The first video on the STALKER board game after which I feel I understand how it plays out. No talk about meta stuff, just talk about rules and showing the actual play in detail. Very helpful. Gonna buy it based on your preview
I don't want / need another big Awakens Realm campaign game. But I am rather excited about this one: the Stalker, Fallout and Metro series of pc games were all great and this looks to capture the same vibes. Thanks for checking this one out for us.
Thanks for watching! Fallout is the only one of those series that I've played extensively, and even though this is a different IP I still got some of the same vibes :)
Yeah, I’m campaigned out. There are just too many and I’ve barely touched them. I would have preferred this to lean more as an world adventure kind of game. It’ll be a pass for me.
@@OneStopCoopShop Ah, but the difference is that you seem to play these campaign games more than us mere mortals. I play enough to know whether I like them enough to keep then add it to the "paint the minis" pile that turns into my "keep for retirement" pile. I think I need to watch fewer playthrough videos and get more games played. 🤣
I know they put out a dev diary on BGG talking about the one-shot mode. Could be interesting for me since I don't like campaigns, but it looks like the focus is more on the campaign mode.
Thanks for the playthrough Mike and helping us make an informed decision! Going into this I had no history with Stalker but it sounded really cool. Elements of this definitely intrigue me but boy does the sound mechanic seem cumbersome and fiddly.
It works better than I thought it would in practice. There is a bit of counting ranges sometimes, as you saw in the video, and you need to grab a bunch of tokens at the end of each round as noise gets cleared. So I don’t think it’s too bad, but it’s not non-existent in the fiddliness category 😅
You didn't mention it but I did want to bring up that the anomaly rules text said that every figure (including enemies) that enters an anomaly space has to draw from the bag and suffer the token effects. In your playthrough the enemies only entered the electrical anomaly, which only does radiation, and I'm going to guess radiation doesn't affect the enemies. But as luring enemies into anomalies was a favorite tactic in the videogame, I think it's worth calling out that that does seem like it will be an option in some cases in the boardgame as well.
Good call. The rules so far mention that a token is drawn for enemies, but I don't see anything in the rules explaining how the effects would impact them (unless I'm missing it). Like I assume a red token here would end their activation, but yeah not sure they can be affected by radiation damage...
At 1:01:48 you can see the Springboard anomaly card. A couple of effects on it add Radiation or Physical Wounds to your player character, but also specify that they deal a Light Wound on any enemy that draws that token from the bag. So it looks like not all anomalies are dangerous to enemies, but some can stop them from acting, even probably outright kill them.
Thanks for previewing the gameplay! Like others have said the game just seems pretty "standard": run and shoot and look around till you find what you need. Doesn't seem too different campaign-wise from Zombicide I played a few years back which was look in all the rooms, find the key, and leave. AR also noted that campaigns would be replayable, but this doesn't really showcase that since it seems like it'd be the same setup and same outcomes. I'll keep following the project for now in case they explain more about how things work, but I'm disappointed so far. There's a couple big boxed games I'm looking at so hey, you might have saved me a hard decision to make :)
I think there’s a ton more opportunity for exploration and narrative here with the cards on the board getting revealed than anything you can find in Zombicide 😜 Hopefully they make the most of those systems as they build out the campaign. Like you I want variety and replay
The Zone Survival Mode sounds pretty interesting. And I see the noise tokens more of „attention“ tokens. I think it makes senses and looks more fun than I thought. Wasn’t interested but All-In now. Thanks Mike! :D
Fantastic playthrough Mike. I was really interested in this based on theme alone and I'm glad that the gameplay from the early prototype looks to be up my alley. Will definitely be looking at backing this as my first campaign of 2023!
Like some others here, I was really excited about this one.....but the whole noise token mechanic really turned me off. I'm sure some will like it, but not me. Very happy i watched this play-through.
I've got the main big games I've wanted but have to admit this one will be added to my collection when it comes out. Can't wait to see the final game when it's all complete.
Seems strange that the lady could walk in a room with 2 guys with shotguns, snipe someone out the window and get out while the 2 baddies ignore it all and walk out the other side of the building bewildered. Immersion wrecked.
