Game: SUPERHOT Card Game
Publisher: Board & Dice
Designer: Manuel Correia
Year: 2017
SUPERHOT Card Game is a 1-3 player cooperative or competitive deck management game set in the world of the Superhot video game. In brief the video game puts you into a world where time comes to a near-standstill when you aren't moving, but the faster you move, the faster time goes. This concept allows you to perform superhuman feats of agility while defending yourself from the waves of faceless red guys who are coming to kill you.
SUPERHOT Card Game takes this concept and turns it into a cyclic deck-building game in which items you use are lost become enemies you'll face in the future as you try to survive, and complete a set of difficult missions.
Each game of SUPERHOT Card Game consists of 3 rounds, in the first round you will have to complete 1 mission, in the second round you'll have to complete 2, and the third 3. These missions generally require you to show off your abilities, such as willingly letting the bullet deck run close to empty, or defeating a number of enemies in one turn. The game is lost if you allow your hand to become clogged up with bullet cards, your deck runs out of cards, the bullet deck runs out of cards, or the obstacle deck runs out of cards.
SUPERHOT Card Game isn't a typical deckbuilder, while you do start with a deck of fairly bad cards, when you use them to defeat obstacles the cards you used get added to the obstacle deck discard, ready to become problems in the future. Defeated obstacles go directly into your hand, ready to be used next round, and then a number of cards, depending on what you played, from the obstacle line get added to your player discard, which will eventually be shuffled to become your new deck. After this any remaining obstacles get their chance to affect you, usually by shooting their guns at you. There is a lot of strategy in how many cards to play and which enemies to target, obstacles near the end of the line are likely to find their way into your discard anyway, but if you choose to take them out now then you can get them directly into your hand. Getting cards directly like this allows you to tailor your hand for one big turn to help complete objectives.
The biggest challenge isn't the game itself, but the rulebook. It reminds me of Ravens of Thri Sahashri's rules, in that all the rules are technically written there in understandable language, but something about the presentation makes it impossible to settle in right. This isn't helped by the game being quite different than any other card game I have played before, it can be hard to teach an old dog new tricks sometimes. As a result of this our first game was spent thumbing through the book as many mechanics just seemed so alien as to be wrong. As we played our second and third games we felt more confident in the ruleset, and suddenly the game began to shine.
SUPERHOT Card Game makes for a very interesting solo experience, when playing cooperatively with 2 players the game is essentially the same, although with more missions to compensate for you having an extra player's help. Fortunately there is plenty that you can do to help each other, with careful play you can help set up your ally for those vital mission-completing turns. Alternatively you can try to tailor your deck to deal with one mission, while your ally deals with another. While the large number of different missions in the game does lend itself to a lot of variation, the threat that you face is always going to be more or less the same, I don't foresee SUPERHOT Card Game being a game that we will play for a long time, but it is certainly worth a try if you are interested in solo gaming.
6.5/10
SUPERHOT Card Game was a review copy provided by Asmodee UK. It is available for an RRP of £19.99 at your friendly local game store or can be picked up at http://www.365games.co.uk/.
Publisher: Board & Dice
Designer: Manuel Correia
Year: 2017
SUPERHOT Card Game is a 1-3 player cooperative or competitive deck management game set in the world of the Superhot video game. In brief the video game puts you into a world where time comes to a near-standstill when you aren't moving, but the faster you move, the faster time goes. This concept allows you to perform superhuman feats of agility while defending yourself from the waves of faceless red guys who are coming to kill you.
SUPERHOT Card Game takes this concept and turns it into a cyclic deck-building game in which items you use are lost become enemies you'll face in the future as you try to survive, and complete a set of difficult missions.
Each game of SUPERHOT Card Game consists of 3 rounds, in the first round you will have to complete 1 mission, in the second round you'll have to complete 2, and the third 3. These missions generally require you to show off your abilities, such as willingly letting the bullet deck run close to empty, or defeating a number of enemies in one turn. The game is lost if you allow your hand to become clogged up with bullet cards, your deck runs out of cards, the bullet deck runs out of cards, or the obstacle deck runs out of cards.
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| SUPERHOT in progress, I am on round 2, so I have two missions to complete at the top, there isn't too much danger at the moment, but there are two guys with guns aiming at me. A guy with a katana is at the top of the obstacle deck, so I know that I'll have to deal with that in the future. |
SUPERHOT Card Game isn't a typical deckbuilder, while you do start with a deck of fairly bad cards, when you use them to defeat obstacles the cards you used get added to the obstacle deck discard, ready to become problems in the future. Defeated obstacles go directly into your hand, ready to be used next round, and then a number of cards, depending on what you played, from the obstacle line get added to your player discard, which will eventually be shuffled to become your new deck. After this any remaining obstacles get their chance to affect you, usually by shooting their guns at you. There is a lot of strategy in how many cards to play and which enemies to target, obstacles near the end of the line are likely to find their way into your discard anyway, but if you choose to take them out now then you can get them directly into your hand. Getting cards directly like this allows you to tailor your hand for one big turn to help complete objectives.
The biggest challenge isn't the game itself, but the rulebook. It reminds me of Ravens of Thri Sahashri's rules, in that all the rules are technically written there in understandable language, but something about the presentation makes it impossible to settle in right. This isn't helped by the game being quite different than any other card game I have played before, it can be hard to teach an old dog new tricks sometimes. As a result of this our first game was spent thumbing through the book as many mechanics just seemed so alien as to be wrong. As we played our second and third games we felt more confident in the ruleset, and suddenly the game began to shine.
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| There are a great variety in the missions you have to complete, each testing your abilities in different ways |
SUPERHOT Card Game makes for a very interesting solo experience, when playing cooperatively with 2 players the game is essentially the same, although with more missions to compensate for you having an extra player's help. Fortunately there is plenty that you can do to help each other, with careful play you can help set up your ally for those vital mission-completing turns. Alternatively you can try to tailor your deck to deal with one mission, while your ally deals with another. While the large number of different missions in the game does lend itself to a lot of variation, the threat that you face is always going to be more or less the same, I don't foresee SUPERHOT Card Game being a game that we will play for a long time, but it is certainly worth a try if you are interested in solo gaming.
6.5/10
SUPERHOT Card Game was a review copy provided by Asmodee UK. It is available for an RRP of £19.99 at your friendly local game store or can be picked up at http://www.365games.co.uk/.
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