Revive Review: Strive For Your Tribe To Stay Alive

[@spot7006]

About the negative comments on the campaign - I feel like they are trying to take some of that front end teach out of this game by making certain elements part of a tutorial. This works great in video games, where you can just jump in and start playing. Having to learn/teach rules is one of the barriers to entry for board games. So, even though this game maybe didn't accomplish all that, I give them credit for trying. I know I'll certainly go through the campaign as designed. It will make sure that it hits the table at least 5 times, and respects the designer's intent.

[@thijsschipper6406]

Honestly I don't see the big deal either. "i don't want to use this" is not the same as "This shouldn't exist". What about the people who *do* want to use this?

[@RedMountain111]

Well they offered some suggestions, like simply saying "These are additional Advanced Rules. Play with these when you're familiar with the game." I personally would much prefer that than having to be forced to play 5 games before I have the full experience.

[@thijsschipper6406]

@@RedMountain111 Forced how?

[@RedMountain111]

@@thijsschipper6406 Meaning if I ignore the campaign, I wouldn't have known about the new mechanics or rules. So I would need to play the campaign so I would know them. They could've just listed as Advanced Rules as previously mentioned.

[@thijsschipper6406]

@@RedMountain111 they are. That's literally what's in the campaign rules. Would it help you if they out "advanced rules" above that section instead? If you want to read them, read them.

[@2532robh1]

Tom's shirt made me think of Red Rising.

[@danvenables4935]

Makes me want to vomit

[@dianacrow9400]

Thanks for your thoughts! The cover design actually drew me in, as I gravitate toward heavy games that feature bright colors (like Spirit Island or Root, rather than gray and beige heavy games) and a few surprises. Curious to try it, even though it does seem really expensive!

[@RemcoHaarlem]

Just played it, it's amazing. Positive player interaction and everything feels satisfying. Had a lot of fun

[@BoardGamingRamblings]

Thank you for the review! Fantastic game (10/10 for me) that i loved played all 6 times we got to play! One I would love to play again soon, but there are too many games 😅

[@lorelielomaloma6569]

i love the cover of this game - a wasteland framed by a beautiful bloom

[@wallyvdb87]

Absolutely... the bright flower in close up is soo striking!

[@jamesjacobthomson6198]

Best game from Essen 2022 for me. So many things I enjoy in one game.

[@antonieschwartz]

We played this earlier this week. This is almost the perfect game for me!

[@bibleboardgames]

Thank you for the review! Much appreciated. In watching the board-play I was losing attention because of the lack of a cohesive theme, but because you all gave it such high marks on the mechanics, I'll see if it catches my attention again, or not, over time.

[@dddmmm21]

Interesting I found setup and teaching to be zero problem, just create player baggies with all personal components. Now, my major negative about the game is the excessive comboing. Two issues: 1) You can AP heavily trying to find the action that will max your turn and because you have to think about your turn a lot you wont observe what other players are doing, making it a bit solitaire 2) You miss stuff, it is one of those games you are constantly going back with "hey, I forgot I could have triggered this machine, got this resource, done this and that, do you mind if I do it now?". But it is pretty good game despite all that.

[@dangerousbeans2907]

I found every system this game puts forth is done well and quite fun. This one brought me joy me from the 1st play.

[@Schaeff72]

I just got my copy and played it a few times this week. The “campaign” reminded me of the special campaign deck from Maracaibo, also just added new cards and mechanisms, but more advanced rules than a campaign. I also just brought in all the added stuff after our first play and it was great.

[@lucasmohallem8136]

Best new game I played this year, maybe on par with Carnegie. Absolutely love it

[@pixxelwizzard]

I appreciate the comments about the "campaign." I don't need training wheels and would have played the campaign thinking I was unlocking stuff via story achievements, and then been disappointed. Definitely gonna included everything right out of the box like Tom suggested.