Haha, yeah, it’d be more realistic for them to turn around immediately, but might make the stealth impossible 😅 If they wanted to make more the game more challenging, they could have the noise immediately trigger overwatch activations if it was close enough or something like that
Great play through Mike! If you aren’t aware of this whole genre of fiction I would suggest looking into it because it’s one of my favorite. I believe it all started with the novella Roadside Picnic and was followed up with the movie Stalker by Tarkovsky. In terms of games, I have played Zona: Secret of Chernobyl which has similar themes.
'Zona: Secret of Chernobyl' is not just similar theme - it's DIRECTLY Stalker based, but it's not officially licensed to use the names and trade marks. Zona: Secret of Chernobyl is the better Stalker game for sure (from what I see here in this video). They recently announced an expansion is coming soon for Zona (no crowdfunding, but direct to stores).
@@OneStopCoopShop Started with a book, followed by a film, as Charles said. Games are just loosely based on the film and book - they take some common tropes but mostly go their own way. You can say that they were an inspiration rather than an adaptation. There were series planed, based on the games, but canceled. The board game is directly tied to the PC games and is connected to the launch of the next big Stalker game in the franchise. Book and the film are more artistic and philosophical, rather than anything else. Games are survival horror shooters, set in their own world.
Great review Mike! Im oretty excited for this one. Im hapoy that AR is finally making a more tactically focused coop, with solid narrative. It seems a little fiddly (specifically the noise tokens and cards on the board), but not to the point I'd not want to table it. The enemy facing also adds another layer to both fiddlyness but also tactics, so seems worth it.
Good overview, thank you. I already have way too many tactical/ token games. Currently avoiding noise token games. Was hoping for something a little lighter, but it is awaken realms :)
Sadly this is not what I was hoping for. It looks like a very linear, story driven, slow and tactical combat game. it almost reminds me more of a Commandos kind of game. Why is so much emphasis on stealth? Stalker was not about that. I was hoping for a more open world / randomly generated missions and events with loot , artifacts and character progression. Also gameplay should be more action packed and quicker. I don’t know if replayabilty is a problem.
Sounds like you might be looking for more of an adventure game, something like fantasy flight’s fallout or waste knights. This one is definitely going for a zoomed in tactical miniatures game
Yes, as a huge fan of the stalkerverse my expectations are diminished by the actual gameplay - it does not give me the stalker feeling (Zona does more in this department). An open world with a zoom into skirmish battles would have been great, and personally I don't like stealth that much...
I agree. While stealth is a big (optional) part of games like metro, Stalker has like none of it. The mechanics looks cool but it's not something I'm really looking for. But thinking outside of the game, in Stalker everything is about *stalking*, and you need to be sneaky for that. So it does make sense
@@lonewaffle231 It would have been "easy" to come up with a general open world structure like "make it to the heart of the zone". You would need to solve quests, fight battles, level up and get better equipment in the outer zones first, because it is more dangerous (radioactiveness and monsters) in the middle. I mean Awaken Realms is famous for making semi-open worlds with a mixture of story/main missions and random side missions. That would have been such a perfect fit for this game here as well!
This playthrough matched every one of my stealth games: 30 seconds in, it becomes a massacre. I could see replacing the sound tokens with d6s, which might make it less fiddly.
Thanks for putting this video out. I was on the fence and was quite curious about this one but since it looks super fiddly, I think I’m gonna sit this one out and wait to see what Dragon Eclipse does later this year from AR. My wallet (and my not-game-obsessed wife) appreciates you 🙏🏻💸
Nice playthrough. I've backed this - looks very interesting. Very different to a "dungeon crawl" (e.g. Gloomhaven, Mage Mnight, Euthia) and also very different to other stealth (e.g. Burncycle, sniper elite). Noise mechanic definitely looked like a nice concept in the way it makes you play, but did seem a little fiddly: constantly counting tokens and distances and the variable shaped spaces did seem to make it a little more awkward, but it didn't seem too overly cumbersome. Player scaling needs to be addressed. I'll play solo and can see different character counts can change the tactics used, so I would like to explore that. Not only will less characters give less actions (easily adjustable) but also more to do and therefore requiring more total actions. Campaign replayability is also something to work on - e.g. somehow randomising the locations would do that (I can think of several ways).
