I was at first reluctant to play Adventure Games - The Dungeon. By the time it was given to me, I had experienced a number of “escape room” type games on my own and had established that I didn’t love them solo. In addition, I had also played several “story based” game (e.g. Legacy of Dragonholt) leading me to conclude that this kind of narrative-based game was best, for me, as a shared experience. So it sat on my shelf for many many months. One pandemic later, I was looking at my games thinking “I really should do something about that”. I removed the shirk and dived in.
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Let me preface what will follow with a warning: this review is probably not objective. By which I mean even less objective than usual. I have a serious weakness for Katie O’Neil anything, which has decidedly affected my opinion of this game. While I am not blind to its faults, you will see below that I do make excuses for them.
With social distancing being a thing for the foreseeable future (at least in my area), I can only imagine that solo gaming would be on the rise. Now I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but I was definitely solo gaming before it was cool* (or pandemic induced). Back then, a euro gamer such as myself basically had Uwe Rosenberg and Onirim (first edition). In fact, there were so few games that had a solo mode coming out that I could actually afford to try them all.
I don’t even know why it took me so long to write this review. Maybe it’s because I’m actually a little embarrassed at how much of a fan girl I am. I mean it - I watched reviews after buying the game to hear more people say how awesome it was. I participated in BGG forum discussions. I even corrected a random internet stranger when, upon reading his blog post, I noticed he played a rule wrong. See? Fangirling hard.
But it’s time I come clean and accept that I am actually obsessed about a game called Obsession (the shame...). I debated writing this review because I wasn’t sure it was appropriate to talk positively about a game that I consistently house rule. But upon further consideration, and out of respect for all the gaming goodness it has brought me, today I decided to write to you about Songbirds.
Now I know that not everyone is a cat lover. But surely everyone can get behind rescuing defenceless kitties from an evil overlord right? Yeah ok, so the theme on this one is admittedly quirky and the solo game brings it to a whole new level, where the AI opponent is actually the player’s sister trying to steal all the credit for the cat rescue operation. If you haven’t smirked or raised an eyebrow yet, please come back once you’ve found your soul.
Having just reviewed Sprawlopolis, I somewhat felt compelled to write about another solo micro game in my collection: Orchard 9 card Solitaire Game.
Ah micro games. The whole concept appeals to me on such a deep level. Just imagine the promise of a deep gaming experience in a fraction of the shelf space. But, in truth, micro games usually leave me disappointed - the fact that the majority of truly awesome gaming experiences involve more than 18 cards isn’t a coincidence. It takes true design genius to engineer replayability and meaningful decisions without lots of moving pieces.
This being said, Sprawlopolis accomplishes just that. Oh yeah, spoilers - This game is genius. Walking in Burano (alone)
Walking in Burano is a small set collection and tableau building game with just a small dash of push your luck. The solo variant essentially plays the same way as the two player game, with a few notable exceptions: |