Pad9

In a nutshell:

Pros: Very like a first person shooter. Nice minis. Great solo play. Incredible artwork, gorgeous graphics. Smooth game play.

Cons: It is out of print, so you’ll have to pay a lot for it. If you find it around $60.00 and you like this sort of games buy it; higher than that and you are not getting your money’s worth. Another minor con is that the COG figures are hard to tell apart from one another.

Review in full:

If you have a background in Video gaming this is a good choice. I think the guys at Epic and Fantasy flight have done a good job on the production of this game. The designer Corey Konieczka of “Battle Star Galactica,” and “Eldritch Horror” fame does a great job with mechanics that are evocative of the theme and play very smoothly.

Components:

I can’t complement the components enough. The cardboard is very thick and feels like it will last a long time. The components remind me of the ones in Level 7 Omega Protocol, albeit not as glossy. The minis are detailed and varied. It comes with dice and nice looking cards. The art on the cards is top quality even if it’s computer generated.

Game play:

This is a card driven game. You will use the cards to execute actions and they also represent your life points (I love this mechanic) Line of sight is not convoluted or too abstracted for it to distract you from the theme.

The scenarios that come with the game are enough to keep you engage for a while. And the fact that regardless of the mission you can randomize the tiles, this gives the game extended re playability.

Solo play:

If you play with only one of the characters it can become very, very difficult very fast. So, take on the roll of more than one and pray that the locust won’t get you. I play this game a lot by myself and I’ve always found it a nice transition from a first person shooting video game.