Like the IP and the theme very much (need more post apocalyptic games). However, gut feeling tells me this is going to be super finicky and token heavy. Bummer. Appreciate they are making it accessible as one shot adventures.
Are they doing one-shots? That’s interesting. Not sure I would find it as interesting without campaign considerations like building radiation, finding items, etc
@@OneStopCoopShop they will have both by the sound of it. As far as campaign it sounds like 3 sorta mini campaigns (10-15hrs?). I do appreciate they are trying to not make it some massive 60-100hr campaign game.
Is the guards setup fixed for this scenario? Looks like when you solve the puzzle, there is just the chance that the random AI final movement could is the only variable for the next gameplay with the same scenario, that's 0 replayability...
The spawn tokens in each building are randomized, so you don’t know exactly where guards might show up. But I might like it a bit more if there were more guards in houses and fewer guards outside at first. Could make sneaking early a bit more viable, and give each scenario more variety. But all of that could change in development. Still very early in the process for the game!
Very good video for a first outing with the prototype. So far the only issue that springs up is the noise situation as it seems a bit confusing as to the number of tokens to use. I'm sure that will be made clearer once I get a look at the rules. Or maybe I just need to watch the play through again. Most of the other mechanics seem pretty clear and I really like the way they've done the shooting for the protagonists. Thanks much.
Thank you for the playthrough. I liked the gameplay, however it seems that the beginning was quite thrilling and interesting, and as soon as you managed to break it up a bit, it was more or less "easy" going. Not sure, but maybe spawning that additional enemy could have come a round or two earlier (or spawn of more the ak / shotgun guys)
Great question. So of course there are lots of differences. Stalker is a campaign, Burncycle isn't. Stalker has narrative, Burncycle doesn't. Stalker is a bit more "normal" with its action system, Burncycle has the whole chip burncycle... thing. But I'm guessing what you are really asking about is the tactical movement and stealth play. Based on the little I've played stalker, it seems much more focused on fighting and killing enemies. You can stay hidden for a while, but eventually it's going to come to combat. Burncycle on the other hand realistically can be beaten without ever being seen, and I've had tons of games where I never punched a guard. That doesn't mean that either is better or worse, just a different focus. Now, where I can say (at this point) I strongly prefer Burncycle is in the stealth mechanics. It's still my favorite stealth system ever implemented in a board game. The combination of the guard routes and range of view, along with the way they keep track of your last known position, is just super clever and satisfying with basically no tokens needed.
Awaken Realms needs to take a pause as my wallet just can't take another must have, and this one looks that way for me. Saw another poster mention Metro, and that sort of video game turned board game is exactly my jam!
Thank you for another incredible video, Mike. You are the best! This game looks cool and I’ve backed it. Thus far I’ve liked Nemesis, Tainted Grail, etc-AR are one of my favorite companies now. I’m surprised by the complaints about tokens and mentions of Zombicide! For a tactical skirmish game like this, tokens aren’t surprising, at least for those who have played miniatures games or wargames. But at the same time it has strong story and a campaign. So I feel maybe it’s for a niche market. But I happen to be that market, so I’m looking forward to it! Of course the art etc look amazing as to be expected from AR.
I was in for the theme, but don't see much stealth based gameplay. The noise tokens are just an elaborate way to determine enemy movement. Seems better than Zombicide, but much rather play Conan or Deep Madness, where you can also tactically avoid enemies, while no need for noise tokens. As to implement stealth, I was hoping for some mechanic to sneak up close to an enemy and take them out with a slit throat. If they spot you, based on some luck factor, only then a battle ensues, which can be kept quiet by melee but more chance to get hit back, or open fire and then cover is blown. Is there any such game?
I disagree with you that there isn’t stealth here, but no worries. And I didn’t get it in this play, but they have knife items that let you do stealth takedowns. As for the gameplay you are discussing, maybe the upcoming metal gear solid game? Or V-Sabotage/assassin’s creed? Those latter ones have rolls to determine if enemies spot you.
@@OneStopCoopShop Ok, if any stealth knife takedown possible, I'll keep following STALKER. Yes, I was just checking out MGS. Seems what I want, but content is so much less as compared to STALKER.
