Search
Search results
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Book
Poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the...
Easy
Book
Easy. At the ripe young age of fourteen Jessica has discovered that getting the attention she wants...
Kerry Cohen Easy Young Adult Sexual Awakening Photography
Across the Endless River
8.0
Rate It
Book
From the acclaimed bestselling author of The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, a historical novel about...
Marie's Room
7.9
Rate It
Video Game Watch
Marie's Room is a short-story exploration game about an unconventional friendship between two...
Game of Revenge (Francis Scott-Wren Series Book 2)
9.0
Rate It
Book
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves” — Confucius Heart crushing...
crime thriller fiction Swedish series Game of Revenge
Body of Stars
6.0
Rate It
Book
No future, dear reader, can break a woman on its own A bold and dazzling exploration of fate and...
Butter
7.0
Rate It
Book
The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent...
Women in translation Japan
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Abyss in Tabletop Games
Aug 5, 2021
I am not a great swimmer. For several years of my life I would avoid water at all costs. I have since grown to love it, but would still freak out a bit if a crab came towards me. I’m kind of a baby like that. I do so love underwater scenes and the wildlife, so I was bound to enjoy Abyss. Throw in some of the most amazing artwork in all of gaming and you have a hit, right?
Abyss is a push your luck, set collection, hand management, fantasy card drafting game for two to four players. In it players are attempting to gain the most Influence Points to rule the underwater kingdom by recruiting allies and Lords, and controlling locations. The game ends once a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled.
To setup, lay out the board, shuffle the Exploration cards (starfish backs) and place in the upper left corner. Shuffle the Lord cards (trident backs) and place the deck in the lower left corner. Reveal Lords to each of the spaces drawn to the right of the deck. This is the Court. Shuffle the Monster tokens and place in a messy pile near the board. Next to these place all the Key tokens. Display the Threat Tracker board with the Threat token on the first space. Shuffle the Location tiles into a stack and reveal the first one. Give each player a pearl in a shell cup and the game is ready to begin!
On a player’s turn they will follow the basic structure of Plotting at Court (by spending pearls to reveal more Lords), Taking One Action (by Exploring the Depths, Requesting Support from the Council, or Recruiting a Lord), and Controlling a Location.
Plotting at Court is simply paying pearls to reveal more Lords at Court.
The action choices begin with Exploring the Depths. This is the push your luck portion of the game where players will reveal cards from the top of the Exploration deck one by one, offer the card to their opponents for purchase (payable to the active player in pearls), and then deciding to continue or take into hand. These cards include members of five allied races of underwater species numbered in strength from one to five and monsters. Fighting monsters is an auto-win and the spoils are what is reflected on the Threat Tracker. If players decide to pass, they will move the Threat token down by one level and improve the treasure won when destroying a monster. Any allies that are undrafted will be sorted by family and placed on the appropriate space on the board.
To Request Support from the Council players will take the entire stack from one family on the board. Again, these are made up of the cards that were undrafted from previous Exploring the Depths actions.
Finally, Recruiting a Lord players will be spending their Exploration cards to combine strength values and family types to appease the Lords they wish to recruit. Players will analyze the strength needed on the bottom left of the Lord card along with the number and color of bubbles above the strength number to determine from which families cards will need to be paid. Lords will have special powers that can be used throughout the game until you use them to Control Locations.
Lords and monster tokens afford players keys, and once players accumulate three keys they MUST Control a Location. To Control a Location players will draft a face-up Location tile or draw one to four tiles and draft one of them. Also, players will sacrifice their Lords (and their special powers) to, well, lord over Locations as super powerful property managers. This is done by covering up the special Lord powers with the Location tiles.
Play continues in this fashion of quick turns until a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled during a Plot at Court action.
Components. As I mentioned in my open, Abyss boasts some of the most magnificent art ever to grace a board game. The aesthetic coupled with the theme makes for a gorgeous game on the table. The cardboard is all good quality and thick, the cards are good quality as well. The black plastic shells and pearls they hold are so nice to play with and I find myself rolling those pearls as fast as I can within the shells and inevitably spilling them everywhere.
The game play is also quite solid. I like drafting games quite a bit and this delivers a lot of drafting in different locations. You draft Exploration cards and Location tiles to beef up your mini empire. Using the Lords as special power cards but having to cover them up to help control a Location is a clever mechanic and helps with any sort of runaway leader issue. I did not touch on a couple rules because they can be a little confusing to new players (ie the affiliation of allies), but even new gamers can appreciate what Abyss does and how beautifully it accomplishes its task.