[@modemacabre]

I love this game cover. It so screams rebirth, or revive in this case. It makes me happy just looking at it. And for the theme, yes there are games with stronger themes, but I have taught this game three times now and I always teach it thematically. You are expanding out, re-discovering long lost technology (unlocking your engine). I also love looking into the "mythos" of each faction and seeing how it shapes their special actions. This can help you to understand how to best play each faction as much as anything. In the end this game just gives so many endorphin hits, as you describe them, that it's just fun. Happy to see the seal of excellence. Hopefully that will encourage more people you seek out this great game - my game of the year!

[@ragnabob]

Looks like a great game, on my watch-list. Just curious, what is the cut-off for a Seal of Excellence? The average score here is 8.3 (rounded) and was under the impression SoE was 8.5+...

[@MGPlayers]

Pretty sure SoE is rewarded if anyone of them give it 8.5+

[@Animal_board_gamer]

City of iron has a similar deck building aspect. The cards you buy go into your hand before your deck. You also don’t shuffle your decks. You stack your decks in a way where you are manipulating your decks so that you can get the cards you want the most sooner.

[@JasonLaw29]

An 8 from Zee and a 9 from Wendy. Hmm, this just got cemented into my To Watch list. My taste tend to be quite similar to theirs.

[@ieatstheinternet]

I tried this at a Con and it was very good! At least on initial impressions from one play. The scores were a tad lopsided with one run away player but everyone else was pretty close. Definitely one to keep an eye on if you heavier X games with lots of ramp.

[@hyde33]

Wendy is my fav at explaining the games.

[@DanClapp]

Wendy did a great job explaining the game. I honestly felt like I could start playing it after her explanation alone.

[@gobot90]

I appreciate any solo mode that doesnt require you to slog thru an automa deck. (Im looking at you, West Kingdom series)

[@jacobjslee]

I wish I had seen this review before the game went out of print. It looked too confusing when I first heard of it, but this video made the gameplay really clear (in my mind, at least). I look forward to the reprint.

[@thomhenne]

I loved the story behind the “campaign” . This game is amazing

[@Boardgametherapist]

When will preorders go up for this in the US? I don’t see it anywhere!

[@trampldbysqrtles3450]

Just played my fourth game of this list by one point not salty about that at all. I noticed in the explanation of the game she made a small mistake large building do not give you double rewards from water spaces.

[@jeffgoggin1394]

This game was a complete surprise for me. I have to say it didn't "click" for me and I don't know why. It was fine but I can't really figure out why it's not connecting with me. It did make me want to bust out La Granja though!

[@LegoAssassin098]

I don't think it will be a game I get now, but something I watch for the future.

[@seth7447]

Corrosive has that card cycling that is the really interesting mechanism in the game. We are excited to get this soon in the mail and play it. Is there any interaction like in Corrosive where you can copy or take an action during another player's turn?

[@deathgrip509]

I think you guys forget you play hundreds of boards every year as your job. Most people get to play once a week if they're lucky. You guys could have probably intuitied the rules by looking at the board. I get they should have maybe worded things differently but that seemed like kind of large reaction to a little thing. I appreciate these euro game breaking things down for your first plays.

[@aramverduzco5285]

Great point there. It is certainly a lot easier for very well seasoned players to understand games, specially heavy ones.

[@Dragonnox]

Thank you for the review and the playthrough, I enjoyed both videos. Has anyone at The Dice Tower managed to try it solo?

[@Boardgametherapist]

Slickerdrips has a solo playthrough on his channel

[@saviloic]

Agreed with Mike. Great game, great mechanics, unfortunately the theme is underleveraged. Would benefit from an actual campaign Rise of Fenris-type!

[@blakebatchelor7930]

This has got to be game of the year, right?

[@Drewkas0]

Great review! I noticed that this appears to take up an immense amount of table space. Is this indeed the case? (I live in a NYC apartment, so...)

