Solo Game – Stately Play

Asmodee heads back to the Talisman well for Talisman: Origins

May 17, 2019 David Neumann 1

iOS, Android, PC/Mac It’s been a busy week+ for the folks at Asmodee Digital. It started with the reveal of the first four classes of the upcoming Gloomhaven port and continued with the, now closed, opening of the Terraforming Mars mobile beta. The thing is, we’ve known about both of those titles and their digital ports for months now. What we didn’t know anything about (and, neither, does Asmodee as there’s no mention of it anywhere on their site) was a game that actually released yesterday, Talisman: Origins. Yes, it’s more Talisman, but not quite in the way you’re thinking.

Say bonjour to the next board game Kickstarter you’re going to back: Maquis

April 9, 2019 David Neumann 2

Tabletop Earlier this year I fell in love with an unassuming little solo board game called Black Sonata. You can read all about it right over here. Just a spectacular solo game that combines tight decision-making with mechanisms that obfuscate the underlying math, ensuring you never feel like you’re simply solving a puzzle. Yesterday, publisher Side Room Games decided to go at it again. Leaving the Elizabethan era behind, their latest focuses on World War II espionage in a little title called Maquis.

The Zeds are back in town, on Kickstarter

July 10, 2018 David Neumann 1

Tabletop • It’s only been in the last couple years that I’ve really taken to solo gaming and a lot of that has to do with Victory Point Games. A lot of other games offer solo variants or whatnot, but VPG pumps out games that were made to solo, and I haven’t found one that wasn’t a blast to throw down on the table. My first venture into this brave new world was even more remarkable considering the theme, the third edition of Dawn of the Zeds. This deluxe edition of Zeds was out of print for a bit, but it’s back on Kickstarter now and, if you want a copy, now’s your chance.

Hostage Negotiator adds its final villain

July 5, 2018 David Neumann 0

iOS Universal, Android • Released earlier this year, Hostage Negotiator from Peter Kossits and Van Ryder Games, has been a reliable go-to when looking for a solo game that I can’t possibly win. It may have been overshadowed a bit by the more recent release of One Deck Dungeon, but Hostage Negotiator remains a tense, anxiety-inducing experience AND you can play it on your phone. It’s received a lot of new content since release, and recently it received one more bad guy: Gonzalo. Not only is Gonzalo the most difficult baddie to date, he’s also the last expansion planned.