I was worried about fiddliness going in, but at least in this first play it was generally pretty obvious which noise affected which enemy. We will see how it works with other scenarios and more characters on the board 😅
@@OneStopCoopShop Would replacing the tokens with dice to designate the amount of noise in a space help with table clutter? *edit* nevermind, just learned there can only be 3 of each color/space
I think that could work. The conflict would be that noise can go up to 9, not 6, and by the current rules red and orange noise tokens need to be separately distinguished. Not sure having two dice per space would save headaches :)
You forgot mamy times to roll direction dice after enemy move. Also they can't be facing wall. So you should play like this: 1. Move enemy figure 2. If he can't see you after move, roll direction dice 3. If enemy is facing wall, turn him 90' until there is open zone in front of him.
In the version of the rulebook they sent, enemies only roll for direction if they moved a single space. If they are moving towards noise, they do not roll for direction. And also the designer clarified when I asked him before filming the preview that enemies turn 90 degrees to not face a wall at the START of their movement, not at the end. They are fully allowed to face a wall as they end their move. The prototype rulebook said it one way in the beginning and a different way in the end, hence the confusion and me needing to ask the designer.
Question, can you stop on a space where an enemy is facing on over watch and you get to shoot first? I can’t wrap my head around how your shoot without getting shot first. Seems very punishing. Unless you only shoot enemies from behind but that seems restrictive.
Yeah, I do this in the first round of the play I think. Overwatch triggers at the end of an entire action, so since each of the action tokens has a bonus move, you can pop out of cover with that move and get a shot before the enemy overwatch fires at you
I sent the prototype on to Bairnt, so he might cover mission 2. It’s more of a boss chase, sneaking around but eventually a monster comes out trying to kill you
I was onboard until the Noise tokens. That was a bad idea in the old Zombicide editions, and it's bad here. So much fiddliness. Thanks for the video. Saved me some money.
the game looks nice.. my big problem i see with this playthrough... i do NOT need a gane with like 50 different tokens that do something each and have like 10 of each token. too much keepup stuff.. idk
The only ones I was dealing with frequently were the noise tokens and overwatch tokens, and yes I could see those getting annoying for sure. But unlike a lot of games this one doesn’t seem to have many status effects, and you don’t have to track enemy health with tokens, so I think this one is better than your average dungeon crawler/adventure game when it comes to token bloat
Isn't Snork one of the Banana Splits? (Maybe before your time, Mike lol) Thanks for the preview play and thoughts. Will follow the campaign as I don't have this sort of game (theme and playstyle) Do you know if the video game has any connection to the Tarkovsky film, Stalker? Don't remember the snorks, and the "Zone" was more ambiguous, but it feels very similar. iirc people would hire Stalkers to guide them into the Zone where a wish could be fulfilled.
I’m not too familiar, but an earlier comment talked about this being its own subgenre of post-apocalypse/horror/sci-fi. My understanding is that the video game stalker is loosely based on the movie you mentioned. They all connect, in a way.
Hey, everything, movie, pc-game and board-game is loosly based on some very famous russian "sci-fy" (more phantastic then sci-fy) authors. There names were Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki and the name of the story is "roadside picnic". Great story. The mostly wrote during the existance of the USSR and tryed to avoid censorship with their phantastic storys. Love their books... But the board game is much more based on the pc-game since the art and gameplay is very similar and the book was more philosphical then action oriantaded.
Thx Mike, though as much as i was looking forward to this it seems way too fiddly. Did u get the promo box out of interest? Oh also, no mention of melee stealth kills like Metro on PC? Or silencer attachments?
Wtf, some people got gas masks!? Lol. That reminds me of when Chip theory sent us a sword. Like… that’s cool, but also I don’t need a blade in my house 😜
I'll be honest that I haven't had a chance to look at the updates and such, and I definitely haven't been able to play them. So I wouldn't be able to comment on the differences, sorry!
