Ignatius

This game is actually pretty good once you get the rules down. You will start out slow as you attempt to understand how the game plays. There are a lot of things that you need to look out for when you play the game. Meaning there will be constant flipping of pages and referring to the rule book (especially individual character abilities). That said, the learning curve is a bit steep but it is manageable still.

The goal of the game is to rescue as much survivors (you start with 3) AND immunize them by giving them injections. Both of these criteria needs to be fulfilled before they are considered ‘saved’ and yield victory points.

But what really make this game shine is the ‘negotiation’ part of the game where you have to decide which character to sacrifice during a zombie invasion. There are no combat checks in this game, and when or where the zombie invasion happens is decided by a pile of cards you draw every turn. This card can only be seen by people who stand at the watch tower. So people at other location doesn’t know where the zombie invasion is (and this is how people at the watch tower gain negotiation leverage. By offering a zombie invasion forecast in return for benefits).

That said, after one session of this game with your friends, you will probably know who among them are ******** and ******** lol. While it is fun the first few times, it gets a bit old after replaying it many times. You just get immune to the back stabbing. Part of the fun of the game is not knowing what to expect from new players/strangers and if you know your friend is an *******, he will probably act like one in game as well lol.

I am a sucker for beautiful artworks. And Seasons is a board game (mostly cards though) with very beautiful artworks. There are games that have beautiful artwork but fails in it’s game play (Anima comes into mind). Unlike Anima; Seasons’ game play lives up to its’ artwork.

Like every deck building games (Dominion for example), every player in Seasons aims to score the highest crystal points (victory points) in order to win the game. You accumulate these crystal points via cards you can summon out with energy tokens (in MTG it’s called Mana).

The game begins with card drafting and at the end of the draft, each player will have 9 cards. From there players separate the 9 cards into 3 years. Each year having 3 cards. The player holds the first 3 cards in year 1, while the year 2 and year 3 cards are placed on the table. The year 2 and year 3 cards is added into the players hands as the new year approaches.

At the beginning of every round, a player rolls a set of dice to determine actions that is being taken on each and every player’s turn. Unlike Magic, where the player starts his turn by drawing a card, Seasons added more randomness to the flow of actions with dice rolls. At the beginning of the turn, you can transmute your energy tokens to crystal points, or increase your summoning gauge (so that you can summon more cards into play), increase crystal points, gain energy token or draw cards. Players are forced to adapt their game play in accordance to dice rolls and other player’s decision. And as dices are rolled, the seasons changes and the new year dawns. At the end of year 3, the game ends and the victory points of each player is calculated. The player with the highest crystal points wins.

Well generally that is how the game is played. Now onto pro and cons of the game.

Pros :
1) Beautiful artwork.
2) The game is divided into 2 decks, beginner and advance. You will usually learn the game with the beginner deck. These also means the replay value is high.
3) Rule book is helpful as it explains each cards and its effect.
4) Enable players to play elaborate combos to score crystals.
5) Easy to play once you get over the learning curve.

Cons:
1) The game LOOKS very complicated.
2) You are sometimes at the mercy of the dice.
3) The game can be very draggy if you are playing with players who love to plan and think in advance. And when that happens it can be boring. =/
4) Need to know the cards well in order to play well (duh).
5) Once you reach the 3rd year, you will have a lot of cards in play. Certain players find it taxing to keep track of all of the cards’ abilities. (Personally I don’t find it taxing at all, but that is because I play Magic and also Android:Netrunner)

If you are someone who loves Magic, Dominion and Citadel (basically card games), this board game is for you. And you will not regret buying it. 😉 Even if you are not buying it, every card game enthusiast should try this game at least once. 😀

I don’t really own Shadow Hunters, BUT I’ve played it dozen times in a board game cafe. So out of the hundreds of board games I could’ve choose to play, when would I be playing Shadow Hunters?

Well, Shadow Hunters is a good game and I would recommend anyone to play or try it at least when…

1) You have a large crowd of friends with you (6-8 people?, normal board games usually accommodate 2-5 players).

2) You are sick of guns and would like to play something similar to Bang! with elements of magic and fantasy (and vampires).

3) You have people who are new to board games and you don’t want to bore them to death explaining all those rules in WoW:Board game. You want them to get into the game and let them experience the fun and wonders of board games. (A.K.A easy to learn rules, just in case you missed the point)

4) You like a fast paced game because you know your gang will not be hanging around your place for more than 2 hours.

5) You want a game that is exciting with a lot of backstabbing.

6) You want to play a game that is not too mentally challenging (Power Grid comes into mind, well it’s taxing for me. Don’t judge me! D:<).

7) You love card games, anime and fantasy. This is the game for you.

While the art at the front casing of the game is impressive, I can't say the same for the artwork of the cards. It's not bad, but I've seen better (Seasons, Android…etc. I know, I am spoilt. =( ). For some reason, the way the cards are designed also reminds me of Yugioh, so not much points on creativity there from me.

As for the game play, if you have played Bang!, this game is very easy to learn. Like Bang! this game has 3 factions (with Bang! having 4); shadow, hunter and neutral. How do you win this game you ask? In a nutshell and as the name of the game suggest (Shadow Hunter, duh), if you are a hunter your winning condition is to kill all shadows and if you are a shadow, you are supposed to kill all hunters. Only the neutral characters have different winning conditions. Each player keeps their faction a secret unless he or she, dies or uses their hero abilities. So at the starting of the game, no one knows which player is from which faction (which makes the game exciting and interesting).

So how do one player guesses another player's faction? Well, one thing notable that Bang! doesn't have in this game is the green Hermit card. The Hermit cards are special cards you use to identify the identity of other players. With this card, you can avoid friendly firing your own members to death (happens all the time in my group. Apparently their definition of 'fun' is accidentally of killing your team mates, sigh). These cards contains things like, "if you are a Shadow, wink your left eye twice" (well not written exactly like that, but you get the idea).

Personally, it is a good game overall but not a great one. Don't get me wrong, you will definitely enjoy it but it is not a 'MUST BUY' sort of game; if you get what I mean. But should anyone offer you a chance to try this game, by all means, try it. =)