I'm really enjoying listening to Sam's opinions at the minute. I like that he's finding theme in games, where he might not previously. It must be more difficult to get the time to film them, but these videos where all three review together is excellent, it's nice to hear thoughts bounced around between each other.
We TOTALLY love this game - it is difficult and can be frustrating. The one thing we did wish was that the cards you complete somehow change the game - improve the city - make things LESS difficult.
I’ve just bought it and we love it too! So thinky but really satisfying when you can accomplish a task. Like you say, can be frustrating, but that’s where the charm is I think! So glad I bought it
Felt the screensaver TV behind you guys was quite distracting (despite the nice pics)... Would prob suggest tilting the camera angle down to show more table and less of what is above your heads...
The batteries make sense if you think of them as using power to actually separate the oxygen from the water and creating air. So they're not bringing any air down with them, but when power runs out they have to call it quits.
I do love puzzle-y aspects/mechanics in games, but I too am a little disheartened at how lose the theme is in this one, especially with the gorgeous cover art. Still on my wishlist for sure, but didn't rise or lower due to that fact.
This is an awesome game. I really like the theme, the artwork is beautiful. It’s one of those rare games that IMMEDIATELY had me wanting to play another game. It’s really thinky which is both frustrating at times but it’s actually what gives it, it’s charm. Too much nit-picking here.. give it a go! :D
Tom, I realize that it's a cube, but if you're going to call it a cube, please also say what the cube (or other component) actually represents thematically. That is, unless it really doesn't mean anything that is readily discernible. Avoid saying things like "This tile gives you a black cube." It's just a very dry way to explain any game. Some games actually are quite dry mechanically (as this one may be), so this can take a bit of work, but it's worth it. People don't get interested in this hobby because they like pushing cubes, and there are so many great games that use cubes to represent things..
They do that often. Refer to components thematically. To me it's actually telling when they do it vs when they don't. Zee in his reviews refers to that as "Thematic Ties", and parts of it is "Does the theme help explain the rules, do you refer to the theme as you explain the rules". Some games are so tied that you can't help but do it, some you could or couldn't, and some games are flat out confusing when you try to do it. So in this case, I just take it as an indication that the game is not incredibly thematic in this regards.
In addition to the comment above Tom’s goal here isn’t to get people excited about the game, it’s about to give a cohesive overview of the game and explain what his opinion of the game is in case someone else might be interested in buying it. Reviews aren’t ads, they’re not intended to make people unnecessarily excited about the game being reviewed if the reviewer isn’t actually excited by it. When a review is “good but not great”, as is the case here, there is no reason to artificially inflate excitement by changing your natural language to sell more copies. Now all that being said I would say the Dicetower crew are good ambassadors for board gaming and that’s because their videos are generally entertaining to watch. They have good chemistry, make funny or inciteful comments, and have good production values in the reviews and top ten lists. I think those are the aspects of the video production and direction that serve to help get new people interested in watching their videos and interested in checking out the games they had a lot of fun playing. So they do get to help build some excitement for the hobby, they just don’t need to do it by overly hyping individual games.
Tom and Sam, I was wondering if you guys would be interested in going back to RuneBound (Third Edition) and reviewing it with the latest expansion that came this year "Runebound (Third Edition): Unbreakable Bonds" since it makes the game a Coop/Solo adventure and it fixes some of the complaints that you had with the downtime on the original review.
Why oh why do they insist on designing board game boards where only 1 of the 4 people sitting around the table get to see it upright? Why not make a board game that makes sense no matter what side you are looking from? Even Monopoly did better at that, at least every player got to see their side of the board upright.
Sam Healy's dialogue never adds very much to the typical DT review, but this is a new low for him. What a waste of airtime. Is it possible to have an edited no-sam-healy versions of the reviews?
Their audio seems a bit muffled and I've noticed with this new studio setting that when the TV in the background changes images, it messes with the video's brightness levels. I will say though that the setting does seem nicer than when they were sitting at their gaming table.
