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Rating: 6/10 after 2 plays
by Leo Colovini
art Atelier Krapplack & Michael Menzel
published 2004 by Winning Moves Germany / Rio Grande
players: 2-5
duration: 15-45 mins.
type: light board game
PACE: QUICK. A player will rarely have more than one or two submarines to move in a turn, and your only choices are to either acquire a treasure or move a submarine, so the game moves at a pretty quick pace.
COMPLEXITY: LIGHT. With a fairly serious theme and graphic design, I expected this game would be more like Colovini's Carolus Magnus, than his Clans, but the game is very light, and fairly lucky to boot (at least, fairly lucky for a Colovini game!) The rules are somewhat poorly translated, but it still won't take more than about 5 minute to learn to play. And this game could be played by fairly young children too. This game reminds me of Sunken City in more ways than just theme.
LUCK: MEDIUM. In order to acquire a treasure, you must pay a card of a matching color. Since players only hold 3 cards in their hand and since the draw is random, players have to make their hand work. Since every treasure is available in every color, players must just be careful not too wait too long before acquiring a treasure.
TENSION: LOW. And this is what surprises me most. If Colovini's games have one thing in common (besides bizarrely complimentary implementation of theme) it's that, no matter how simple they are, they have a good tension to them. With 2 or 3 players, the game doesn't feel all that tense, since so much treasure is available. It almost seems like their should be colors eliminated for less players.
CONFRONTATION: LOW. You can pile your subs into a column in order to try and extract cards from your opponents, but the game is not a cutthroat type game. More of a racing set-collection game.
INTERACTION: LOW. As I mentioned in "Confrontation", about all you can really do is increase the cost of your opponent's acquisitions, and even then, your opponent often has options.
VISUALS: EXCELLENT. The colors they picked for the players are a little weird (brown, black, white, grey...and lavender) and could have used some differentiation, but they sure do look cool with subs and a recovery ship for each player. The treasure are well-drawn, but it poor light are hard to differentiate. (Heck, they're even a little hard to differentiate in good light sometimes.) But the bright shining part of the game is the beautifully illustrated board with the sun shining on the glistening sea, and the turquoise-blue-to-indigo depths of the sea.
THEME: MEDIUM. This feels strangely like an Atari 2600 video game -- right up to the title -- and actually does a good job of matching mechanics to setting. It is definitely abstract, but Colovini has a gift for the arcane adaption of theme to extremely abstract games. He did well here.
PLAYER SCALING: unknown. I've only played with 2 and 3 players thus fair, and the game feels too easy with lots of each treasure type. But with more players, the game gets tighter, and players have to prioritize a lot quicker. I suspect it's better with more players, which is highly unusual for a Colovini game, since his games tend to play better smaller than bigger. Simple and light with 2 or 3.
GAMER APPEAL: MAYBE. With more players, this game might appeal since there would be a big scramble to not miss out on a treasure. But with more players, it might be a little long for what it is.
CASUAL GAMER APPEAL: MAYBE. The jury's out really. I need to get this some more table time and see who it appeals to.
REPLAY: unknown. I don't know what to make of this game till I play with more players. I see potential with more.
RATING: 6/10 after 2 PLAY
- A trove of treasure has been discovered in a secluded area of the ocean depths, and recovery teams are speeding to the area to acquire the treasure. Each player has a recovery ship from which to base their operations, and several submarines that will search the depths looking for specific treasures. A light game where players are trying to collect one of each of the twelve treasures before their opponents. Game play is simple: move your recovery ship along the surface at least one space to the right; the column you stop the ship in is the column whose subs you are allowed to give commands to; a sub can either acquire treasure in the space it is in by playing a matching color card, or it may move to another space on the board. Anytime a purchase is made, players must pay penalty cards to any opponent's subs in that column in the same row or shallower. It sounds simple; it is simple.
My 2 cents: There are 5 of each treasure which means that in a 2-player game, it is fairly easy to find what you need. With every player that is added, the supply of treasure gets stretched thinner and thinner, and this leads me to believe that the game is better with more. With 2 or 3 players, the game is a simple, non-confrontational game of trying to make economical acquisitions (spend as few cards as possible) while trying to add cost to the acquisitions of your opponents. Is that enough "game" for you? I haven't decided what I think yet...