Revolver Review

One game that I've been really excited to try out (and finally received a copy of!) is Revolver.  (Sorry, no Amazon link yet - I may go back and add it later.) I love Bang!, and so the theme of Revolver really appealed to me.

In Revolver, one player takes on the role of the Colty gang - who, led by Jack "The Crow" Colty, has just robbed a bank. Along with his 15 other gang members, Jack is now trying to catch the 3:15 train to escape. The other player takes on the role of Colonel McReady, who is trying to help bring the gang to justice - Wild West Justice (so, you're trying to kill them all). The game progresses through a series of battlefields, and to start each turn, the Colty player will advance the turn marker to indicate how close he is to escaping to the next battlefield (and ultimately to escape on the train). Next, on either player's turn, the active player draws two cards and then plays as many cards as they want from their hand. Some of these cards will go to a battlefield, where the McReady player is trying to shoot the members of the gang, and the Colty player is trying to shoot back and take cover in order to stay alive. At the end of the McReady player's turn, the Colonel will attack the Colty gang. Players will compare their fighting total, and if the Colonel wins, he kills one of the gang members. And, if the Colonel does not successfully kill any gang members on his turn, then they get a bit closer to escaping to Mexico (you remove a token from the "Mexico Border") card. Play continues like this until either Jack "The Crow" Colty has been killed, he has escaped on the 3:15 train (he survives until the end of the train battlefield), or his gang has escaped to Mexico (all of the tokens were removed from the Mexico Border card).

The "bad" guy

So, the first pro for Revolver has to be the theme.  The Wild West theme is incredibly fun, and is integrated well into every part of the game.  Between having all of your gang members out, fighting through different battlefields, and occasionally having a Buffalo Stampede charge at you, I think that anybody looking for a Wild West game will really enjoy the lore that this game creates - the back two pages of the rulebook even go into details about all of the members of the gang, and give you a back story about them all.  A nice little touch that I really enjoyed (because I've done a minor amount of coin collecting) is that the Colty player's cards show a pile of Morgan Dollars on the back of them (silver dollars that were in use at the end of the 1800's).

The next pro, and truly the main strategic choice in the game, lies in balancing when to play various cards.  Because the pursuit changes locations, setting up an ambush for the Colty gang cannot happen all at once.  If you put all of your deputies in a single location, then you'll definitely kill some Colty gang members there - but once they escape that location, you won't be able to continue your pursuit!  Essentially, each battleground has a certain number of turns that you will be there (which can go up or down based on cards).  Especially around the last turn of each battleground, both players have to weigh the value of playing a lot of extra cards at a location - it will help them win the next fight, but then those cards will be stranded at that location and unable to move!

With those pros listed, there were also a few cons with Revolver.  The first one is simply that certain things aren't especially clear.  For example, the cards have small icons in the bottom left corner that say things like "Action," "Character," and "Firepower".  Yet, some Action cards appear to work the same as the Character and Firepower cards - by being played and staying at the location.  Yet, one of the rules is that "The Colty Gang has a three card limit.  This means he can only play a maximum of three firepower cards at each battlefield.  Once three cards have been placed by the Colty Gang player, he may not place any more cards at that battlefield..."  (I added the italics.)  So, how do Action cards fit into this?  One specific action card is the "Gatling Gun."  This Action is very powerful.  Does it being an Action imply that it goes away after a time?  This doesn't fit well with the rest of the rules, however.  I have looked through the rules repeatedly and also looked through the official FAQ, and I haven't found the answer to what these symbols mean.

If he's good, why's he killing 16 people?

The next con to Revolver is that the winner truly seems to be determined by the luck of the draw.  Both players have some pretty useful cards, and whoever draws more of these powerful cards will probably win.  The McReady player has several cards that let him instantly kill bandits - if he draws several of these early in the game, then there is very little that the Colty player can do.  Yet, the Colty player has three cards that let him move through a battlefield more quickly.  If he is able to get all of these (along with some of his other more valuable cards), he might be able to rush through the game and get the victory.  But, though there is some strategy in determining what to play, and where to play it, there is a lot of luck involved in who can draw better cards.

The next couple of things I will mention aren't pros or cons, but are things to be aware of.  First, I am not sure if the game is balanced.  Now, I have played it a few times, but not nearly enough to say with any certainty whether it is balanced or not.  In addition, I have seen both sides win, so I know that it is possible.  Yet, it still seems like the game is skewed in favor of the Colonel McReady player.  He has so many cards that let him instantly kill bandits, that it is very hard to stop him from killing the gang.  In addition, he also has significantly more cards that let him draw an extra card (which is really a bonus in itself), and also has a couple that let him keep the Colty player at a battlefield longer.  Again, I don't know this for certain, but it at least gives me the feel that the McReady player has an advantage - if you've played the game a few times, I'd love to hear in the comments whether you have the same thoughts on the balance of the game.

