I pulled the trigger on this one. Should arrive in a few days. I hope it won't disappoint and it can keep me warm while I wait for Rogue Angels to arrive. Will you be reviewing Rogue Angels? Sounds soooo epic and crazy elaborate.
Rogue Angels looks neat, but I didn't back it and I'm not sure if it's getting a retail release; so at the moment coverage isn't looking likely. It will be a very different experience to Project Hagalaz - one is like playing the full video game while the other is more like playing a single mission.
I do love drilling into the details of different characters and their play styles. I think a great thing you did here is that whoever gets left out of the squad, you feel their absence. You will always have that moment of, "I wish Tali was here," and equally, that moment of, "I'm glad Wrex is here."
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring exactly. I just did 1c with all those doors and was so glad to have tali to hack them at a distance but also the close quarters fighting and constant spawns made my partner say 'wish we had wrex...'
Great review as always. Looks like a tight and condensed gaming experience that's respectful of player's time, money and shelf space. The only downside as I hear seems to be the repetitive aspect of missions and enemies. Would love to hear your thoughts on that once you've had a chance to go through the campaign.
I've been through the campaign. A full campaign is only three missions plus two optional missions. I assume you have watched my full review as well as this overview of the characters, if not, I talk a lot more about the campaign there. In each mission you will either face Reaper or Cerberus enemies. Each enemy has three minion enemies, each of which is divided into three levels of difficulty. Each enemy can have one of four special abilities - pin, rush, range, and react. In addition, each mission will feature at least one unique elite enemy type, sometimes as many as three, some of which have special abilities. Each mission also has unique paragon and renegade objectives, plus an optional side quest. Objectives include killing elite enemies, hacking terminals, collecting bombs which can then be used against enemies, escorting refugees off the map, sabotaging mechs, escaping the map, moving a repair drone to repair a terminal, or protecting Shepard with covering fire. And of course, each mission has a unique map layout - some are open, some enclosed, and they all make use of different environmental hazards like coolant leaks, fires, trenches you can't climb out of without access to a ladder, teleporters, gun turrets, and the like. It's a very compact design, but every mission is a unique puzzle, and how you approach that puzzle will change as your heroes unlock abilities (which happens very quickly).
@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thanks for your insights, that all does seem quite varied - even more so if expansions are on the back burner... I did watch and enjoy your full review and I'll probably give the game a go. I like that it fills a niche for a low footprint, low maintenance yet tactical dungeon crawl.
Hmm... I'm curious how you would paint Shepard. As custom armour is available in two out of the three games, you could choose any colour combo you'd like. I usually did Purple/Green or Orange/Grey.
Not really knowing the IP, I probably would have gone with something based on the artwork on the rules, which is "generic space suit." I don't have any plans to paint these miniatures though. Too many other painting projects!
That 'enemies shoot at the one with the lowest health' rule is cleverly subtle, I see. It makes practical sense for the enemy, and it affects how you position your troops, especially Shepard.
It's very clever, because at the start of the adventure, Shepard is easier to protect, but if he starts to get a beating, he becomes much more of a target and the team will really struggle to protect him.
What I think makes Shepard in particular good in this is they've not stuck with the video game mechanic of picking a player class, instead they've chosen to pick out abilities that represent all the classes and let you pick whatever abilities you want while still keeping it faithful to a tech tree mechanic. Sticking true to your source material but improve on the cumbersome mechanics is the hallmark of a well developed game.
@@Pugggle I always found them too restrictive for builds and always found myself wanting to switch half way through a playthrough. Probably one of the only good things Mass Effect Andromeda did was let you customise your ability choices.
@@Pugggle I feel like if that's something you could do for house rules, it wouldn't be too hard to photocopy the Shepard page and edit the available abilities to make them more in like with a particular class.
Ive just noticed that the upgrade skills arent linear, so shepard can take immunity without taking warp... its amazing how much i learn about a game after the fact 😅
I realised it after making this video. Level two skills all require the skill directly above (as with all other heroes), but the level three abilities each require two abilities from the top row! Once you have all the top row, you can unlock skills however you please.
For a board game at this price they are perfectly fine and they do resemble the characters. And they have enough detail to paint up well - check out the Modiphius Instagram to see some painted (admittedly by someone sickeningly talented) which look incredible. If people aren't happy with the miniatures, as I mentioned in my review, there is a resin upgrade kit for the six heroes, so you can get some miniatures that are far more detailed. Of course, they are priced for the collectors and tabletop scene, not for casual boardgamers.
![[SFM] Risky Recital](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RzNkY1_Nk3o/mqdefault.jpg)
I pulled the trigger on this one. Should arrive in a few days. I hope it won't disappoint and it can keep me warm while I wait for Rogue Angels to arrive. Will you be reviewing Rogue Angels? Sounds soooo epic and crazy elaborate.
