In space no one can hear you fling (Both Hunted games are live)
Update: Hunted: Mining Colony 415 and Hunted: Kobayashi Tower are now live on Kickstarter. The campaign will run for 22 days, and you have the option of adding playmats to your pledge.
Our preview post below was posted on October 14.
Hunted: Mining Colony 415 is one of the two solitaire games that designer Gabe Barrett is going to launch on Kickstarter tomorrow, October 15 (the other is Hunted: Kobayashi Tower).
The obvious visual allusion to the Alien movies and the strictly solo gameplay convinced me to give Mining Colony a fling. 'Flinging? Meh', I hear you say. Or rather, that's what I thought when I saw the combat mechanism. Thankfully, flinging (token throwing) is not the only thing you do in the game, so I decided to try it regardless.
The rules are very simple: you have two decks of cards, the Hunted deck, and the Locations deck. You begin to flip cards from the Hunted deck, and see if you can activate their icons to gain items and advantages. Some of the cards are corridors and doors. These may allow you to flip Locations cards, so that you can finally reach the Landing Pad and escape. Aliens lurk inside the Hunted deck too. If you can't hide from them, you will have to fight.
And that's where flinging comes in. The Alien target is placed inside the lid of the box. You throw tokens at it, and if they hit inside or are touching the designated circle, you have managed to either hurt or kill it. Other Hunted cards are skill tests. You fling in this case too, and if your life points are low, your flinging token gets smaller.
This is a tough game to beat, and you are constantly at the mercy of luck of the draw and luck of the fling. I suppose one's flinging ability can be improved, so let's say that, with time, it becomes a matter of dexterity rather than luck. But if you're not a flinging expert, some of your flings are bound to be misses. Still, the game is very enjoyable. There is tension with every card flip, and of course hitting the target makes you want to give yourself hi-fives. More often than not, the real enemy in the game is time. It is one of the two tracks you will have to manage, along with your life points, and it runs out relatively quickly when you fire guns.
All in all, the game is a great filler. Don't expect deep, strategic thinking and agonizing decisions. But do expect lots of fun.
(I have also tried Kobayashi Tower. It is almost exactly the same game, but instead of tossing tokens, you roll dice to hit the terrorists. If you consider backing the Kickstarter, you may choose the one you think you will enjoy the most).
You may check the KS Preview.