Inhuman Conditions is an unfortunate game. It’s a brave idea that just doesn’t, at least in my experience, work often enough to be worth playing. It got one and a half stars in our review. But there’s ambition there – a two player social deduction experience was always going to…
Author: Michael Heron
Inhuman Conditions (2018)
One of the problems that comes from revealing a review score right at the top of the text is that it’s hard to maintain an element of surprise. One of the first things you’ll have seen upon scrolling down the page is the sombre star rating, stamped at the top…
Lost Ruins of Arnak (2020) – Accessibility Teardown
Lost Ruins of Arnak, despite being constructed from ‘weel-kent’ parts, was a breath of fresh air to me. A game that felt new because of how well it was put together as opposed to being built from unique components. That’s not to say it had no innovation – I think…
Lost Ruins of Arnak (2020)
Merry Christmas everyone! I bet you weren’t expecting the surprise gift of a Meeple Like Us review, but that’s only because you haven’t kept an eye on the Advent celebrational calendar. Friday is always Review Day, except when we’re on hiatus. And the times in the past when it wasn’t. …
Nusfjord (2017) – Accessibility Teardown
We liked Nusfjord a lot. Its design is clever in a subtle way, encoding some darkly comic capitalism hidden within a palimpset of relatively sedate Norwegian agriculture. You may spend the game hiring specialists and erecting buidings, but there is a drum-beat signalling your inevitable end beating away in the…
Nusfjord (2017)
Uwe Rosenerg’s legacy as a game designer is remarkable. His curriculum vitae of releases shows outstanding versatility as well as a surety of touch that has a consistency that borders on supernatural. There are very few designers that show a range that can encompass Patchwork, Agricola and Bohnanza. He has…
Medium (2019) – Accessibility Teardown
Medium is a fine game – at least, in its wild form as the energetic folk-game that has been a staple of improv groups and school camps since the early 90s. This actual boxed product though feels exploitative in a way that makes me unwilling to recommend it your way. …
Medium (2019)
I like Medium well enough. I also liked it well enough when it was the car game ‘Mind Meld’. It’s a perfectly good game that’s worth your time, but you can’t get away from the fact that boxing it up and selling it for actual cash money is the up-market…
Prisma Arena (2020) – Accessibility Teardown
We liked Prisma Arena, but move set considerations and an overly smooth team topography mean that we don’t love it. Oodles of potential though – we gave it three and a half stars in our review. But I have saved some of my most positive comments for this teardown, because…
Prisma Arena (2020)
One thing I especially enjoy about looking at a new entry from Hub Games is that there’s going to be something genuinely interesting in it. Blank is a design toolkit masquerading as a card game. Holding On did fascinating things with theme and with representing hazy memory as a gameplay…
Architects of the West Kingdom (2018) – Accessibility Teardown
We gave Architects of the West Kingdom four stars in our review. It’s not awash in new ideas, but the central one it does have is wonderful – it truly reinvigorates a formula that I absolutely would not have enjoyed otherwise. It’s a really nice game and it’s well worth…