I'm glad to hear it works pretty well! It doesn't sound too rules intensive, unlike uh.....some Portal Games. This one is top of my anticipated games list.
I have a few games I played only once even though they're very replayable. Not worried about this one being a one-off experience. Just like 7th Continent. Is it fun, provides hours of gameplay? So it's totally worth it.
Looking forward to this game, both because of the theme and the designer. The key question for me, however, was very very briefly mentioned by Tom at the end of the video: Is this not awfully close to Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective? I do love SHCD, but I am not convinced yet I would want to buy a game that is almost the same. When you do the full review, could you tell a bit more about how it compares to SHCD?
How does this compare to online alternative reality games where you look around the net and stuff to solve mysteries? Like "The Black Watchmen" on Steam? Has anyone played both and can compare them?
So far, PG maybe? But there are some heavier background themes involved, and I don't think a non-teenager would really get everything in it. So PG-13 for sure.
Thanks for the reply, DT. I was curious if it was regular procedural detective stuff with dead bodies and not something like Seven or something just as gruesome.
Since Tom kind of hinted it in the end: did they ever confirmed, that there will never be a final review of First Martians from them? And even more, did they mentioned, why?
Did any of you read the rules? Can the game be played using the rule book? Can the rule book be comprehended? Still not sure I’m playing First Martians right.
Phantomzeroneo by their very nature, there shouldn't be. I mean hoy have replayable games with that theme, but no real "detective work" is in the gameplay (Android, Beyond Baker Street). The closest you can get are clueish games (Sleuth, Perfect Alibi, Mystery of the Abbey)
Actually you can play the same case multiple times if you don't get score high enough at the end of the case. And it's very difficult to get all clues and perfect score.
Seems a nice game, too bad that it is essencially a one-off for a group (i.e. playing through each Case reveals the necessary information, so is not replayable). I wish someone would take Android from FFG and make a new version... though I did not play Android, from observing it and reading about it that one seems a very good detective game, that is replayable.
Too many of these non-games (or as Sam put it, "events") are starting to flood the market. Not so sure what to think of 'em. To me, Detective: City of Angels looks much more appealing than this.
sirtarod Thanks for the info! Looked up city of angels and although it looks really good, the price is high for a late-backer. They've raised the price for late backers nearly 30usd. That's a 32% price increase! Also, personally I'm against this policy of punishing customers for finding out about a game too late. And a 32% price increase is the worst offender I've ever met. Detective costs 50usd and is released in retail from an established company, which means it has a much bigger chance for longevity and future expansions. There's also Chronicles of crime on KS.
Well I must agree there, that's a pretty steep increase. Apparently the game grew a lot during development (like for instance, pieces of unique art by Vincent Dutrait no less)... My guess is they're trying to balance out KS losses with retail sales. What a pity! Van Ryder is becoming bigger, I hope they continue to provide content and support to CoA when it comes out.
"I'm not sure what to study for." That's where this game and SHCD fails in my opinion. There's no real direction these games go unless you understand how to get the game to work the way you want it to. You could be asking question after question after question that all might be relevant...'but not to the game' and you're left with so much information that solving the case becomes guesswork.
SHCD has a lot of filler but really just using common sense you can solve the cases - never in the right timescale but most people just play it as a Choose Your Own Adventure thing and don't worry about the scoring. When you play your first case you don't realise that there is a secondary mystery going on unrelated to the main case that gets you bonus points at the end and that is really confusing. Once you realise that is how ALL the cases work then it gets less frustrating and you don't mind getting sidetracked.
@@Veaseify I played 3 cases...I got tired of clearly going nowhere, solving nothing, and having a Snooty Brit explain impossible things to me. If that's what you enjoy, more power to you, but it's definitely not for me.
@@Fuzzyfoot88 I get that, its so open ended that its hard to know even where to start and there isn't anything to tell you when you have all the information you need but I liked the non linear structure and how you weren't screwed by unlucky dice rolls. It probably helps if you are a Sherlock Holmes fan in the first place so you can follow plausible leads based on how the great man solved crimes in the original stories.
@@Veaseify And I had two of those Holmesians on the team. But when a game ends you want to feel like accomplished something. Time Stories gave us that. Most of the escape room games gave us that. SHCD is soul crushing because instead of watching Holmes upstage the other players in the book, movie, or show, he's upstaging you. And you can tell you're going to lose horribly to him, he's going to rub it in, and the cycle begins again with a new case. I don't like games with sore winners, and that is what Holmes is, NPC or not, he's a sore winner and it makes me feel worthless or that my time was utterly wasted.
@@Fuzzyfoot88 Ah right, if you care about beating Holmes then yes, its going to be a frustrating exercise because a) you can never solve the case in the same number of leads he uses and b) he isn't interested in the side quest mystery that you can spend hours trying to solve. losing points for all the blind alleys you go down. Most people realise you aren't going to beat Holmes and just try to solve the case, no matter how long it takes. Most of the explanations make sense as long as you have followed EVERY possible lead and talked to anybody you can find, but again, you won't 'win' the game doing that.