Looks... alright, I guess? Not bad, but also just "standard", no single element really gets me excited for this (except the theme, maybe, and that's not enough). No wonder they felt like they had to bling out the box to a ridiculous degree to make this game look more exciting in the previews. Likely a pass. Thanks for the play-through! :)
I’m not going to judge how unique it will feel until I see more of the campaign structure and narrative elements. I think the tactical combat is solid, the exploration of the map is pretty unique, and so far it’s a lot of fun to play
I hate campaign games, but I love Awaken Realms and STALKER, Nemesis is my favorite game ever. Is the Survival-Zone mode enough for purchase in your opinion?
Looks very STALKER-Y which is the most important thing. A good combination of stealth, action and exploration. I'm only concerned about the excessive amount of tokens. Overwatch should be some kind of rule (line of sight) vs overwatch token. And noise tokens should just be one, not 2-3 types.
The overwatch is doubling as a “this enemy activated” token too, though, and I appreciate having a clean way to track which enemies have already gone 😅
Thanks for the video. I was interested in this game until I saw the core gameplay. This will be an unfortunate pass for me even though I've been a huge STALKER fan since the first game came out on PC. It just looks like rather dull and incredibly punishing combat, with a lot of token clutter which is a shame. Too bad they went for the "shooter but it's a board game" route with this as I think something more akin to Tainted Grail with the STALKER theme would have been a much better choice. The amount of text, symbols and tokens to keep track of everything is really getting out of hand. Awaken Realms really need to streamline their rules design. Games such as CONAN and Cthulhu Death May Die have fast paced, easy and interesting rules for miniature combat without this much information to keep track off. Having been following Awaken Realms since This War Of Mine which was my very first kickstarter ever, I find that they now produce as many "hits" as they produce half baked misses. Again, very thankfull for your gameplay overview and information videos that show the gameplay. I'll make sure to click that like and subscribe button.
Interestingly I was lukewarm on earlier Awaken Realm games, but some of their most recent ones (ISS Vanguard and the new Tainted Grail) have been huge hits for me. Different preferences and perspectives 😁 Thanks for watching!
@@OneStopCoopShop I got the first Tainted Grail but it was a slog with all the upkeep and resource managment taking away from the fun of exploring the continent. However I did back Kings of Ruin since they seem to have streamlined the gameplay and made some adjustments for the better. Fingers crossed that KoR will be a great game :)
Thank you for the presentation, Mike. Life in the Zone, back in the days, was harsh, brutal and unforgiving. With every step you were one foot in your grave but it was smooth and slick. And most importantly, it was fun. A continuous challenge with wonders and marvel's to discover. This fiddly token fest doesn't seem to be fun and there is also no Zone feeling. It's more like Escape from Tarkov. All drowned in AR worst antics. I rather play Zona or Fallen Land than this. Yes, I know, it is a prototype but come on. It's only S.T.AL.K.E.R in name and maybe some cosmetics. My $ will go towards some other project, plenty of awesomeness upcoming.
Like I said in the video, I’m not specifically familiar with stalker as an IP. I spent most of my post apocalyptic time with the Fallout series. So I can’t speak to how well it aligns with the games, but as a board game experience I found it fun :)
Thanks for the playthrough. It is a really cool stuff and the board game itself has definitely some video game vibes. I'm wondering, did AR really make the reference to Firefly with that custom AK?)
Since I don’t know the IP, it’s an entirely possible that the nickname is something from STALKER. Heck, maybe that’s an actual gun variation in the real world, which I would also know nothing about 😅😅😅
@@OneStopCoopShop Frankly I cannot recall any such weapons in IP video games. But the name and the shape of the weapon perfectly matches Jayne's favourite gun. So I would say 5 points to AR for this Easter egg)
Many thanks for this presentation ! Mmm, a lot of enemies in such a small area, we expect a rush from the slightest action, and I don't see anything that logically responds to the shots they are supposed to hear at (close) distance. As it is, it doesn't seem very believable to me. Of course we are not on Assassin's Creed but still, I don't see anything that could reduce the impact of attacks against enemies in a realistic way. I hope they will at least change the scenarios to something more realistic. Is it planned to hire more than 2 characters on this scenario? There are no objects in the LOS which could reduce the attacks and with which we could play, surprise effects too? a silencer? I am surprised by this gameplay.. not in a good way for the moment, or am i too demanding?
