Eye of the Beholder (PC, 1991)

 As gamers we're constantly crushed between the onslaught of new games being released, but also all the games that came before we were old enough to play them or at least enjoy them. I am always trying to balance my gaming of new and old games, to make sure I don't miss out on old classic like Thief, Deus Ex and Heroes of Might and Magic 3. But my quest to sift through the Good Old Games I often come across the ones that didn't age so well. And also the ones that try the old formula but don't quite hit the mark. 

Eye of the Beholder, a game that came out on MS-DOS (remember that thing?) back in 1991 falls somewhere in between. For a dungeon crawler it actually holds up really well and improves on a lot of features and gameplay to similar games like Might & Magic that came out in the mid 80's. But dungeon crawlers of this era still rely on the players immense patience and fortitude to get through, having some cruel design choices. Let's go explore.

You control a group of adventurers, based on basic D&D rules (with all the problems that entails, I'll get back to that). You've been tasked to investigate the sewers beneath a city to find out what is going on down there. As soon as you enter your only way out is blocked and your only option is to work your way further in and further down.

The controls, at least on my version, were with the number pad. This actually worked well since it allowed me to choose between turning and strafing, which would really come in handy when fighting certain enemies. It was also something that on occasion would get me lost, when I accidentally hit turn instead of strafe and suddenly found myself facing the wrong direction. Fortunately the game provides you with a compass, which is quite crucial to keep track off. Some parts of the dungeon will deliberately try to throw you off by turning you around, and some times the only way to spot it before you get lost if by keeping an eye on the compass.

You fight by clicking your weapons/spells. Your front characters can hit (and be hit) in melee range, so it is wise to put your ranged characters in the back row. You only have two spots in the front row however, and this is the first occasion you can smeg yourself over during the character creation screen.

Oh D&D rules. I have complained about them before. And I will probably complain about them many times more. Maybe I should just learn to steer clear of games who implement this system too rigidly? Then again, Eye of the Beholder is actually an example of a game where this system doesn't work too badly. You really have to know which classes are worth rolling in the beginning however, I implore you to throw your pride out the window and look up a walkthrough for at least a bit of guidance on this. If you, for instance, think you want a group of only mages, you are in for a hell ride from the beginning.

Some group compilations are simply the way to go, and when you roll your character stats it's also important to remember that you can't just wing it. Old-school D&D is very harsh and doesn't play kindly to experimenting or deviating. 

Once you've made your best group however, I found Eye of the Beholder didn't suffer so much from one of the worst D&D curses, the combat targeting. Anyone who has played old D&D knows that combat is mostly spent missing whatever you're trying to hit. I don't understand why anyone thought this would be any fun, because it really isn't. In Eye of the Beholder there will still be a lot of missing, but not to the point where it gets frustrating.

Monsters are fortunately not infinite nor random, a certain amount spawn on each level and once you've worked your way through them you are free to explore. Overall I found the difficulty well balanced, and as long as you have a cleric in your group you can heal up between fights. Some enemies have cruel features however which make them a pain to deal with. Spiders have a high chance of poisoning you (unless you were smart enough to roll a dwarf with high constitution!) and I had no way to remove it. You can just watch your characters slowly die when this happens (there is also no way to resurrect characters to my knowledge). If you're lucky you've found some Cure Poison potions at this point. You only other option is to reload the game. You can save whenever so I just made it a habit to save after every combat or every 15 minutes or so.

I called EotB a dungeon crawler, but it really is more of a maze crawler. The game doesn't provide you with any map or mapping system, instead you need to rely on good old pen and paper, or if you're lucky you've got the Clue Book. It is provided with the GoG version of the game. I love the Clue Book, it is absolutely amazing. And absolutely necessary if you don't want to go insane down in those sewers. They twist and turn and like I mentioned even actively try to confuse you. The Clue Book provides maps, with detailed information on the whereabout of enemies and items and I don't care if it's considered cheating - as a working mom I simply don't have the time nor the mind power to work these things out on my own.

