Solo Gaming 2024: The First Eight Months

Posted on September 27, 2024 by Mark Jackson

I’ve been writing these solo gaming reports since March of 2020… but my solo gaming started a lot farther back than that – being a wargamer in the 1970s/80s meant that a lot of your collection only saw table time if you played against yourself – choosing actions and rolling dice for both sides of the conflict. There were some actual solo games (Chainsaw Warrior, Ambush!, Mosby’s Raiders, RAF, etc.) – but the new era of well-designed automata and solo modes for multiplayer games was still a decade or two away.

Solo gaming is now a decent-sized chunk of my gaming experiences – while I still play a lot of games with friends and family, nearly 25% of my gaming in the first eight months of 2024 was solo. For comparison, the yearly total for 2023 was 20%, 2022 was 22%, 2021 was 33%, 2020 was 19%, and 2019 was 6%.

So, what follows are my thoughts on the fifty-six (56!) different solo games I’ve played so far in 2024 – ordered by the number of times I’ve played them. (Note: this is not necessarily how much I like a particular game for solo play – for example, I think Nemo’s War is an excellent solo game design but I haven’t played it [yet!] in 2024.)

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AI Space Puzzle: a Deep Space Review

Posted on September 27, 2024 by gamekahuna

Designers: Katarzyna Cioch, Sylwia Smolińska, Wojciech Wiśniewski, Mateusz Wolski

Artist: Tomasz Bolik

Publisher: Portal

Players: 2-5

Age: 8+

Time: 20 minutes (per scenario)

Review copy provided by Portal

Review by Jonathan Franklin (played six times with different players playing the AI & multiple scenarios)

You are stranded in space with four fellow astronauts. The players are in charge of getting the correct astronauts to the correct rooms in the space station. Sometimes that is not enough and they need to have numbered keys with them. If you get them to the right rooms with the right keys, you escape.

Oddly enough, none of you has any clue where the astronauts and keys should be. Only the AI knows. If you despise AI, just change the name to Ground Control and start calling the players ‘Major Tom’. Like in Mysterium and other cooperative one-with-many games, the AI (another player) needs to guide the other players to get the configuration correct within a certain number of rounds. Can your team of humans and AI live to try another mission? You’ll know after playing AI Space Puzzle.
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Dale Yu: Review of Shadow House: The Code [Essen SPIEL 2024]

Posted on September 27, 2024 by Dale Yu

Shadow House: The Code

  • Designer: Eros Lin
  • Publisher: EmperorS4
  • Players: 3-5
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

After a series of extraordinary events, Viscount Shadow met an untimely demise. With no designated successor, the family recalled the existence of the Viscount’s will, securely stored in a safe. The challenge, however, lies in the fact that nobody possesses the complete password to access the safe. The Viscount, known for his love of solving mysteries, had scattered clues throughout the mansion.

In Shadow House: The Code, players assume the roles of detectives, invited to the Shadow Viscount’s mansion to uncover clues that will unlock the safe. Throughout the game, you have already discovered some clues to make educated guesses about the password.

There are two modes in the game. In Faction Mode, the detectives take turns revealing clues and placing hints between their clues until someone deduces the correct combination in the Safe. Additionally, each detective belongs to a faction, and their competitors are also in the house. Although they need to hack the Safe, they have another objective: uncovering clues held by rival detectives to ruin their reputations. In Conspiracy Mode, the detectives work together to crack the Safe for reputations; however, the daredevil won’t earn any reputations, so be careful of the hints you provide.

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Dale Yu: Review of Rivages [Essen SPIEL 2024]

Posted on September 26, 2024 by Dale Yu

Rivages

  • Designer: Joachim Thome
  • Publisher: Pandasaurus / Catch Up Games
  • Players: 1-5
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 20-30 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by Pandasaurus

In Rivages, players explore the legendary islands of Myr, searching for remains of its long-forgotten wisdom. Each player starts with their own map of an island that’s divided into several colored areas. Every turn, they strike out the available symbols from one of the two cards in their hand, check matching fields on their map, then pass the cards along to their neighbor. By exploring certain areas, achieving goals on the island, looting treasures, and progressing on their own wisdom tree, they gather valuable parchments. Reaching a boat allows them to move to a new island full of new opportunities. Whoever has the most parchments at the end of the game wins.

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Things in Rings: a Three-Ring Review

Posted on September 26, 2024 by gamekahuna

Designer: Peter Hayward
Artist: Snow Conrad

Publisher: allplay
Players: 2-6
Age: 6+
Time: 20 minutes
Review copy provided by allplay
Reviewed by Jonathan Franklin (played 7-8 times)

Things in Rings is the sort of party game I like. It is clever and leaves room for creativity. The gameplay is snappy and the post-game discussions can be as fun as the game itself.

Before we start, I must ask, “How do you feel about Venn diagrams?” Did you ever ponder whether something salty and sweet, is also salty or sweet? Can something be tall to an ant and short to a giraffe? If so, this is the game for you.
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Dale Yu: Review of Inori [Essen SPIEL 2024]

Posted on September 25, 2024 by Dale Yu

Inori

  • Designers: Mathieu Aubert and Theo Riviere
  • Publisher: Space Cowboys
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 30-40 minutes
  • Review copy provided by publisher

In the Inori Valley, villages are built under a giant sacred tree in which spirits live. All year long, village chiefs make offerings to these spirits and assemble altars in the hope of becoming the Great Tree Guardian for the next year.

For each of the four seasons comprising a complete game of Inori, players place their offering markers on the spirit cards or on altars for the Great Tree. This allows them to activate abilities, earn points, or obtain favor tokens. At the end of a season, a spirit card with all spaces occupied gains bonus points and is replaced, creating new opportunities.

At the end of the game, offerings for the Great Tree give points according to their color for players having the most favors of each color.  The Guardian of the Great Tree for the next year is the player with the most points.

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