Finishing out the year with a few new games. It’s the first full year I’ve ranked my games, and I’m hoping to put together a list of favorite 2018 games soon.
- Chronicles of Crime – After demoing this at Dice Tower Con, we finally received our preorder. We love mystery games, and this is one of the best.
- Space Base – I was surprised to love this engine and tableau builder as much as I did, and I haven’t played anything like it (such as Machi Koro). Don’t expect the theme to mean much, though.
- Fireball Island – Purely ridiculous press-your-luck game that the family loved.
- Railroad Ink – Loved this roll-and-write in which you build a railroad. We haven’t tried it with the expansions yet.
- Welcome to Dino World – We enjoyed this Tetris-style roll and write enough to back it. The dinosaur theme helps.
- A Tale of Pirates – We enjoyed this quick coop real time game in which you flip sand timers and fend off a pirate attack to play it 6 times our first time.
- Sprawlopolis – A very portable coop and solo tile placement game. Shockingly hard.
- Fog of Love – We role played this as popular characters (Bruce Wayne and Leslie Knope), and we were shocked by how much fun it was, although I would categorize this one as “experience” rather than “game” since we didn’t care at all about winning (spoilers: it was not a love match).
- Jump Drive – After 10 years of playing (and loving) Race for the Galaxy, it was nice to have a quicker alternative.
- Schotten Totten – A fun and silly two player set collection game. I see us travelling with this one.
- Birds of a Feather – A cute set collection game, although it didn’t stand out to me.
- Street Fighter: The Miniatures Game – This tactical coop reminded us of Sentinels of the Multiverse, with unique individual hero decks. But the tactical aspect didn’t really enhance the game for me, and it felt way too long for 4 players.
- Star Trek Frontiers – We’ve never played Mage Knight, and perhaps it was because we only played the basic version, but it didn’t really leave a strong impression (plus, it had some theme problems for Adam). We’re looking forward to trying it again with the Wrath of Khan expansion.
- Western Legends – I wanted to love this western-themed sandbox games, but my experience was marred by repeated failures of attempting actions and it way overstayed its welcome. Hopefully I’ll like it more as I get used to playing it.
- Keyforge – I generally get bored with pure fighting games, and this was no exception. It was fine, but I don’t really care to play it again.
And the new expansions:
- Mansions of Madness: Horrific Journeys – Mansions of Madness is one of our favorite games, and we’re always love playing new scenarios. We’ve only played one so far, but we really liked the mystery element. Disclosure: we’re friends with one of the designers of this expansion.
- Imperial Settlers: Amazons – Imperial Settlers still remains one of my favorite games, and I loved this new race focused on card milling. Probably my favorite of the expansion races thus far.
- Unlock: Adventurers of Oz – A difficult but super enjoyable scenario playing through the story of the Wizard of Oz escape room game.
- Exit: Dead Man on the Orient Express – We loved the mystery aspect of this escape room game.
- Unlock: Tombstone Express – We enjoyed that this Unlock tried to incorporate additional events into a normal escape room game experience, although they didn’t work seamlessly.
- Exit: Mysterious Museum – We enjoyed the time travel story (plus it slightly reminded me of the Mystic Manor ride at Disneyland Hong Kong), but it was pretty easy.
Eclectic Gamer 