I can see the fun in trying to do it the old pen and paper way, it plays a bit like an escape room with added monsters. The dungeon is full of buttons to press, levers to pull, messages on walls and secret walls to walk through. Everything just takes so much time. I wish I had that time, I really do. These game designs reflect a zeitgeist that is gone, those times when that one game was the only new one you had, for months. Eye of the Beholder represents one of the better products of its time in this aspect.

After having struggled through four levels, the first two without guide and the subsequent two with one, I decided that my nerves couldn't handle more. And if I am going to play the game entirely by guide I might as well watch a let's play, right? Maybe I do mind cheating after all.

Eye of the Beholder deserves better than me. It is not a bad game, or at least it wasn't, but time has outrun it. There is not much to complain about, it's got atmosphere and fun gameplay. But also endless running down corridors feeling lost and the stress of being chased by a spider knowing its bite will be the death of you. 

So four levels down I decided it was the enough for me. Looking in the Clue Book I knew that was about a third of the game, but also that much worse (and fun) was waiting for me further down. I will regret not finishing Eye of the Beholder, or maybe I regret not being able to play it back when it was released. I am sure it would've been a great experience.

EXIT: The Game Kids - Jungle of Riddles - Review

The EXIT: The Game series are board games centered around the currently very popular "Escape Room" genre. I haven't tried Escaping any rooms anywhere (unless The Room counts) so when my brother presented me with one of the EXIT games I was intrigued to see how they worked. As this is not a review of the adult version of the series I will just shortly say that the premise is that the players work together to try to solve the puzzles in the game. The design is often clever and some time even fiendish - I don't want to spoil anything by giving too many examples, so just suffice to say you will probably be surprised when you play your first EXIT game.

EXIT: The Game for Kids is just what the name implies, an attempt at translating the experience for the younger audience. 

Now it is worth mentioning that the adult game is playable with younger kids, I had my 6 yo and 10 yo taking part when I tried it and they absolutely loved it. And while most of the puzzles are too hard for them to solve (they're almost too hard for an adult of average intelligence to solve), the team effort and experience is not lost on them. The fact that my kids enjoyed the adult version so much was a big reason I wanted to check out the kids version. The adult version is an intense, one-time (per game) experience but the Kids version promises replayability.

EXIT Kids is similar to the adult version in that the players must co-operate in solving puzzles. The solutions are fed into a code wheel that will allow the players to move on to the next task or in this case, finish the game. In EXIT Kids the game isn't linear, as one solution isn't necessary to try to solve another puzzle. All puzzles are available to be solved from the get go.

The players get six different puzzle cards to try to solve, in the Jungle of Riddles the theme is animals. The replayability comes from the puzzles coming in six different variants, so each new game you shuffle the cards and get a new set of challenges. I found that the variety of puzzles was quite inventive and clever, and ranged from very easy to requiring some time to think for my kids (as mentioned, 6 and 10 yo). You can't play this game too many times in a row, as you will remember the solutions, but if you play it every now and then the replayability is definitely there. A big plus to the game is that once you've explained what the goal of each puzzle is, the game is simple enough to set up that kids can actually play it without an adult participating. 

Always bring HP Sauce to my board gaming.

The game is recommended from age 5+ and I find that appropriate. Both in the sense that the game components are somewhat thin and fragile and will easily break in a rough 3 yo hands. But also in the level of challenge. My 6 yo found some of the puzzles a bit tricky, but my 10 yo was probably right at the upper age that would still find this game fun to play, the puzzles were easy for him to solve. This means that EXIT Kids feels like it has an upper age limit, and as an adult you'd do best to just watch your kids have fun.

The game only takes about 15 minutes to complete and I guess it speak to the games strengths that my kids immediately wanted to play it another time. I agree with the game recommendation of 1-4 players. There are "only" six different puzzles to solve - it's hard to have 4 kids co-operating around the same material, and it is hard to have kids sit around and wait while other kids solve puzzles. You can have them solve different puzzles simultaneously but there is only one code-wheel to share.

