Talisman 4th Edition Review

I first played this game many years ago as a child, when it was in its third edition. Back then it was a great game, that I could play with both my family and friends, and it will always have a dear place in my heart. So how does the Fantasy Flight Games 4^th reprint stack up?

This game oozes presentation. From when you first pick up and feel the weight of the box, you know you have a great game in your hands. This carries on when you open up the box for the first time, and see all the cards and the miniatures, and that board.

The board is huge, with beautiful artwork all across it. You can play this game many, many times and still see new things on the board, things that you missed the last time. All the other componants are wonderful aswell, with nice finishes on all the cards, and all the plastic pieces just feel right.

The rulebook is the usual fare, and I feel way to long for this game. It makes the game feel complicated when you first read it, but play the first game, and you will see how it all fits together seamlessly.

The game plays really smoothly, and even with brand new players, once you have played the first turn, every one will know what to do. Gameplay is simple: Roll a dice, move your character that amount of spaces left or right around the board, and do what the space you land on instructs you to do. Usually, it will be draw a amount of cards, which you then follow the instructions. These can range from fights with monsters, to items that you can pick up or special events that affect everyone on the board. Then its the next players turn to do the same.

The whole idea is to build your character into a strong warrior and work your way into the center of the board, where the Crown of Command exists. At this point, the character with the Crown of Command kills everyone and wins. It sounds easy, but as you work your way into the center of the board, spaces get harder, as do the monsters that you encounter. Couple that with the fact that when you make a dive for the center, you become a target for everyone to get.

I have found that this game takes about one hour for each player playing. So a four player game can last four hours, but don't let this put you off, that time will fly by. It really is a fun night in game, so grab your friends, get some drinks and snacks and see where this game takes you. The tales that can be told from playing this game are wide a varied, and peoples misfortunes will make you all fall around in laughter. Take for example from a game I played. We had a hapless druid, who on his turn drew the mighty dragon to fight. Having not a chance, he still fought it, and lost. Play went around, and he swiftly moved on, only to draw a demon, the most powerful enemy in the deck! Needless to say, his character did not last long, and proceeded to get drunk in the tavern (it had been a rough day).

So, do I like this game? Yes I do, and so does everyone I have introduced to it. This definatly goes in my top 5 games of all time. So get this, you will not regret it one bit.

Rating: 9.5/10

Formula D review

This is a great game. I am just going to come out straight and say it. But what makes this such a great game?

The components are good. The board is BIG, and comes in two sections and, the artwork really captures the theme nicely.

The only problem I have with the board is that it won't lay completely flat on the table, this is to do with how its folded. But it is double sided, so two maps on one set of boards is a good thing.

The cars are nice and functional. There’s not a lot of detail on them, but with different colours and designs its not difficult to see which ones are which.

Another nice feature is the gearbox controls for all the cars, which I think are a nice touch, and also complements the theme perfectly.

These show which gear you are in and how much wear (which is damage) your car has taken. These cards are also double sided, with the basic layout on one side, and the advanced layout on the other side.

What makes this game is the way it works. You movement is determined by the roll of a dice, and each gear has its own dice and, number range attached to it. In first gear you can only move only 1 or 2 spaces, all the way up to sixth gear, which is a 30 sided dice marked 21 to 30 (!), where you can cover some serious ground. 

 

Corners are rated 1 to 3, which determine how many times you need to stop in each corner to prevent damage or even destroying your car. You can blast straight through corners rated 1, but take damage equal to however many spaces you overshoot the corner by. On a 2 or 3 stop, you will wreck your car unless you have stopped one or twice (respectively).

And that’s really all there is. There are some simple rules that control how the cars move around, which are all pretty intuitive. In the basic game, all your wear points are together, and once you hit 0 you wreck the car. In the advanced mode, your wear points are split up, into axle, wheel, engine and other parts of the car. This means you will have to start really thinking about those corners, as you have less points until you become a fast moving fireball.

The flip side of the map depicts a street race, where a whole new set of rules can be used. You can drift around corners, get shot at, and take damage from rubble on the road. The track is much tighter, and feels a lot different from the Monaco F1 track. Here you can also use drivers, each with different damage stat's and special abilities. Overall, this makes for a different style of play.

I feel that this whole game can be easily taught to anyone. If they understand car races (i.e. reach the finish line first) then the gear mechanic will be easily understood, and strategies are easily learnt. The first lap with someone who has never played before can last around an hour, speeding up at the end. I played games of this with people who had never played, and we were doing three lap races in about a hour and a half after the initial lap.

The rule books are laid out in a nice and neat way. The rules are explained in a nice and simple way. There are two rule books that come with this, a beginners book and a advanced racers book, and are A4 sized. 

The advanced book builds upon the beginner book in a nice way, adding rules that you choose.

This also lends itself to a league table. Be it with the family or game group, an lot of friendly competition could be achieved if played one or twice a week with a leader board being updated.

I like this game a lot as I have already mentioned. Its easy to play, doesn't take to long and has moments of intense excitement involved. It has been well expanded with tracks available, and has a good online following, with fan made maps and variants easily available.

Rating 7.5/10

Reviews to come

Reviews been worked at the moment:

Arkham Horror
Formula D
Talisman 4th edition

Stay tuned!