Bottom line: Not for us. No real strategy or challenge to the gamey elements, which feel like just fluff. Production quality is fine though on the cheap side, and you'll surely end up finding this on sale for $10 sooner or later. I do think that younger kids could get a kick out of it; it's mostly an engaging light exploration narrative with very minimal combat. It has one cute element that may appeal to youngster potential roleplayers, which is that it occasionally prompts players to "make up" a description of how the survived some trap, etc, so I can see this scratching some kids imagination. However, the fly in this ointment is the PUZZLES in the escape room, which must be solved in order to progress. These are standard fare escape room puzzles, that were EASY for us, BUT I fear could very likely be too hard for many kid groups. If you have kids who are on the upper end of the play range and have some determination to spend time trying to solve puzzles, or are willing to get help from an adult, then it could hit your sweet spot. But I still think there's a mismatch here between the age that would like the combat game parts and the age that's appropriate for the puzzles. My recommendation: Only suitable for a narrow band of kids and best purchased on sale.
We're a group of 40-somethings that are quite firm with "real" Board-Games. We also played a lot of the Exit- and some of the Unlock!-Games. Only two of us had tipped their toes very briefly into Pen & Paper-Roleplaying before... We bought this as some kind of gateway into the P&P-Genre and in our opinion it worked very good! Yes, the mechanics are very basic and no, there is no real (combat-)strategy other than "let the guy with the stamina-bonus do the stamina-test" and "let the gal with the wisdom-bonus do the wisdom-test", but that was absolutely okay for us! We liked the story, we liked the (very easy) puzzles and we tried our best to "roleplay" our actions. One of the big "problems" with Pen & Paper is the need for a game-master. Here the story is told through the cards and you don't need a game-master to tell you what to do and what you can't do. We enjoyed this game very much and would play a second or third game of this kind. As for cons... well... we played the german version of the game and the translation is not in line with the D&D we are used to through videogames or pop-culture. That will not concern those playing an english version, but we found it a little odd. A second con is the quality of the material, as you mentioned. Some of the tiles where extremely warped, so that it was almost impossible to place your mini correctly. As i said, we enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a gateway into roleplaying. Do you know other games that offer a Pen & Paper-like experience without the need of a game-master, aside from all the Descents, Gloomhavens and all the other Dungen-Crawlers?
I appreciate hearing from someone who enjoyed the game! In the last few years there has been a real surge of dungeon crawler and role-playing type games that do not need a separate game master. But I'm afraid I don't have too much experience with them. However I do know where to send you, to the channel called "The Dungeon Dive" (@TheDungeonDive) (www.youtube.com/@TheDungeonDive) he covers these kinds of games and there are so many that look truly beautiful. The only thing I think you are going to have a hard time finding however, is other such games that make heavy use of puzzles/deduction. That seems to be much more rare. The genre seems to favor more random encounters/stories and roleplaying things like leveling up characters. Let me know if you discover something good! -jesse
Maybe one of the games from Cryptic Killers series if you want pure deductive style crime solving, or a game from the Deadbolt Mystery Society if you want to solve puzzles.
Hi, My 11 year old is just getting into D&D and Im looking at this as her first toes in the water experience. Im very veeery new to this and wondering if there is something you would recomend instead? she loves a good challenge. Thanks in advance, appreciate your review.
Yes I think this could be fun for her IFF you were willing to assist her with some of the puzzles and provide some encouragement to have patience working on them. AND if she wants to solve PUZZLES rather than primarily go on an adventure; there are no doubt better first games for going on exciting adventures and fighting interesting creatures and meeting interesting characters..
@@COOPFORTWOWhat are your recommendations for those “first games”? I’m trying to get some good “family game night” beginner games…before I pull them to Gloomhaven JOTL 😅.
This is always a good question, but can you give us more details like a good "first game" for what group? what are the ages and interests?@@jbringas9582
@@COOPFORTWO You mentioned that “there are no doubt better first games for going on exciting adventures and fighting interesting creatures”. I have an 11yo, 19yo and a 20yo that are all super newbies. I am the “adult” of the group, albeit a newbie myself. I want to get them interested in playing more complex games like Clank!, Dwellings of Everdale and eventually Gloomahaven. I appreciate your thoughts.
Thank you for the honest review. (I instantly subscribed!) May I ask, apologize if it a bit off-topic, but the word "pazzle" has been said (MUCH) more than once in this review, And it made me interested of your opinions reagrding.... T.I.M.E Stories! What did you guys thought of this game and its expansions)? How was your experience..? Thanks!
Both Gregg and I played the original Time Stories releases -- they have done a lot of work on the series since then so I'm not sure our opinions hold much for the newer releases. But we were both disappointed by the original. It's a clever idea but it feels a lock like a choose-your-own-adventure game where you are meant to simply repeat your play through it multiple times failing/dying through no fault of your own, and then going through a boring process of replaying it and making different decisions until you stumble on the right path. Too random and repetitive.
Pitched at kids?!? Nah….. 12 and up doesn’t mean it’s necessarily for kids, it’s saying that somebody needs to be at least 12 to understand the mechanics
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Bottom line: Not for us. No real strategy or challenge to the gamey elements, which feel like just fluff. Production quality is fine though on the cheap side, and you'll surely end up finding this on sale for $10 sooner or later.