Overall EXIT Kids has the benefit of being simple enough in execution that it is almost like a toy, and something my kids enjoyed bringing out and play around with even on their own (similar to the Mouse Trap game, if you remember that, or a book of Where's Waldo?) The drawback is that the design doesn't really allow for adult participation, besides cheering from the sidelines. This is truly a game made only for kids.

Sagrada - Board Game Review

I'll admit, I am a fool for a good looking board game. Whenever I need to scratch the itch and go hunting for a new board game, I definitely go firstly by aesthetics. I've never quite let it guide my actions as with Sagrada though - the second I saw it I knew I needed it, regardless of gameplay.

Just look at it. And it is about crafting beautiful stained glass windows with colorful dice, I mean it can not get prettier than this. It had me hooked from the go. Is it any fun to play though?

Sagrada brands itself as a game about dice drafting and window crafting, and it sums it up well. If you've played a draft game before - like AQUA, Ticket to Ride or Cascadia - you've got the general idea. Players need to draft resources from a common pool to combine them and whoever scores the most points in the end wins. I've mentioned before that I enjoy the non-antagonistic nature of draft and tile placing games. While you compete for the same resources, the game isn't so much about ruining other people's play, but to optimize your own with what there is. Or at least, that is how you can choose to play it, and probably will have to if you like me are stuck mostly playing board games with little children.

In Sagrada the resources are colourful dice and the craft is your church window. At the start each player chooses a window to craft, and they come in different difficulties. Other than dice, you'll also have extra point challenges and tools to look out for. The extra point challenges are additional ways to place your dice for optimal points, and the tools allow you to fix things you've messed up (or are trying to avoid to mess up). Each player takes turn rolling a certain amount of dice (depending on number of players), and then take turns drafting from that pool. The luck factor is the same as in any draft game, you always hope what you need will turn up and that no one else will grab if before you.

The placement of the die follows some stringent rules - some dice can only be placed according to their value and some according to their colour. Add to this that you can't place two dice of the same colour/value next to each other. 

There is a lot to keep track off in other words and it is so easy to miss a placement. It's a bummer if you do, because it is not easy to try to fix it when you discover it a bit down the road. Once you've started placing other dice around it, they all become wrong. Sudoku comes to mind here, if you've played that you know the feeling. All players should help each other out in making sure the dice placement is correct, to avoid this problem.

Another issue is that dice like to roll. Despite their edgy design, they are literally made to roll around and that becomes apparent as soon as you've started gathering a few pieces onto your window. When you need to squeeze in a die between a few other it is way too easy to accidentally push them aside, flipping their sides and messing up your beautiful order. Best case scenario you need to carefully reassemble and hope your co-players don't accuse you of cheating. Worst case scenario you don't remember exactly how they were placed and you're screwed. This happens easily and is something to really keep in mind when playing the game. A knock with your elbow on the table can actually ruin a run of game if you're unlucky enough. I have this issue more or less with any game that requires tiles to be placed on the board in fragile constellations (mostly because little children's arms yank around like a marionette doll's), but Sagrada is especially sensitive to this problem.

But enough about the nitpicky, Sagrada is fun. It is fun to look at and it is fun to play. As with many draft games similar to this you can adapt the difficulty simply by adding or removing goal components. When I play with my 6 yo the goal is simply to try to complete our windows, and she loves it (the 10 wasn't appealed by pretty colours and isn't a fan of the game).  If you're playing someone with higher ambitions there are several layers of point collecting to add, and if you're really trying to get to the higher echelons you've got a real brain twister in your hands.

Sagrada of course also has a solo mode, which plays similarly as the regular and can be a fun way to kill some time in the evening. I am going to make the comparison to a round of sudoku again, but just way prettier. By now Sagrada also has a few expansion packs, that add more of the fun I am assuming. I haven't had a chance to check them out and currently I am perfectly happy with the core game as it is anyway.

All in all Sagrada ticks a lot of boxes for me - easy to grasp and set up, easily customizable for different difficulties and amazing from a tactile and aesthetic point of view - and the only way I can see you not having fun with this is if you, like my 10 yo, think colourful dice are stupid.