Eric's Web Page

Games

Videogames! And boardgames! I'd like to talk about these here.

Video games

Aliens: Dark Descent

I'll be honest: I did not expect to be enjoying this game as much as I am right now. While familiar with the Alien lore, I'm not the biggest fan of the franchise, or horror in general (although I do love science-fiction).

So imagine my surprise when I discovered there was a Real Time Tactics game that people were recommending.

First of all, it is rare to see people talk about this genre. Even though I enjoy it a lot (Desperados, Commandos, anything by Mimimi), I know it is niche. And a movie IP? We're far past the days when these things were always bad, but still.

And then I started playing it, and I can't put it down.

Two interesting mechanics I'd like to talk about:

Most Real Time Tactics games allow quicksaving and quickloading. In fact, you could argue it's a core mechanic of the genre. Aliens: Dark Descent does the opposite: it forces you to spend in-mission resources to weld shut a small room and allow your marines to rest, thereby saving the game. While I'm usually not a fan of these "you can't save anytime" decisions, I think it really benefits this game.

The other interesting decision is how you control your marines. As per Real Time Tactics convention, you get a squad of four marines (you can later upgrade to five per mission). The individual marines can be customized and leveled up, but you control the entire squad at once, like a squad in Company of Heroes. So you have the benefit of individualization, but when exploring the map you only need to concern yourself with one solid unit.

These changes are a welcome variaton to the genre, and the game as a whole is very enjoyable play.

Tabletop games

Android: Netrunner

If you're looking for a two player card game with deep mechanics, designed by Richard Garfield (Magic: The Gathering), try this one.

Unlike Magic, Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh, etc., this is what Fantasy Flight called a Living Card Game (LCG), as opposed to a Collectible Card Game (CCG). A CCG relies on card scarcity and random booster packs to keep the game interesting. LCGs release a base edition of a game, a box that is self-contained and with fixed cards, with everything you need to play the game with another person. Then, they release expansions. The cards in these expansions are all listed, and you know what card comes in what box.

It is a wonderful model but, for some reason, Fantasy Flight decided to discontinue Android: Netrunner in 2018. In comes Null Signal Games (formerly NISEI), a games publisher created by Netrunner fans, specifically to keep the game alive. They released a new Starter Set (System Gateway) and a lot of expansions, iterating and improving every year.

My brother-in-law bought three sets from their store (System Gateway, Elevation and Vantage Point) to expand my original 2012 Fantasy Flight Core Set. Their cards are very high quality, and the art is consistently better than Fantasy Flight's edition.

The game is an asymmetric cyberpunk battle between two players, a Runner and a Corp. The theme is beautifully realized via the mechanics: the Corporation player is trying to score agendas from their deck, by installing them on servers (facedown cards in front of the Corp) and protecting them with Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics (ICE) cards in front of the servers. The Runner can use hardware, programs and resources (faceup cards in front of the Runner) to make Runs: a little mini-game inside the game, where the Runner picks a server to hack, trying to bypass the Corp's defenses.

The asymmetry is very marked, and the ammount of lingo can make for a confusing first few games: The Runner's hand is the grip, their deck is the stack, and their discard is the heap. The Corpo's hand is the HQ, their deck is R&D, their discard is the Archives. But once this (and other terms and keywords) sets in, once you immerse yourself in the theme and the mechanics, this is the best two player duel card game out there.