I cannot overstate how gorgeous this game is and how much I enjoy being able to pull it off the shelf and set it up to people who have never seen it. I mean, even just the box cover, which is a giant face and no text, is very impressive and helps set the tone for the dark but interesting experiences held within. Purple Phoenix Games gives Abyss a boding 14 / 18. Pick it up, post a picture of which box cover you received, and tag us in the post so we can compare.
Abyss is a push your luck, set collection, hand management, fantasy card drafting game for two to four players. In it players are attempting to gain the most Influence Points to rule the underwater kingdom by recruiting allies and Lords, and controlling locations. The game ends once a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled.
To setup, lay out the board, shuffle the Exploration cards (starfish backs) and place in the upper left corner. Shuffle the Lord cards (trident backs) and place the deck in the lower left corner. Reveal Lords to each of the spaces drawn to the right of the deck. This is the Court. Shuffle the Monster tokens and place in a messy pile near the board. Next to these place all the Key tokens. Display the Threat Tracker board with the Threat token on the first space. Shuffle the Location tiles into a stack and reveal the first one. Give each player a pearl in a shell cup and the game is ready to begin!
On a player’s turn they will follow the basic structure of Plotting at Court (by spending pearls to reveal more Lords), Taking One Action (by Exploring the Depths, Requesting Support from the Council, or Recruiting a Lord), and Controlling a Location.
Plotting at Court is simply paying pearls to reveal more Lords at Court.
The action choices begin with Exploring the Depths. This is the push your luck portion of the game where players will reveal cards from the top of the Exploration deck one by one, offer the card to their opponents for purchase (payable to the active player in pearls), and then deciding to continue or take into hand. These cards include members of five allied races of underwater species numbered in strength from one to five and monsters. Fighting monsters is an auto-win and the spoils are what is reflected on the Threat Tracker. If players decide to pass, they will move the Threat token down by one level and improve the treasure won when destroying a monster. Any allies that are undrafted will be sorted by family and placed on the appropriate space on the board.
To Request Support from the Council players will take the entire stack from one family on the board. Again, these are made up of the cards that were undrafted from previous Exploring the Depths actions.
Finally, Recruiting a Lord players will be spending their Exploration cards to combine strength values and family types to appease the Lords they wish to recruit. Players will analyze the strength needed on the bottom left of the Lord card along with the number and color of bubbles above the strength number to determine from which families cards will need to be paid. Lords will have special powers that can be used throughout the game until you use them to Control Locations.
Lords and monster tokens afford players keys, and once players accumulate three keys they MUST Control a Location. To Control a Location players will draft a face-up Location tile or draw one to four tiles and draft one of them. Also, players will sacrifice their Lords (and their special powers) to, well, lord over Locations as super powerful property managers. This is done by covering up the special Lord powers with the Location tiles.
Play continues in this fashion of quick turns until a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled during a Plot at Court action.
Components. As I mentioned in my open, Abyss boasts some of the most magnificent art ever to grace a board game. The aesthetic coupled with the theme makes for a gorgeous game on the table. The cardboard is all good quality and thick, the cards are good quality as well. The black plastic shells and pearls they hold are so nice to play with and I find myself rolling those pearls as fast as I can within the shells and inevitably spilling them everywhere.
The game play is also quite solid. I like drafting games quite a bit and this delivers a lot of drafting in different locations. You draft Exploration cards and Location tiles to beef up your mini empire. Using the Lords as special power cards but having to cover them up to help control a Location is a clever mechanic and helps with any sort of runaway leader issue. I did not touch on a couple rules because they can be a little confusing to new players (ie the affiliation of allies), but even new gamers can appreciate what Abyss does and how beautifully it accomplishes its task.
I cannot overstate how gorgeous this game is and how much I enjoy being able to pull it off the shelf and set it up to people who have never seen it. I mean, even just the box cover, which is a giant face and no text, is very impressive and helps set the tone for the dark but interesting experiences held within. Purple Phoenix Games gives Abyss a boding 14 / 18. Pick it up, post a picture of which box cover you received, and tag us in the post so we can compare.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Century: Golem Edition - An Endless World in Tabletop Games
May 5, 2021
If you’ve read our reviews on the first 2 games of the Century: Golem Edition games, then you will know that we are big fans. The art and theme really drew us in, and the gameplay is what keeps us coming back for more. Now that the third and final game has dropped, how does it fit in with its predecessors? Is it the finale we were hoping for? Or does it leave us yearning for the OG Century Golem? Keep reading to find out!