I do think that younger kids could get a kick out of it; it's mostly an engaging light exploration narrative with very minimal combat. It has one cute element that may appeal to youngster potential roleplayers, which is that it occasionally prompts players to "make up" a description of how the survived some trap, etc, so I can see this scratching some kids imagination.
However, the fly in this ointment is the PUZZLES in the escape room, which must be solved in order to progress. These are standard fare escape room puzzles, that were EASY for us, BUT I fear could very likely be too hard for many kid groups. If you have kids who are on the upper end of the play range and have some determination to spend time trying to solve puzzles, or are willing to get help from an adult, then it could hit your sweet spot. But I still think there's a mismatch here between the age that would like the combat game parts and the age that's appropriate for the puzzles.
My recommendation: Only suitable for a narrow band of kids and best purchased on sale.
We're a group of 40-somethings that are quite firm with "real" Board-Games. We also played a lot of the Exit- and some of the Unlock!-Games. Only two of us had tipped their toes very briefly into Pen & Paper-Roleplaying before... We bought this as some kind of gateway into the P&P-Genre and in our opinion it worked very good!
Yes, the mechanics are very basic and no, there is no real (combat-)strategy other than "let the guy with the stamina-bonus do the stamina-test" and "let the gal with the wisdom-bonus do the wisdom-test", but that was absolutely okay for us! We liked the story, we liked the (very easy) puzzles and we tried our best to "roleplay" our actions. One of the big "problems" with Pen & Paper is the need for a game-master. Here the story is told through the cards and you don't need a game-master to tell you what to do and what you can't do. We enjoyed this game very much and would play a second or third game of this kind.
As for cons... well... we played the german version of the game and the translation is not in line with the D&D we are used to through videogames or pop-culture. That will not concern those playing an english version, but we found it a little odd. A second con is the quality of the material, as you mentioned. Some of the tiles where extremely warped, so that it was almost impossible to place your mini correctly.
As i said, we enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a gateway into roleplaying.
Do you know other games that offer a Pen & Paper-like experience without the need of a game-master, aside from all the Descents, Gloomhavens and all the other Dungen-Crawlers?
I appreciate hearing from someone who enjoyed the game! In the last few years there has been a real surge of dungeon crawler and role-playing type games that do not need a separate game master. But I'm afraid I don't have too much experience with them. However I do know where to send you, to the channel called "The Dungeon Dive" (@TheDungeonDive) (www.youtube.com/@TheDungeonDive) he covers these kinds of games and there are so many that look truly beautiful. The only thing I think you are going to have a hard time finding however, is other such games that make heavy use of puzzles/deduction. That seems to be much more rare. The genre seems to favor more random encounters/stories and roleplaying things like leveling up characters. Let me know if you discover something good! -jesse
I’m playing with my
Nine year old and he loves this game so much. Almost done act 1.
That's great to hear -- while the game was not for us it did seem like if you had the right adult & kid pairing it could be a real blast.
Thanks for the review. I was wondering about it!!!
Yeah it's unfortunate that it wasn't more enjoyable. -jesse
What games would you suggest for beginner I like something similar to the killing affair?
Maybe one of the games from Cryptic Killers series if you want pure deductive style crime solving, or a game from the Deadbolt Mystery Society if you want to solve puzzles.
Hi, My 11 year old is just getting into D&D and Im looking at this as her first toes in the water experience. Im very veeery new to this and wondering if there is something you would recomend instead? she loves a good challenge. Thanks in advance, appreciate your review.
Yes I think this could be fun for her IFF you were willing to assist her with some of the puzzles and provide some encouragement to have patience working on them. AND if she wants to solve PUZZLES rather than primarily go on an adventure; there are no doubt better first games for going on exciting adventures and fighting interesting creatures and meeting interesting characters..
@@COOPFORTWOWhat are your recommendations for those “first games”? I’m trying to get some good “family game night” beginner games…before I pull them to Gloomhaven JOTL 😅.
This is always a good question, but can you give us more details like a good "first game" for what group? what are the ages and interests?@@jbringas9582
@@COOPFORTWO You mentioned that “there are no doubt better first games for going on exciting adventures and fighting interesting creatures”. I have an 11yo, 19yo and a 20yo that are all super newbies. I am the “adult” of the group, albeit a newbie myself. I want to get them interested in playing more complex games like Clank!, Dwellings of Everdale and eventually Gloomahaven. I appreciate your thoughts.
Thank you for the honest review. (I instantly subscribed!)
May I ask, apologize if it a bit off-topic, but the word "pazzle" has been said (MUCH) more than once in this review,
And it made me interested of your opinions reagrding....
T.I.M.E Stories!
What did you guys thought of this game and its expansions)?
How was your experience..?
Thanks!
Both Gregg and I played the original Time Stories releases -- they have done a lot of work on the series since then so I'm not sure our opinions hold much for the newer releases.
But we were both disappointed by the original. It's a clever idea but it feels a lock like a choose-your-own-adventure game where you are meant to simply repeat your play through it multiple times failing/dying through no fault of your own, and then going through a boring process of replaying it and making different decisions until you stumble on the right path. Too random and repetitive.
Thx
Pitched at kids?!? Nah….. 12 and up doesn’t mean it’s necessarily for kids, it’s saying that somebody needs to be at least 12 to understand the mechanics