Rogue Angels looks neat, but I didn't back it and I'm not sure if it's getting a retail release; so at the moment coverage isn't looking likely. It will be a very different experience to Project Hagalaz - one is like playing the full video game while the other is more like playing a single mission.
I'd love to see you paint the miniatures...PS. I never get bored of that opening dice roll. Always gives me a smile.
Thanks. I don't think I am going to be painting these, unfortunately. Too many other projects!
Great analysis, thanks for this! It's so interesting having people take apart the system we've been building for years and listen to their thoughts.
I do love drilling into the details of different characters and their play styles. I think a great thing you did here is that whoever gets left out of the squad, you feel their absence. You will always have that moment of, "I wish Tali was here," and equally, that moment of, "I'm glad Wrex is here."
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring exactly. I just did 1c with all those doors and was so glad to have tali to hack them at a distance but also the close quarters fighting and constant spawns made my partner say 'wish we had wrex...'
Great review as always. Looks like a tight and condensed gaming experience that's respectful of player's time, money and shelf space. The only downside as I hear seems to be the repetitive aspect of missions and enemies. Would love to hear your thoughts on that once you've had a chance to go through the campaign.
I've been through the campaign. A full campaign is only three missions plus two optional missions. I assume you have watched my full review as well as this overview of the characters, if not, I talk a lot more about the campaign there.
In each mission you will either face Reaper or Cerberus enemies. Each enemy has three minion enemies, each of which is divided into three levels of difficulty. Each enemy can have one of four special abilities - pin, rush, range, and react.
In addition, each mission will feature at least one unique elite enemy type, sometimes as many as three, some of which have special abilities.
Each mission also has unique paragon and renegade objectives, plus an optional side quest. Objectives include killing elite enemies, hacking terminals, collecting bombs which can then be used against enemies, escorting refugees off the map, sabotaging mechs, escaping the map, moving a repair drone to repair a terminal, or protecting Shepard with covering fire. And of course, each mission has a unique map layout - some are open, some enclosed, and they all make use of different environmental hazards like coolant leaks, fires, trenches you can't climb out of without access to a ladder, teleporters, gun turrets, and the like.
It's a very compact design, but every mission is a unique puzzle, and how you approach that puzzle will change as your heroes unlock abilities (which happens very quickly).
@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thanks for your insights, that all does seem quite varied - even more so if expansions are on the back burner...
I did watch and enjoy your full review and I'll probably give the game a go. I like that it fills a niche for a low footprint, low maintenance yet tactical dungeon crawl.
Hmm... I'm curious how you would paint Shepard. As custom armour is available in two out of the three games, you could choose any colour combo you'd like.
I usually did Purple/Green or Orange/Grey.
Not really knowing the IP, I probably would have gone with something based on the artwork on the rules, which is "generic space suit." I don't have any plans to paint these miniatures though. Too many other painting projects!
That 'enemies shoot at the one with the lowest health' rule is cleverly subtle, I see. It makes practical sense for the enemy, and it affects how you position your troops, especially Shepard.
It's very clever, because at the start of the adventure, Shepard is easier to protect, but if he starts to get a beating, he becomes much more of a target and the team will really struggle to protect him.
What I think makes Shepard in particular good in this is they've not stuck with the video game mechanic of picking a player class, instead they've chosen to pick out abilities that represent all the classes and let you pick whatever abilities you want while still keeping it faithful to a tech tree mechanic. Sticking true to your source material but improve on the cumbersome mechanics is the hallmark of a well developed game.
I was literally just thinking its a shame they didn't have the different Shepard classes to choose from lol
@@Pugggle I always found them too restrictive for builds and always found myself wanting to switch half way through a playthrough. Probably one of the only good things Mass Effect Andromeda did was let you customise your ability choices.
I like the freedom to build Shepard how you want, and I think he has a really interesting dynamic with the team.
@@Pugggle I feel like if that's something you could do for house rules, it wouldn't be too hard to photocopy the Shepard page and edit the available abilities to make them more in like with a particular class.
Ive just noticed that the upgrade skills arent linear, so shepard can take immunity without taking warp... its amazing how much i learn about a game after the fact 😅
I realised it after making this video. Level two skills all require the skill directly above (as with all other heroes), but the level three abilities each require two abilities from the top row! Once you have all the top row, you can unlock skills however you please.
Those minis look kinda rough...
For a board game at this price they are perfectly fine and they do resemble the characters. And they have enough detail to paint up well - check out the Modiphius Instagram to see some painted (admittedly by someone sickeningly talented) which look incredible.
If people aren't happy with the miniatures, as I mentioned in my review, there is a resin upgrade kit for the six heroes, so you can get some miniatures that are far more detailed. Of course, they are priced for the collectors and tabletop scene, not for casual boardgamers.