Hey Graeme! Love the review and clarifications! I just picked this up recently and one thing stood out to me is when you mentioned the "theme" of the game. Something felt like it was missing, so I looked at their kickstarter page. The tag line at the very top of the page is "Escape mental asylum in Lobotomy Board Game. Got monsters on your back, mighty weapons, blazing skills -- or just delusions?" and from the get-go leads me to believe "are the characters actually mentally ill- or do they see the staff and other patients for what they really are?" Just some food for thought! :) I know they didn't add that tagline to the rulebook- I certainly feel I should have- but it may change your thought on the overall theme!
I love the look of this game and the theme is something that interests me. But the flaws you pointed out are a deal-breaker, at least for me. When I play a board game, I like to know the official rules and I like to be told exactly how to set the game up and how to play. If I have to house rule something, it means the rulebook hasn't done its job properly. This game is at a fairly high price point so I expect better from the rulebook and door discrepancies on the board shouldn't exist. Just seems like they weren't as thorough with quality control as they should have been. A shame.
You hit the nail on the head. It's precisely the exact reason why I have only opened it once since I got it. Well... at least it's got some good minis to maybe somehow work in to D&D, but the printing issues on the board and the "what 3rd grader did they assign layout of the manual to?" issue was really just too much. Really regret having backed this kickstarter, especially at the level that I did.
Great review, this game is probably the greatest surprise for me this year. It's far from perfect, but it's fun and unique enough. I'm one of those guys who really hates the whole Zombicide series, because they just doesn't offer any interesting choices. But this game solves my problem with the genre, it has interesting decisions in spades. You have to juggle a lot of resources (skill cooldown, sanity, item durability, etc.), and have to cooperate. It also has really fun and varied skills, and every character is a reference to a movie/pop-culture figure with thematic abilities. So all in all, this game is lots of fun :).
A friend got this and we played it once, for five hours when the game claimed something like 30 min to 1 hour. We think we misread how the warden worked. Those rules were a mess. I downloaded player aids to help with the board setup. I find it ridiculous that a player aid needed just to read the board. I don't understand why there are door stands when you end up replacing them with the more functional door tokens when you try to use them.
The door stands are "visual effects". You can use them if you want to upgrade your game for fun. Some player use furnitures too. (Btw, we are from Hungary, and we played the game withthe rule book only. We had just 1 problem, the 3d. The rulebook was easy to understand and simple for us.
Darek CZE actually the scenarios are simple and replayable. Sometimes setup is more variable (like you roll where the objective spawns). The main reason why the scenarios are replayable -the are not very storytelling so you are not shocked or it change nothing that you know that by defeating monster you win the game. Second reason of replayability of scenarios is they can come in different order and as mentioned before they are kind of crossing over one other. Like you play 2 different scenarios at once after you progres in gameplay. And third reason is different game boards so the scenario can take part in kitchen or sanctuary (to be fair all the maps are little bit alike to me)
I almost backed this, but could tell it was going to have a lot of kickstarter first publisher flaws. Glad to hear the gameplay is fun. Also, first review of yours I've watched. Good job!
I own this game and love it. It is one of my favorites and is highly underrated. Just download player aids and your good. Please with but hurt offended with theme stuff. It's great and the themes great.
Hey Graeme! Love the review and clarifications! I just picked this up recently and one thing stood out to me is when you mentioned the "theme" of the game. Something felt like it was missing, so I looked at their kickstarter page. The tag line at the very top of the page is "Escape mental asylum in Lobotomy Board Game. Got monsters on your back, mighty weapons, blazing skills -- or just delusions?" and from the get-go leads me to believe "are the characters actually mentally ill- or do they see the staff and other patients for what they really are?"
Just some food for thought! :) I know they didn't add that tagline to the rulebook- I certainly feel I should have- but it may change your thought on the overall theme!
My favorite game, the atmosphere, the characters and the easter eggs are brilliant. I painted all of the miniatures.
Thank you for your review. I really love this game as well. Finally a big channel features this game.
I love the look of this game and the theme is something that interests me. But the flaws you pointed out are a deal-breaker, at least for me. When I play a board game, I like to know the official rules and I like to be told exactly how to set the game up and how to play. If I have to house rule something, it means the rulebook hasn't done its job properly. This game is at a fairly high price point so I expect better from the rulebook and door discrepancies on the board shouldn't exist. Just seems like they weren't as thorough with quality control as they should have been. A shame.
You hit the nail on the head. It's precisely the exact reason why I have only opened it once since I got it. Well... at least it's got some good minis to maybe somehow work in to D&D, but the printing issues on the board and the "what 3rd grader did they assign layout of the manual to?" issue was really just too much. Really regret having backed this kickstarter, especially at the level that I did.
Fair review. I like the use of the arrows and graphics during the walk through.
Great review, this game is probably the greatest surprise for me this year. It's far from perfect, but it's fun and unique enough. I'm one of those guys who really hates the whole Zombicide series, because they just doesn't offer any interesting choices. But this game solves my problem with the genre, it has interesting decisions in spades. You have to juggle a lot of resources (skill cooldown, sanity, item durability, etc.), and have to cooperate. It also has really fun and varied skills, and every character is a reference to a movie/pop-culture figure with thematic abilities. So all in all, this game is lots of fun :).
thanks for this! I'm bit scared about the rulebook, but also happy I just found my copy + the expansion. Who wants to come over and play? :)
I will definitely look to pick this up, it looks right up my alley.
Just got this. Excellent review......I am not mad. Honestly.
The Dice Tower
Perfect Review ! God Boardgame ! My in Brazil Helo !!!!
A friend got this and we played it once, for five hours when the game claimed something like 30 min to 1 hour. We think we misread how the warden worked. Those rules were a mess. I downloaded player aids to help with the board setup. I find it ridiculous that a player aid needed just to read the board. I don't understand why there are door stands when you end up replacing them with the more functional door tokens when you try to use them.
The door stands are "visual effects". You can use them if you want to upgrade your game for fun. Some player use furnitures too. (Btw, we are from Hungary, and we played the game withthe rule book only. We had just 1 problem, the 3d. The rulebook was easy to understand and simple for us.
The art work looks gorgeous. I’m just worried about the price and how easily my friends will zone out for it being complicated
Graeme what about replayability? Is it one time scenarios?
Darek CZE actually the scenarios are simple and replayable. Sometimes setup is more variable (like you roll where the objective spawns). The main reason why the scenarios are replayable -the are not very storytelling so you are not shocked or it change nothing that you know that by defeating monster you win the game. Second reason of replayability of scenarios is they can come in different order and as mentioned before they are kind of crossing over one other. Like you play 2 different scenarios at once after you progres in gameplay. And third reason is different game boards so the scenario can take part in kitchen or sanctuary (to be fair all the maps are little bit alike to me)
I almost backed this, but could tell it was going to have a lot of kickstarter first publisher flaws. Glad to hear the gameplay is fun. Also, first review of yours I've watched. Good job!
Could you tell me what common first publisher flaws are?
i want to get this or fury of dracular... but fury of dracula is soooo expensive
Friendly Friendly or Family Friendly? :P
I own this game and love it. It is one of my favorites and is highly underrated. Just download player aids and your good. Please with but hurt offended with theme stuff. It's great and the themes great.
Seems interesting, but very annoying flaws.
This game is a big rough diamond that requires some polishing up