Watch your Back: Week January 22 to 28
As we approach the end of January, things are still pretty chill in the solo crowdfunding scene: just a few projects to keep us interested without getting overwhelmed. Let's see what they are.
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We'll start with Deep Shelf: a 1-4 player economic game in which you play as a deep sea mining corporation extracting minerals from the ocean. Your goal is to make the most profit while also avoiding an ecologic catastrophe.
Gameplay is card-driven: you will be playing cards from your hand, one after another, and executing their actions. There is no mention of a solo mode just yet, but it's listed as a soloable game, so we'll see when the Kickstarter goes live on January 23.
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Moving on to the reprint of Perdition's Mouth: Abyssal Rift, only for US customers. The Kickstarter campaign on January 23 is only targeted at the US audience because of availability issues.
The game is a 1-6 player cooperative dungeon crawler, known for its euro-y mechanisms. It is scenario-based, and actions for the heroes and the monsters are determined by their respective rondels.
Personal opinion: I'm not a US resident, so the KS isn't for me, but it reminded me of my wish to buy a good old dungeon crawler. I'll have to watch a video and think about it.
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Then we have Witchbound: a solo story-driven game in which you are a young witch exploring the island of Coven Cove and its dark secret. The game works like a picture book with numbers that you can interact with in each picture. You can look at and touch objects, and converse with people to progress the story. It is launching on Gamefound on January 24.
Personal opinion: I watched a demo playthrough of this. It's cute and very video gamey. I decided to skip it for now and keep it in mind when it hits the stores, if I need a relaxing RPG-like activity.
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And lastly, Batman: Escape from Arkham Asylum is launching on Gamefound on January 24. This is a 1-5 player semi-cooperative adventure game in which you play as Gotham City villains trying to defeat Batman (and achieve their hidden objective, if you're playing multiplayer). You will have to craft weapons, attack enemies, and avoid raising the alarm level so as not to have Batman invade the scene.
Personal opinion: It sounds fun for Batman fans.
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I should also mention that Manhattan Project: War Machine has been scheduled to launch on Kickstarter on January 24, and it is listed as a soloable game on BGG, but the Kickstarter video ad says it's a 2-4 player game.
We forgot two games:
Roll for the Great Old Ones, a Cthulhu-themed roll'n'write which will be available both as a PnP option (as originally intended) and as a physical version. Launching Tuesday 24 on KS.
The Wilderness, a minis game set in a post-apocalyptic world in which nature has retaken the world. Launching Friday 27 on KS.
Somehow I always eagerly await these announcements even though they usually don't have anything for me inside. Granted, part of it is my restrictions that grow in number and severity each year as my space and time dwindles (sorry publishers and designers). I'll make it very brief, since only 2 games were ones that caught my interest originally. The others I never even considered.
Deep Shelf is one I followed from the time where little but the board was known and the premise sounded very fun. But the execution doesn't draw me in anymore, pass.
Witchbound was in one of the new to BGG posts by Zerbique and he was so excited I looked into it. But same as RoboMon…
In their previous games, The Gardens, Grail Games (publisher of War Machine) also advertised their game as a 2-4 players game, only to bring in the solo mode as a stretch goal during the campaign. I expect it will turn out to be the same here.
Yes yes yes, I'm very excited to be on Tuesday! I'll be eagerly there to back Witchbound (hopefully it ends up below 100€). I love everything I have learned about it so far. If I have to back only one game this year, it should be this one (even though the "KS that brings me the most joy to have backed by the end of the campaign" last year was RoboMon, which is admittedly pretty similar; I guess these games are what I had hoped Legacy of Dragonholt would be and what I need these days in my gaming life).
As for the rest, I don't care! Batman, expensive Euro (although significantly more interesting to me than the genre average,…