because it's the dark side coming to bring balance to the force of theme over mechanics after choosing 1 out of the 3 options in this game for a few times and end up with seven lords of the seven

lords of the abyss the end is near being a gentleman one last time you allow the rest of the players to lose, ahem play one last round and then see what your little abyssal dominion is worth the game's for ages 14+ but its company has inside on this generation's intellect and math skills and has added small scoring pieces of paper just in case someone wasn't paying attention on how to add numbers but in elementary school People I played the game with got this vibe of Pokerish style hidden under

the theme I think the designers although prolific in the circumstances would be different might have ended up with a game sounding like this