There are silencers to be found in the loot deck, which drastically reduce the sound caused by attacking. And there is cover you can use to reduce attack damage, though I didn’t use any here 😅
I ended up enjoying it. It was usually obvious which noise would affect which guard, and it seems like it’ll open up some cool distraction tactics in the stealth play. But don’t get me wrong. It was certainly a bit annoying to pick up 10-20 of those tokens after each round, though it was quick 😅
Bandages only flip wounds to prevent the negative effects each turn. There are other items in the loot deck (medkits and such) that actually heal a wound away entirely
player boards seem close to Lords of Ragnarok in some ways. the cards on the map flipping over to alter the state as an "overlay" is straight out of Etherfields. The noise mechanics definitely smell almost like Nemesis Lockdown with the way they start to clear The enemy movement/facing seems similar to Tainted Grail's Guardian die the dice success system is ISS Vanguardy it's a "best-of" mechanics reunion from AR's whole catalog!
@@OneStopCoopShop I did! You raised some very good points in your recap. Does make for a very good spectator game--really wonder what some other scenarios look like or how differently this one can play out.
No doubt the production value, art, mini figs are all cool, but not sure what the replay value is after completing a scenario or mission. Since you know where all the bad guys are, where is the element of surprise? Wanna love it and possibly support the KS campaign, but maybe these dungeon crawler/ shooter games are just not for me.
Honestly, looks like a cash grab. An orgy of plastic and cardboard without giving you that important Stalker feel. I think, if you want to feel like Stalker, go play Zona: Secret of Chernobyl. Poles made the greatest Stalker game without being called Stalker (even though it is almost a carbon copy of the world and setting). It is simple, fast to play and has an excellent atmosphere. But that is my personal opinion. If one is willing to throw $100 just for the basic box, be my guest. I might play it in a club if they get a box, just to try it out, but I am not buying it.
I think “cash grab” is pretty harsh, and doesn’t apply here from what I’ve played. The game is a lot of fun with nice tactical depth (at least so far). For me a “cash grab” is a poorly designed, rushed game that is relying on the IP to make sales. I don’t see that here. But I also agree it’s tough to pay for all these giant crowdfunding games! Nothing wrong with skipping one :)
@@OneStopCoopShop All the power to you! And thank you for showing us the game in detail. For me, Stalker is that overarching story, an adventure and mystery, all about the setting. Here, I see more of a tactical game with some extra elements. Takes away too much from the flow and the story development for me. As I said, personal opinion. To some it might be the greatest thing ever. When I say "cash grab" I mean those expensive crowdfunded games with a slew of components, big plastic miniatures, needlessly complex and expensive etc. For example, I'd say Nemesis is in the same group. Is Nemesis a bad game? Nope. But for me it is a cash grab because the same game could have been made much cheaper and more accessible to more players, without actually suffering in quality. Instead of focusing on game, focusing on flamboyance - that's what I mean. Hope I made myself a bit more clear. And thanks again, I have been searching for a detailed representation of the game and mechanics, seen a few unboxings, but no playthrough. You rock!
Ah, that makes total sense, and I get it. It’s kind of like the Fallout miniatures game for me. It’s all about tactical combat, when for me the fallout series is about the setting, exploration, RPG elements, dialogue, etc. Have a great week!
The best game of this type for me is Hunters A.D. 2114, the combat is so lively, energetic, the opponents react to us + have very good A.I., every turn is a challenge.
Well it definitely looks better than zombicide. It’s about time someone changed up the structure of zombicide to be more complex and story driven/rpg/campaign 😁
To clarify my process a bit, I record all my footage, trying to talk during each dice roll. The reason is that I use a program that edits out all silent parts of my footage automatically. It drastically saves on editing time, but sometimes if I forget to talk during the start of a roll you’ll get a jump cut like the one you mentioned.
Tainted grail- i hated all the house rules to make it barable Nemisis- some of the most boring game night ive ever had Iss vanguard- one of the most fiddly games ive ever played ive never went back in to a box to grab something that many times in my life. Etherfields- do i need to say anything? I feel like awaken realm games are not for me
I think you are correct, lol. I’d probably just stop checking them out if I were you 😅 I loved ISS, loved tainted grail after they made the new changes, and have enjoyed nemesis pretty well. Haven’t played Etherfields, but heard mixed things