Finally, the cards have black borders, and they show wear incredibly quickly.  I actually noticed that my copy was showing wear during the first game.  If you are a person that likes to put sleeves on your games in order to keep them pristine, you will want to have your sleeves ready before you start playing.  I don't think that any of the cards are showing wear to the point that either of my decks is marked, but I was still a bit disappointed that before I finished my first game, it looked like I had played the game dozens of times.

Overall, I give Revolver a 7.5/10.  I enjoyed the theme, and I think that the game is fun to play, yet I think that the game is luck driven enough that I probably will not play it too often - just occasionally as a nice, light, change of pace.

If you like Revolver, you might also check out my reviews of Bang! (of course), Wyatt Earp, and Gubs (if you have kids).

I would like to thank Stronghold Games for providing me with a review copy of Revolver.

Code 777 Review

A game that I paid little to no attention to until it was mailed to me after the tornado is Code 777.

In Code 777, each player has 3 tiles that are placed on a board in front of them. All of the other players can see what that player has, but they cannot - the goal of the game is to figure out which numbers you have. Each turn, the active player gets a question which he must read aloud and answer to all of the other players. Questions like, "How many numbers do you not see at all?" This information will then help other players determine what their tiles are. Whenever a player thinks that they know what their numbers are, they are able to guess - but if they are wrong, then they lose their tiles and get new ones. This helps their opponents and forces them to start over. Play continues like this until one player guesses their numbers correctly.

The first thing that I like about Code 777 is that each tile has both a number and a color (you only have to guess the number, not the color). This really helps the questions to be much more diverse - "Do you see more green or blue tiles?" Therefore, there are a lot of different ways that you can narrow down which tiles you may or may not have. And, whoever is best and narrowing this down is normally able to win.  (And as a note, the Stronghold Games version of Code 777 is color-blind friendly.  Each piece has both a color and a matching symbol on it.)

The next major pro to this game is that it is incredibly fun. As an honesty check, I really only played this game to see what it was like since I had a copy available to me, and after playing it, I was intending to pass it along to someone else (that can also be read "it sure didn't look fun"). However, after the first play, I got hooked! This game is one of the most fun games that I have played in quite some time. It is incredibly difficult to objectively describe this, and I have no idea what even causes this game to be fun (by all typical gauges, I'm convinced that it should be boring), but everyone that I have played it with has had a blast!

The third pro that I will mention is that I really liked the balance of the "number pyramid."  Each number has one more tile available than the previous number (there is one "1", two "2"s, etc).  In addition, each color is used four times - there are four brown "4"s, there are three black "3"s and one black "5", etc.  This careful balance in the game (and realizing that it is there) really allows the questions to be much more useful whether they are about numbers or colors.

The final pro that I will mention is that I think that Code 777 is kid (that can read - so maybe more "tween" (between child and teen)) friendly. Anyone should be able to grasp the rules, and I think that kids would have fun playing the game. (Note: this is based on conjecture, I don't have kids. I have played it with kids that were around 12-15, however, and they did enjoy it.) Playing with young kids might be frustrating if they are too impatient to actually wait until they have figured out their tiles and just start guessing, but if they are willing to actually try to figure out their tiles logically, I think that Code 777 could be fun for everyone!

However, though I really enjoy the game and will continue playing it, there are still some cons. For example, some of the questions seem to give away significantly more information than others. For example, several questions can immediately let you know that you have a certain number. Things like, "Do you see more pink sixes or green sixes?" Well, if you see the same number of each (excluding the active player's board), but your opponent answers that they see more of one or the other - you immediately know that you have at least one of the number they stated. A lot of other questions will help you in much more vague ways like determining that you have at least as many green tiles as red tiles. To be fair, the questions are really a lot of what I think brings fun to the game. Sure, in certain situations some questions will help a lot more than others, but if the questions never gave any useful information, then the game simply wouldn't work.

Perhaps the biggest con with Code 777 is how frustrating the game can be when you guess incorrectly, and you are convinced that you are right. Now, this can happen for a couple of different reasons - first, someone actually mis-answered a question. If this were to happen, it breaks the game. I don't think that there's any way that they could have designed around that, in the same way that any game might not work if you don't follow the rules. The second way this can happen is if you eliminate something twice, when you should have only eliminated it once. This happened to me. Because of this, I can offer this helpful advice for if you ever play Code 777: mark your paper differently based on if you have logically eliminated a piece or if you have eliminated it by seeing the piece. If you mark them the same way, then you will be prone to mark something that you have logically eliminated off when you see it because of someone drawing new tiles after a missed guess. Be careful - don't do this! It is beyond frustrating!

Overall, I give Code 777 a 9.0/10. This game is fun, replayable, and can be played by anyone that can read. In addition to all of that, it forces you to stretch your brain by trying to solve the puzzle of what tiles you have! It's a blast and I'd recommend that anyone try it out.

For another perspective, check out the Board Game Family's review of Code 777. And, in addition to Code 777, you might also consider checking out Mice and Mystics, Innovation, and Dixit.  

I would like to thank Stronghold Games for providing me with a copy of Code 777 to help rebuild my game collection after the tornado.