The Unmatched system has been well covered on our channel. It is a skirmish game between two teams of heroic and legendary (or just IP based) heroes and their sidekicks. First to knock out the leader of the other team wins, but the game is more than just a chess battle. Each team has a deck of 30 cards, and each of those cards has multiple features. Some are help you attack the other team, or defend their attacks. Some give you a quick, one-time bonus. Most give you special abilities if you win or lose a fight.
In other words, there are a lot of unique cards in each deck, and I’ve always compared Unmatched to playing a representation of what a Magic:The Gathering duel would be like if we could see it played out in 3D.
As anyone who has watched the channel knows, I love the system. It’s in my top ten favorite of all games. But some people do not care for the one-on-one battle nature of the system. Restoration Games, publisher of Unmatched, decided to do something about it.
I don’t normally get very excited about co-op games. I own a few, and have played a few, but generally, I the adrenaline that comes with directly competing against other players. Co-op games offer a different kind of thrill, but for me, many of them have blunted edges. I will admit that the best of the co-op games I have played are the games where (a) I’m drawn into the theme and story; (b) there’s true partnership among the players without any quarterbacking; and (c) each game session plays out with enough tension to make the winning condition attainable but always in doubt.
Story, team-work, and tension — that’s what I’m looking for. Does Unmatched Adventures: Tales To Amaze deliver?
Unmatched Adventures: Tales To Amaze is the brand new co-operative game designed by the Durdles team, Jason Hager, Darren Reckner, based on the system previously created by Rob Daviau, Justin D. Jacobson (itself built as a refresh of a system created by Rob and his Hasbro partner-in-design, Craig Van Ness called Star Wars Epic Duels.)
Tales To Amaze is exactly what you think it is. It’s a chance for one to four heroes to combine their skills in combat and hand management to defeat one of two main boss monsters that come in the box (Mothman, Martian Invader), along with a host of thematic minions like Skunk Ape and the Jersey Devil. The box comes standard with two game boards that relate to each of the boss monsters; four new heroes that you can play not only with the co-op version, but also as skirmish characters in head-to-head with any other set; and six different and challenging minions.
The premise is simple. Either Mothman or the Martian Invader have landed in your little town, and they and their minions are wreaking havoc across the landscape. The game scales well for any player count as minions and the boss monster’s health will be added or subtracted based on how many adventurers are in the session. Once everyone has picked their character, shuffled their deck, and set up the bad guy decks, you are ready to go.
We have played Tales To Amaze a half-dozen times already, but only against Mothman. I’ve played it solo and with other players, and Mothman can be really tough to wear down, especially if the right (or should I say, wrong?) minions are in play.
The first thing to report is that the theme and story have truly come out in every game. You know how there are certain co-op games that are so abstracted that you are really just moving cubes on and off your boards, hoping to meet the win condition by the end. Tales To Amaze does not feel like that at all. Maybe it is the gorgeous artwork, maybe it is the thematic way each of the heroes moves around the board to attack the baddies, or maybe it is just the combination of a finely tuned system attached to so many new, fresh challenges, but we have really gotten into the benchmarks during the game. Those are bridges we have to save (not just cardboard), moths to eliminate (not just cubes), and minions to neutralize (not just abstract obstacles).
Chock full of story? check.
I’ve also noticed that teamwork seems to be strong here, and I think it is due to the hand management system, where each player draws a random hand of cards at the start of the game, then adds more cards each time they move around the board or get cards back from the deck from their special powers. Each hand is ‘secret’, and each player deck completely unique.
Sure, there is a lot of table talk — “can you help with the Skunk Ape? I’ll punch Mothman in the nose this round” — but that’s to be expected from an Ameritrash experience that feels straight out of a comic book or a B horror movie. But since each player is analyzing the board state, reviewing their hand of cards, and keeping an eye out on when to use their character’s special power or watching out for what the minions will do this round, it would be hard to play other people’s turns. Not impossible, mind you. But hard. Besides, if you are playing with a group dominated by one person, that’s kind of on you, right?
No quarterbacking? Check.
And finally, and maybe most importantly, does Tales To Amaze create tension? I say with all honesty that this is probably one of the most important elements of any co-op game, at least from discussions I have had with dozens of players over the years. Most players want the chance to win, but they do not want it to be pre-written or determined. They want the first reel of the game to be fairly easy, as the players build up their characters and skills, get a little tougher in the second reel as the end game goals approach, and then feel like a runaway train in the final reel as both the game and the players race to win.
Tales To Amaze delivers on that front. Every single game (except for my first learning game where I got crushed in a solo play) has had a conclusion that was not clear and came down to the wire. There is a great satisfaction in knowing that we only have a few plays left before the Big Boss wins, but also knowing that a couple of favorable flips of the cards will put us on top. When it happens, it is a sweet, sweet victory.
Tension? Check.
We had an extended post-game discussion the other night about why the game has been so successful in our group. I think the consensus is that the designers kept the basic structure of the Unmatched system — manage your deck, draw cards, move around, and fight — but recognized that players will want that same fluidity when it comes to the bad guys. Since there is no “GM” as in the one-versus-many games, there has to be a smooth order of operations each round for this thing to make sense.
In this version of Unmatched, the baddies’ moves are simple, using an initiative system that is clean and intuitive. Each hero and each villain / minion gets assigned an initiative card, which are randomized at the start of each hand. Then, with the flip of a card, either a human player or the game takes a turn. That flip can be very dramatic in the late stages of the game, especially when faced with the potential of back-to-back trouble.
For instance, the random order can be a boon in some games when all of the players get to take back-to-back turns before the opponents even move. That’s fun! (For us). But it can be a bust in other games, when the baddies take a few turns near the end of the round, the initiative deck is shuffled, and unfortunately, the bad guys take a few more turns in a row. (Yuck.)
Plus, the designers had the brilliant idea of not overloading these opponent decks. They are very, very small, just a few cards really. That means careful players can start to learn what the opponents will do as we play the game more, giving them a flavor. It creates a thematic storyline that is very familiar to the players from game to game. Kudos to the designers for recognizing that less is more in games like this, and keeping Tales To Amaze to a rules-light-ish, thematic experience that still feels as meaty as you want it to be is a big, big win.
So, in the end, Unmatched Adventures: Tales To Amaze is an instant classic for me. It’s in the running for my game of the year, in a year where the first half of the year seemed a little weak, and now I have a half-dozen or more contenders vying for my attention. Since I don’t own a lot of games like this, and have three Kallax cubes full of Unmatched sets, this one is definitely a keeper in my collection.
Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo
** A copy of the game has been provided by the publisher. **
Board Game Gumbo 