Customer Reviews

Chrononauts

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to admit this is quite possibly the best game I've ever played. You are a time-traveller trying to change recorded history to fit your history. And there are 3 ways to win: Changing the timeline to suit your history, gathering 3 artifacts on your wish list, or amassing 10 cards in your hand.

Also, you can break up the deck to play the simple artifact game, which is a lot quicker and takes up less table room. Or if by yourself, you can play solonauts, a solitaire version of Chrononauts. Try to get 8 time travellers home before the deck runs out. It's not as easy as it first sounds.

This is quite possibly the best board game ever. I say board game, because you build a board out of the cards, thus you need a significant playing area (enough for a 4x8 grid of cards). Basically, everyone is playing time travellers from the future, trying to manipulate the timeline (the board) to their own advantage, with secret goals. It's great fun for all ages who can read well, and gives a brief overview of important dates in history as well, starting with Lincoln's death. Plus, in what other game can you assassinate Hitler over and over again?

Well, the first rule of time-travel: "If you wanna go back, you've gotta break some eggs." Or something like that. :) This game is so much fun! It basically breaks down to "I'm a time-traveller and my time line is gone. I have to make the current time line my own time line again so I can go home." "Well, I'm a time-traveller too but my time line isn't the same as yours. So, I have to make sure you don't make yours and I make mine, so I can go home."

So, your home time line existed because Hitler was assassinated and the Titanic didn't sink? Well, you have the equipment to make it happen that way again. The problem is that your opponents have the equipment to make it *not* have that way. So, it's a race against time (hah!) to see who can recreate their time line first.

This game is kind of difficult to get the hang of at first, but once you've played a few times, you'll be a Chrononaut expert. Also, the box says that playtime is anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Well, I haven't had a game last less than an hour yet. *NOTE* This is not a complaint! :-D

I've played a lot of Chrononauts. It's a lot more than your average card game -- it's immersive, complex and richly imagined. The mechanic of the game a slightly longer than average attention span, but the time is well rewarded with a game that's always interesting and fun, especially if you like to use your imagination and entertain the idea of alternate histories.

You need to start with a clear head the first time you try to play this game. It is pretty complex, and there is a lot going on. Very, very clever, however, it is like playing a puzzle, a card game, and keeping a secret all at the same time.

I first played this game as an analysis for a game design class, and it definitely had a lot going for it. What I love most is how anything can happen on the next turn. One card can very easily tip the balance of the whole game (otherwise the goals on your mission card would seem very easy!)
It takes a little bit of getting used to from a new player, but even then they'll have an opportunity to win on their first play.

Very fun. Good to have for those times when you are bored and can not think of anything to do.

I got this game for my fiancee for Christmas last year and we love it! I've played it many times and it never gets old. I love the historical references of the timeline cards and the things that you can do to change them. Killing Hitler is always fun! The game is easy to learn and easy to play. Individual games are quick too, 15 minutes or less with two people, so it's a nice game to play when you don't have a whole lot of time. It is also serious when it says it can be played with two people. So many games say they are appropriate with two players but really aren't - this one's the real deal.

In the game, you are a time traveler. In your timeline, things happened a certain way, but they have been changed. Your goal is to alter the timeline so that it matches your timeline so you can go back home. As you travel, you also collect artifacts from the past and future. If you succeed in either altering the timeline sufficiently to get home or completing your mission (collecting all the necessary artifacts) before your opponants, you win.

Play is simple. You set up the timeline cards in choronological order and every person gets a random Misson and ID card. The ID card has a list of three timeline events that must be correctly displayed in order for you to win. Two of the events are things you need to change from the original timeline and one is one that has to stay the same. You use Reverse Fate cards to flip the timeline cards over and change history (alter the timeline). Any change results in a ripple effect that changes one to several other cards in the timeline. You may then play additional cards on the reversed cards to further change the past.

The game is quick, fun, and easy. It's a little pricy and the cards wear out a little faster than they might, but I still think it's worth it. There are additional add ons to the game as well that expand the mission and ID card possibilites as well as a whole separate set called "Early American" that can be played separately or together with the original Chrononauts. I have all the add ons and it really adds to the fun!

... and very silly. There are three ways to win the game (collecting the artifacts of your secret mission, adjusting the timeline to that of your own parallel universe, or gaining enough cards in your hard - usually by patching time paradoxes) which helps keep the game from getting repetitive or boring. The game does require quite a bit of table space to spread out the cards of the timeline, so it should be considered as much a board game as a card game. There does seem to be a preponderance of depressing events; it might have been nice to throw in some less depressing ones (or even seemingly insignificant ones to show how chaos theory and the "butterfly effect" might work.) Overall, quite an imaginative and fun game.

A fun flux-like card game, plenty complicated, which considers the some of the classic touchpoints of history. Warning: The subject matter will not be suitable for sentitive souls.
My son said: "I had no idea so many terrible things happened in history."
I replied: "That would be the point of going back to change things...."