Watch your Back: Week September 18 to 24
Zerbique had already prepared us for this week's heavy hitter, Daybreak. Let's see what else is launching around the same time.
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So, Daybreak: this is a Matt Leacock co-design, a cooperative game about climate change. It doesn't say if it is playable solo, but I suppose you can control multiple characters as is usually the case with co-ops.
The main mechanism is engine building. Each player is a world power trying to do their best to stop temperatures from rising and prevent environmental crises. You do this by playing cards from your hand, either for their action or as currency to play other cards, and then rolling the doom die for planetary effects and dealing with crisis cards. It is launching on Backerkit on September 20.
Personal opinion: I'll take a look when it goes live but I'm not sure I want it. No videos have been released yet, and hardly any images, so it's difficult to tell how exciting it is to play. I'm lukewarm for now, we'll see if my enthusiasm levels rise.
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Moving on to Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan: a 1-4 player cooperative app-driven adventure game in which you play as a hero doing heroic things in the city of Kaan.
You will follow the narrative through the app, and engage into fights resolved by rolling dice and adding the characters' skills. The campaign is replayable, and to play solo you will need to control two heroes. It is launching on Kickstarter on September 20.
Personal opinion: The damned app kills this for me.
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Lastly, Kingdom Come: Deliverance got postponed for September 20 (on Gamefound). So I'll copy what I had written in my previous post for everyone's convenience.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance - The Board Game is a 1-4 player cooperative adventure app-driven game in which you play as common folk caught in the midst of the Hussite wars in Medieval Europe. The story is presented through the app which also gives you choices to make, and keeps track of your progress.
Personal opinion: Apps are a definite no-go for me.
And my usual addendum:
Age of Comic: The Golden Years is launching tomorrow (September 19) on KS. Prelaunch link. Rules available here (but not for the Automa-driven solo mode).
It's a worker placement game where you run a comic publishing house and, well, try to make some profit out of it of course.
The board screams "big Euro" to me, so it is immediately clear that I am unable to tell you anything relevant about it.
Thanks for the post Athena!
I have the exact same thoughts for Fateforge. I was excited at first, it was on my "radar" list for the remaining of the year, until I saw it was app-driven. Sometimes I feel stupid to have such hard criteria for ruling out games, but I'm also very glad that it spares me all the trouble of pondering whether I want the game enough or not to legitimate spending too much money on yet more pretty cardboard.
The other games did not need an app (or anything) for me to rule them out instantly, they are just not for me in a very obvious way.
Yellow on a white background is a horrible choice for text color. It’s very difficult to see, especially with older eyes.
Daybreak is the only one I looked closer into, there's a written "preview" from someone who tried the prototype of the game. The reason I stopped looking into it is that they changed the "deck of bad things" that you could count, cause you know, it's a deck of cards, it's semi-random (aka if you draw something, you know it won't come out right away) into "roll a die for bad things to happen", which I really dislike. So yeah, pass.
And I agree with Athena on the rest. App = pass. Not because I think app assisted games shouldn't exist, but they're not what I personally want from a board game experience. I want that one without any electronics.…