Customer Reviews

Android

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This game can be very entertaining, but it is slow and complex, meaning it won't be for everyone. The biggest problem I have with Android is that it takes so long to play, especially if the people at the table are not experienced gamers; don't be surprised when you convince friends and family who are not serious about gaming to try this and it takes the entire day. Despite enjoying the game, I must confess it sets a slow pace and isn't particularly exciting enough to sustain that many hours of gameplay.

The designers definitely could've cut down the number of components the game ships with, there are just too many tiny cardboard pieces to keep track of. Some of these pieces weren't necessary as there are more intuitive ways of tracking game information, but cardboard pieces were probably the cheapest, so it's not difficult to see why they chose this path.

But frankly, Android has the most fragile game board I've ever played with, the number of small tokens, counters, and trackers that must be in exactly the right place mean the slightest table bump or unchecked arm movement can send pieces flying out of position, which is never a good thing.

Another complaint is that, at least in my experience, the complex interactions and variety of strategies and options are often times wasted as it seems more efficient to pursue the most basic action of collecting evidence instead of performing one of the game's many advanced options (killing a suspect, piecing together the conspiracy, etc).

This could just be the steep learning curve the game has, making it a long time before players realize when and how to take advantage of these mechanics, but even among knowledgeable and experience gamers I found that none of us were taking these advanced actions because doing so meant sacrificing several opportunities to place evidence on a suspect and receiving very little gain in return. This is especially true since many of these actions require that you take other actions to make them useful, eating up a lot of time, and if the other players are only placing evidence you'll fall behind since doing so provides the biggest opportunity for victory in the game.

What really surprised me about the slow pace and advanced strategies was the contrast to the twilight cards the game uses. These are basically two decks of cards, one called a Light Deck that is beneficial and can only be played on yourself, and a Dark Deck that is harmful and only used against the other players.

Many of these cards are startling powerful in comparison to the rest of the game, forcing players to discard all of their cards or favors, preventing them from acting on a turn, etc. Worse yet, there seems to be no way to counter a card (and they're very easy to play), so once they've been used you can do nothing but suffer the consequences. Nothing is more disturbing than the sickening feeling you get when other players hit you with these cards during the last two rounds of the game and all the strategy and effort you put in were for naught because your opponents happened to draw one of the more powerful cards available, causing you to lose a game of slow, complex game strategy due to dumb luck and no skill on anyone's part. These moments made me feel like I had stepped out of Android and into another game, they just don't mesh well with the feel and pace the rest of the game offers.

For every one of these powerful cards you draw, there will be several that provide very little benefit and are mostly played to get them out of your hand. You cannot exceed the draw cap in this game and simply discard down to the legal amount later, or discard without spending time during your turn, so being able to get a card out of your hand is very valuable, and most of the game is spent playing these weaker cards in order to do just that, with the hope that the next card(s) you draw will be better.

Lastly, many of the negative effects have stipulations under which they can be played. Many of these stipulations involved the advanced mechanics of the game, giving players even fewer incentives to do anything other than follow evidence around the board, because to do otherwise would put them at risk of being targeted by a powerful card.

Despite these complaints, I do enjoy Android. I do, however, feel that the game could've been streamlined in a few areas, and this becomes readily apparent when you've been playing the game for several hours and realize everyone at the table has been just been placing evidence in the same routine manner while whittling down their decks to find those really powerful cards that will cripple other players by setting them back an entire round or more and require very little strategy to play.

Android is best played with veteran gamers who won't mind the lack of polish, will explore the game's depth out of curiosity, and really get into the rich history and story the game provides through it's setting, characters, and scenarios. In short, if your friends like to read the quotes and flavor text on cards and sheets, they will probably get into this game. If not, then they might not enjoy it since immersing yourself into the game world is a major part of the experience.

Android is brilliant and beautiful, but flawed and unpolished. Be sure you know what you're getting and who your fellow players are before purchasing this game.

We've played this game through twice now, and I think I can now say that I enjoy it. The rules are complex, and the first time we tried to play, it took us 3 hours to get HALF WAY through the game before we ran out of time. Once you have a player or two who know the rules, the game will move quite smoothly, the "2nd Week" in the game goes buy very quick, as the options become more limited towards the end. The final outcome is decided by point totals. The 2nd time we played, we finished the entire game in 4 hours, and we're confident that next time it'll be finished in 3 (since we know what we're doing now).

This game is all about Characters. The game is filled with flavor text, stories, NPCs, and character specific events. Do yourself a favor, read them all aloud for everyone to hear. Its obvious the creators put a lot of work into them, and they really solidify the style of the gameplay as your going along. We made it a table rule to always read your cards and character stories for everyone, and we enjoyed the game much more when we did that, and a lot of the characters' strategies and goals became more apparent that way as well.

Note: this game is NOT a game of "Clue, in the future". The game is a noir-character based strategy game, you aren't finding "who done it", its a strategy game about finding more evidence than the other players, and its suggested, though not definitely stated, that you're actually just pinning the crime on someone, not actually solving it... and that makes perfect sense if you allow yourself to be immersed in the game story.

I would look at the Fantasy Flight Web Page and look at some reviews by different board game websites before you invested the money in this game. I think it's one of the best products to come along in quite some time, but I love complex and dark games such as Arkham Horror. There are a lot of differing views of this game.

While this is a Murder mystery set in a dystopian future, that doesn't touch the surface of this game. I am writing this review because I care about the gaming hobby. Don't look at my high rating and think you will love this game, don't buy this until you know what you are getting.