Kosmos was in attendance with Exit puzzles galore (including a new Kids line) along with a selection of more traditional boardgames. High Score, Noobs in Space, and Inside Job all come in small boxes while The Legends of Andor: The Eternal Frost, My City Roll & Build, and The Lord of the Rings: Adventure to Mount Doom are a bit weightier.
The Lord of the Rings: Adventure to Mount Doom
The LotR game is a cooperative is a 1-4 player game where players move the ring party members along the same winding path, broken down into areas.
Movement is controlled by rolling four dice – two instigating events and two color dice deciding which party members get to move. After rolling, the active player selects one color die (determining which character moves) and one black die (related to the event.)
Since party members are moved separately, they can slowly drift apart on the track. This is *not a good thing* because they help each other if near. The board is divided into zones and if a combat event comes along, the active player gets extra dice to roll for each party member within the active zone.
Some events provide powerful Gandalf cards which means players must manage the pace of the characters, the incoming “bad” events, and the Gandalf cards well if they hope to successfully make it to the end of the game.
The game should already be available in stores.
My Island
Attempting to be a bit of “My City +”, My Island is a competitive legacy game of tile laying onto a hexagonal island grid. A card is flipped and then players must place the tiles shown onto their personal island board. The symbols on the tile must match the symbols on the island.
At first, players will only use the beach and heather terrain on their island but as additional games are played more and more of the island will open up. There are 8 chapters split into three, roughly 30 minute, games each. Obviously, the game has envelopes, stickers, etc… that slowly change up the game until the placement requirements can get complex. The player boards are two sided and only one side is used throughout the campaign. Thus, the bottom side is kept pristine so the game can still be played once the campaign is done.
Inside Job
Inside Job is a 3-5 player trick taking card game with a hidden traitor. Cards are dealt and the active player chooses 1 of 2 cards to place for the “mission” and then all players play a trick according to the rule(s) chosen. The winner of the trick gets to gather “intel.” If the traitor gathers enough intel, they win. Otherwise, when only one or two cards are left the game ends and everyone votes on who they think is the traitor. The agents win the game if the majority of agents choose the correct traitor.
Inside Job is a 3-5 player trick taking card game with a hidden traitor. Cards are dealt and the active player chooses 1 of 2 cards to place for the “mission” and then all players play a trick according to the rule(s) chosen. The winner of the trick gets to gather “intel.” If the traitor gathers enough intel, they win. Otherwise, when only one or two cards are left the game ends and everyone votes on who they think is the traitor. The agents win the game if the majority of agents choose the correct traitor.
The Legends of Andor: The Eternal Frost
There’s a new Andor in town and is more of the same. A 2-4 player standalone title with the same puzzle-y missions that must be completed within a game controlled time limit. The two sided board and associated scenarios will be familiar to current Andor fans, but the game has also been designed as a good entry point for newcomers to get into the game.
Noobs in Space
Noobs in Space is a 15 minute-ish 3-5p cooperative game of limited information. Players must complete tasks without showing each other their cards in hand. Players must instead describe things to each other “I have task X, does anyone have item Y?” in order to complete their mission. I noted (I assume because the wealth of EXIT puzzles at Kosmos) that the box specifically says the game is replayable because the contents will not be destroyed.
High Score
This 2-5 player push your luck game is coming out in an English edition for the first time. It is a dice game based around rolling to complete different challenges on each turn. A challenge card is flipped and it dictates not only how points will be scored this round but also the rules for rerolling one’s dice. Perhaps even numbers don’t score, for example. Once the active player finishes, daring other players can attempt the challenge to beat the active player’s score.
EXIT: The Game series
Plenty of Exit goodness in the booth. The newest standard ones include Professor’s Last Riddle, where one must follow the professor all over the world to find him and The Disappearance of Sherlock Holmes where Sherlock is framed and one must figure out who did it. (Both are rated 3 out of 5 in difficulty.) The newest english Advent Calendar is The Silent Storm where one is trapped in Santa’s Workshop and it’s a kind of who-done it among the elves.
The last EXIT game of note is a new EXIT: The Game Kids line. This is a bundle of individual riddles that can be done in any order. There are several styles of riddles with six riddles of each type. The riddles are non-destructable so the box can be passed on, or replayed if your memory is a bit shaky.
