Friday 8 September 2017

BOARD GAME REVIEW: 7th CONTINENT (2017) INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

7th Continent is a new board game that was released on Kickstarter and has surged up the board game rankings. It is a game that aims to take the old Fighting Fantasy Games or Choose Your Own Adventures of old and translate them to a board game set on a sprawling map. This is just must my initial impressions and I will update this later.

The aim of the game is to break a curse on your character after they returned from an expedition to an unknown land (the titular 7th Continent). You complete this by exploring the land and hoping to work out the mystery before your life-force (deck of action cards) runs out. 

The game is played over a set of numbered cards split between maps and events. Each revealed card related to a number and uncovers the map and events that you can interact with. These are resolved through a push-your-luck mechanic with your action deck, with more cards drawn increasing your chances but also using up your time more.

The game is amazingly fun. It builds on your knowledge between games as you know where and when to explore and what are red herrings for your current curse. There are multiple curses and the map is quite large. The only concern is with replayability as the map doesn't change, but each of the curses starts you in different locations. 

Everything in this game comes together well. The sense of exploration and choices as you uncover the map and work out the mini-puzzle that each curse gives. The life deck introduces a push-your-luck mechanic. And that isn't even going into how the exploration and the item crafting is implemented and how it interacts with the map.

Overall, this is a hearty recommendation. If you like story-driven games or exploration-type games, this is nearly a must-get. A new Kickstarter is coming for another module for the game and will offer the base game if you don't feel like paying secondary market prices.

5 out of 5 Continental Waffles

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