Scythe is one of the big releases of 2016 and much anticipated. Set in a mech-filled world, each faction on the map is trying to take over by earning the most points (of course) by completing a bunch of different tasks.
The key to Scythe is effectively setting up your engine and trying to hinder your opponent as much as possible. The main form of hindering involves combat and blocking. Each player has a faction (with differing actions) and a hero (with differing powers) and some nice, unique looking mechs (which start the same but can have different powers).
The end game is triggered by completing 6 objectives (winning a fight, getting all your workers out, a hidden objective). At the end of the game, a bunch of stuff is scored with differing points based on your popularity. It all feels very prescribed and the point of the game is efficiency (as most Euros are).
Scythe is a brilliant game. The upgrade system (you move a cube and voila, an action is cheaper and more effective), the combat system (with combat being a resource), the prescribed starting positions with each faction mitigated by the way each faction can break the movement rules (submerging for that game winning play behind enemy lines) is great. Combat is not all-encompassing but it is there and is a good tool to get rid of expansionists.
It is not a perfect game. It isn't quite the sandbox. Also, some of the objectives feel very forced to shoehorn making certain options viable. Finally, sometimes the whole thing can feel a bit heartless (especially rushing towards an arbitrary objective to trigger the end game). But compared to the good and how fast playing it is, these are minor quibbles.
4.5 out of 5 Riverwalking Waffles
No comments:
Post a Comment