Disclaimer: This game comes with rules to incorporate any/all of the Century Golem games into one bigger game. In this review, I will only be discussing the stand-alone final game in the Century Golem trilogy. -L
Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World (referred to as just An Endless World for this review) is a game of set collection and worker placement in which players are trying to earn the most points by the end of the game. To setup the game, follow the instructions outlined in the rules, dependent upon your player count. Each player begins the game with 6 Trader meeples (or 7 in a 2-player game) in their supply, and a specified number/type of crystals. The game is now ready to begin!
On your turn, you will have 2 options: Work or Rest. To Work, you will first select a location square on the board. You may not choose a location where you already have Traders, or that has an Exploration tile. You will then place Traders from your supply onto the chosen location – the number of Traders required is printed on the location. If the location is unoccupied, simply place the required number of Traders. If the location is occupied by an opponent, you may place Traders there, but you must match the opponents Traders, plus an additional Trader, to take control of the location. Any opposing Traders ousted in this manner are returned to their players’ supply. Once you have placed Traders on a location, you can then perform the action listed on that location. Action options are: producing gems, upgrading gems, trading gems, or collecting Point cards/bonus tokens. If you cannot or do not want to use a location on your turn, you can Rest. To Rest, you will collect all of your Traders from the board and place them back into your supply.
Point cards can provide immediate, ongoing, or end-game benefits for players. Help cards allow you to place 1 fewer Trader than required on certain locations. Tool cards give players an additional gem of a specified color when they place Traders on corresponding locations. New Trader cards allow players to add either 1 or 2 more Traders to their supply, thus increasing their ability to play each ’round’ before needing to Rest. Finally, Exploration cards allow the player to select an Exploration token from the board. Any time an Exploration token is claimed, that location is now ‘uncovered’ and can be used for the remainder of the game. Bonus tokens grant end-game points based upon sets of icons collected, number of Traders in your supply, or simply straight-up points.
The game continues in this fashion, alternating turns, until a player has collected their 8th Point card. The current round is played out, and then points are counted. Points are earned through Point cards, bonus tiles, Exploration tiles, and any remaining gems in your supply. The player with the highest score wins!
One thing I really like about worker placement games is that the actual gameplay is pretty logical and straight-forward. Place your worker, perform action. And An Endless World is no exception to that. Of course, how you decide to play all comes down to your strategy, and again, An Endless World has tons of options for players. Maybe you want to just get 8 Point cards as quickly as possible and call it a day. Or perhaps you want to maximize your bonus tokens and eke out as many points from those as possible. Or maybe you even just want to keep your opponent(s) from achieving their goals. You can play this game so many different ways, and you can totally adapt and change strategy mid-game if you so choose. Each game feels unique and new, and I have yet to tire from this gameplay.
An Endless World is a worker placement game, but there is one factor that I find extremely unique for the mechanic. Usually, in worker placement games, once a worker has occupied a location, it remains there until the player chooses to recover their workers. An Endless World offers players the chance to oust opponents from locations, by placing the same number plus 1 additional worker. I just think this is super neat, because it means that you can’t just ‘block’ a location from everyone. If someone really wants that location, and they have the workers, they can get to that location. Also, along those lines, since ousting a player from a location means you have to match their workers plus an additional worker, you have to decide if you want to risk dedicating that many workers to a single location. You might reaaaaally want to perform that action, but for the cost of 4 Traders, is it worth it at this moment? Could those workers better be used on different locations and you just snatch your desired location on a future turn? All part of your strategy for the game, and definitely keeps all players engaged.
Let me touch on components for a minute. As with the other Century Golem games, An Endless World is extremely well-produced. The gems are the same quality, the cards are nice, thick, and clear to read, and the cardboard tokens are nice and sturdy. Plan B Games has hit the mark on this trilogy of games, and they truly are a pleasure to play. Obviously, the artwork and theme consistency throughout the Century Golem trilogy has been really satisfying, but that also carries over into the gameplay. All 3 games use much of the same iconography, so honestly learning An Endless World was super fast and easy for me. That uniformity is extremely user-friendly and is a huge plus for me.
So I guess you can see from my score and from reading this review that I am a huge fan of An Endless World. The final game of this trilogy is a home run for me, and I just keep thinking about what strategy I want to try in my next game. That in and of itself is an indication of a great game – thinking about it even when you’re not playing it! I have yet to try the variants that include the other 2 Century Golem games, and I am very much looking forward to integrating them all into one giant and (hopefully) awesome Century Golem saga. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one an expansive 16 / 18. Give it a shot, even if you haven’t played the other Century Golem games!
