Review – Relic
by Captain Wizard
Format: Board Game
Publisher/Developer: Fantasy Flight Games
Price – RRP: $59.99 (£44.99)
Price – we paid: £39.99 (Pre-order from Geekest Link)
Playing time – first play: 3 hours
Playing time – standard: 1-2 hours
When this game was first announced I could see how much I would love it. Being a player and follower of the Warhammer 40,000 world for 18 years, has given me a passion for the warp, the Imperium and the Waaaaaaagh of the Orks. I have also been a keen player of talisman in my years, although I have not yet had the chance to work through some games of 4th Edition. Although some early responses on the
FFG forums gave some negative responses, I was more than happy with the idea of a version of Talisman, but using the lore from 40k. What actually lay ahead was much much more than I expected.
My first impressions were good. The air cushioned cards feel crisp, and even without protectors should last years worth of gaming. The card dials are strong, and reminded me of the dial from
Infiltration, which added to the huge amount of counters in the box. The board was of great printing quality, with my only criticism being the grazing around the folds and joints of the board. The instructions are concise and fairly clear, but I didn't really explore them myself. As standard with all of FFG's main releases they made a PDF of the rules available online, a week or so before it's release. I had already studied these several times, so was raring to go on my first game. One recommendation I would put forward is to read all the spaces on the board before your game. Doing this will make several of the rules clearer from the rulebook. I was personally a bit confused about 'Wargear' cards, but as soon as I read the relevant spaces on the board it all made sense.
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| The setup of of the game, including teas! |
Our First Game
Our first game was great. None of us really knew what to expect, and enjoyed learning the rules as we went along. The players were myself (a vetren board-gamer), Tashy (a fairly experience gamer), and Amber (a 'real' board game noob).
We all drew a player card and took our wonderfully sculpted playing piece, ready to face the terrors of the warp. The game flowed really well, and we all understood the rules fairly quickly. Taking the mission cards was what took the longest. We all read them aloud and worked out what to do so we all had an understanding of them. Considering Amber has never faced a game like this she coped well, and I'm sad to say that she actually won! (One roll in front of Tashy to her anger!)
Near the end of the game things got a bit confusing as we headed to the centre tier. We all went in far to early (only being level 4ish each). This was brutal and it was pure luck that any of us made it in alive. For our next game we will keep on rolling around, fighting the bad guys, and grinding our levels up.
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| Tashy and Amber fighting their way to the centre! |
Final Musings
Relic is awesome. This could be swayed by my love of Warhammer 40,000, but I think that any sci-fi fan, who appreciates board-gaming would love every moment of this.
The length of the game is much longer, than expected, but much of this could be due to it being our first game. This has the same Fantasy Flight quality that we all have grown to expect and has a reasonable RRP price. In the UK it could be hard to track down, but most of the online game retailers have a few in stock.
For more info on Relic visit the Fantasy Flight mini-site here
