And another... and another type I haven't played in a long time.
Three-dimensional game where you are actually building something, that at first had Menara vibe, but turned out to be completely different.
Block and Key
Components
Since the box itself is the board it is really detailed and well planned on the outside with an additional cover provided, so it won’t get damaged during transportation. The box together with the pillars, that help build “the ruins”, give off a really nice feeling at first. Unfortunately cannot say the same about the rest of the components or the inside of the box. The cover is quite thin and soft meaning, whatever you try to do, after few set ups of the games, you won’t be able to protect it from damages. Also there is no insert whatsoever, nor any spacers meaning the blocks and cards just roll around it. Since the blocks are quite heavy they could damage other components inside the box, which I am not a fan of.
When it comes to cards they are all standard size, passable thickness (2.7mm) and good print quality. There are not that many (48 in total for all levels + enigma and characters), so be ready to use them a lot. In my 4 people games most of them repeated themselves in just the second game (not counting the easy ones that are dealt at the beginning). Since you don’t really want other players to know, what you are building, sleeving them is a must. Especially since because there are not that many you can try guessing based on your hand and the first few completed tasks.
When it comes to blocks, they are portrayed in the rulebook and on the cards with some amazing surface details, which in reality they lack. They are just simple plastic figures in 4 different colors. Even more the colors were hardly distinguishable for my group – looking at you yellow and grey in the artificial light. This not only break the immersion, but also makes it difficult to sometimes spot what you can do. Additionally the more advance figures are not a single solid block, but a combination of smaller pieces. In my case, two of them after few games already needed gluing since they broke into separate ones.
There are no other components in the game. During KS it costed only 42$ in 2021, so the lower quality of the components is not that much of a surprise. However I still wished there was a deluxe version with nicer blocks and some more cards.
Set-up
Depending how good you are with building the game pillars for the upper board it could be quite quick or quite long. On our first try we were doing it for at least 10 minutes before we thought that it’s fine, on next ones we were able to do it in 2-3 minutes. Apart from that, the rest of the set up is quite fast, there aren’t that many cards to deal to players and the building blocks can be shuffled and drawn quickly too. Can you set it up without the pillars? Yes, however keep in mind the intended way keep the upper board at your eyes level, which makes playing with the rules much easier. If you place the upper board next to the bottom one, every player perspective will be disturbed, however it will also make it easier to keep tabs on their quests.
Rules
The rules are simple, even though the rulebook is 8 pages long (in my case since its a KS edition, its a bit longer, because it’s in 3 languages), excluding the front, “lore” and back page we are left with 5 pages worth of rules. As long as you understand the placement rules, what are the “faces” of blocks it is quite simple. Basically you play from your own perspective, while unconsciously helping or disturbing others.
Gameplay
Box mention 20-40 minute game time for one session and it is quite accurate. The time is mostly spend on deciding, where to place block. You can of course do it in advance to some degree, however that needs to be reevaluated after every player most of the time.
What kind of move we can make that require a bit of time to think? Let’s start from the very beginning. After receiving the enigma card, first levels and drawing the 3 first blocks, you start building from the center either by sticking your block to the diagonal corners or one of the sides. If you are sticking to the sides you need to build higher than the blocks you are sticking too, when on corners there are no limitations. With that in mind turn goes around by either picking next 3 blocks or placing one. At first there is not much to think about since simply placing one or two blocks allows you to finish one of you level cards. There problems and thinking starts the longer the game goes and the levels become harder and harder and you also have to plan to not cover the blocks that will give you points at the end. What we missed in all of this were some special sized blocks that would allow for some more variety in building or rule changes in their proximity.
Characters allow to some degree for some interesting plays, however if the blocks you drew won’t match to the cards you have, there isn’t much you can do. Of course you can redraw them however, that’s a turn of not building, when your opponent, will run ahead of you. This is somehow better with more players, even though you would think that there are more chances for someone to snag you block it’s actually quite to opposite. Not only they rotate much faster, but also you have more possible spots to complete your card do to more building phases in between your own turns.
Game is designed for 2 to 4 players. I played it in 2 and 4 player configuration and it was much more interesting with 4. Simply because there were more possibilities for some funny interactions, when you unknowingly complete someone else mission or when you are missing this one block that suddenly appears somewhere far from you. Plus the structures are much more interesting and less linear when building with more people.
Score
- Overall 6/10 – It’s ok and that’s the best I could possible say about it. It’s a shame the blocks don’t have the faces that would make them stand out more so it would at least look much better on the table. Also some more interesting figures with special rules would be nice.
- Coming back 5/10 – There are that much possible combinations on the cards, of course the draw phase and other players moves makes at least for now every game unique, however there a few patterns that repeat over and over again even after few games.
- Fun factor 6/10 – I like building games so probably I had higher expectation that the game delivered. Building is not that exciting, sometimes just of pure luck other players complete things for you, sometime you are blocked the whole time and can’t do a thing.
Will it stay or go? – I want to play some more before I decide though I don’t see it working for less than 4 people, which might make it a first go.