Disclaimer: This game comes with rules to incorporate any/all of the Century Golem games into one bigger game. In this review, I will only be discussing the stand-alone final game in the Century Golem trilogy. -L
Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World (referred to as just An Endless World for this review) is a game of set collection and worker placement in which players are trying to earn the most points by the end of the game. To setup the game, follow the instructions outlined in the rules, dependent upon your player count. Each player begins the game with 6 Trader meeples (or 7 in a 2-player game) in their supply, and a specified number/type of crystals. The game is now ready to begin!
On your turn, you will have 2 options: Work or Rest. To Work, you will first select a location square on the board. You may not choose a location where you already have Traders, or that has an Exploration tile. You will then place Traders from your supply onto the chosen location – the number of Traders required is printed on the location. If the location is unoccupied, simply place the required number of Traders. If the location is occupied by an opponent, you may place Traders there, but you must match the opponents Traders, plus an additional Trader, to take control of the location. Any opposing Traders ousted in this manner are returned to their players’ supply. Once you have placed Traders on a location, you can then perform the action listed on that location. Action options are: producing gems, upgrading gems, trading gems, or collecting Point cards/bonus tokens. If you cannot or do not want to use a location on your turn, you can Rest. To Rest, you will collect all of your Traders from the board and place them back into your supply.
Point cards can provide immediate, ongoing, or end-game benefits for players. Help cards allow you to place 1 fewer Trader than required on certain locations. Tool cards give players an additional gem of a specified color when they place Traders on corresponding locations. New Trader cards allow players to add either 1 or 2 more Traders to their supply, thus increasing their ability to play each ’round’ before needing to Rest. Finally, Exploration cards allow the player to select an Exploration token from the board. Any time an Exploration token is claimed, that location is now ‘uncovered’ and can be used for the remainder of the game. Bonus tokens grant end-game points based upon sets of icons collected, number of Traders in your supply, or simply straight-up points.
The game continues in this fashion, alternating turns, until a player has collected their 8th Point card. The current round is played out, and then points are counted. Points are earned through Point cards, bonus tiles, Exploration tiles, and any remaining gems in your supply. The player with the highest score wins!
One thing I really like about worker placement games is that the actual gameplay is pretty logical and straight-forward. Place your worker, perform action. And An Endless World is no exception to that. Of course, how you decide to play all comes down to your strategy, and again, An Endless World has tons of options for players. Maybe you want to just get 8 Point cards as quickly as possible and call it a day. Or perhaps you want to maximize your bonus tokens and eke out as many points from those as possible. Or maybe you even just want to keep your opponent(s) from achieving their goals. You can play this game so many different ways, and you can totally adapt and change strategy mid-game if you so choose. Each game feels unique and new, and I have yet to tire from this gameplay.
An Endless World is a worker placement game, but there is one factor that I find extremely unique for the mechanic. Usually, in worker placement games, once a worker has occupied a location, it remains there until the player chooses to recover their workers. An Endless World offers players the chance to oust opponents from locations, by placing the same number plus 1 additional worker. I just think this is super neat, because it means that you can’t just ‘block’ a location from everyone. If someone really wants that location, and they have the workers, they can get to that location. Also, along those lines, since ousting a player from a location means you have to match their workers plus an additional worker, you have to decide if you want to risk dedicating that many workers to a single location. You might reaaaaally want to perform that action, but for the cost of 4 Traders, is it worth it at this moment? Could those workers better be used on different locations and you just snatch your desired location on a future turn? All part of your strategy for the game, and definitely keeps all players engaged.
Let me touch on components for a minute. As with the other Century Golem games, An Endless World is extremely well-produced. The gems are the same quality, the cards are nice, thick, and clear to read, and the cardboard tokens are nice and sturdy. Plan B Games has hit the mark on this trilogy of games, and they truly are a pleasure to play. Obviously, the artwork and theme consistency throughout the Century Golem trilogy has been really satisfying, but that also carries over into the gameplay. All 3 games use much of the same iconography, so honestly learning An Endless World was super fast and easy for me. That uniformity is extremely user-friendly and is a huge plus for me.
So I guess you can see from my score and from reading this review that I am a huge fan of An Endless World. The final game of this trilogy is a home run for me, and I just keep thinking about what strategy I want to try in my next game. That in and of itself is an indication of a great game – thinking about it even when you’re not playing it! I have yet to try the variants that include the other 2 Century Golem games, and I am very much looking forward to integrating them all into one giant and (hopefully) awesome Century Golem saga. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one an expansive 16 / 18. Give it a shot, even if you haven’t played the other Century Golem games!