[@jamesjacobthomson6198]

Yep, it's a table hog. First played it on a hotel table in Essen. That was a heck of a squeeze. :)

[@jayf4859]

The cover is actually beautiful. The game.... not sure yet lol

[@fleazapp]

8 is a good score for this game. Way better than generic okish euro hames, but it misses more interaction and tighter decision making to make it more competitive. I liked everything in this game, but I wish the map was smaller so that there is more anticipation who gets first where. Also, gaining one food when someone builds where you have a house is just too weak. Sacrificing points to gain bonuses that other player got would be more cool. Also the basic game just lets you do whatever you want. It's too feelgood game. I would prefer more frustation.

[@ScytheNoire]

Have to watch out for this one. The cover did not entice me to purchase at all. Board looks cool, like the theme idea, but that cover... oof.

[@jjcc8379]

The cover font is ... rather unreadable from a distance. I feel like they should've sized that title one or two sizes up. The rest of the cover is fine. But i can't read REVIVE. i read "rewwe" "reviue " "reuiie"

[@woPLrdAY]

It’s a 10 for me.. #1 all time

[@joeferreti9442]

I guess the campaign thing is a marketing trick that, as usual, ultimately backfires. So they could write on the box that it has a campaign feature. But after people bought it they are disappointed and annoyed at least about the 'campaign feature'.

[@TimYoung1984]

I’m surprised Mike was as negative as he was about Revive. Thought it’d be one he would love. I was concerned at the beginning of the final thoughts because everyone was being negative for 2 minutes about the game.

[@halveeuro]

7/10 is still good though.

[@ChrisCypher]

It's not surprising to me. A 7/10 is still good, and Mike often gets most excited about games (especially above a certain weight) with strong thematic ties.

[@petergross7235]

The game does remind me a lot of Maracaibo. The campaign built into a euro. The multi-use cards. Several tracks. Etc. The theme also didn't stick in Maracaibo (for me). And there is a lot of information and iconography that is very front loaded. Lots of setup. Yeah...just a ton of similarities. Which makes me want to preorder this. It seems like a very solid heavier euro with the same caveats that come with most heavy euro games. Would more theme be great? Yes. Is it surprising that it isn't in a euro? No. I can't wait to try it out.

[@torelaursen4139]

It is decent engine builder. Not sure of The theme, but The gameplay works very well

[@cesteves6882]

Tried this game but fell flat for me and my group. Player abilities range from awful to overpowered. Had a strong power playing friends and ran away with game and would have loved the scoring be closer.

[@iinventedadrian]

"Card play"...."Card play!...."Card play?"

[@RichardDicksondlyrch68]

An extended tutorial disguised as a campaign.

[@TheSludgeMan]

Now that I have my copy, I just want to add as a PSA that it has some bad colour blindness accessibility issues. It's hard to distinguish between the green and yellow which will be a problem for the 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women with colour vision deficiency. disappointing :( it would be great if DT became champions of including symbology/visual cues that aren't just colours to board games graphic design. its sad how many games are still so hard to play for us in 2023

[@tasujturlaj5272]

You're complaining campaign and then say that teaching people this game is sth you have problem with. There you go - that's what's the campaign is for?

[@elqord.1118]

I watched all gameplay videos for this one and it’s a mystery to me why people are hyping it. I feel this is basically this year’s Arnak just in terms of leaving me puzzled. In the playthroughs I watched basically the board state of all players look very similar in the end. Just watch the VP track on the left, they always have about the same VPs in the end and also revealed similar amounts of tech in their tech tree. Being in this hobby for a long time with over a hundred games I can tell this one won’t stand the test of time simply because it’s too samey. Mike and Zee see through it. The other two are caught up in their initial excitement. You’d think they’d know better.

[@maartenterhorst4341]

You couldn’t be more wrong. Understandable if you haven’t played it. If you look at the machines of players at the end of the game, I doubt if you ever see the same. This also applies to the decks and upgraded card slots. So boards are absolutely not the same. The thing this game does very well is giving you many gratifying pathways to victory without losing focus. A must-play for any serious Euro-gamer.

[@elqord.1118]

@@maartenterhorst4341 eh, not sure. I believe my eyes and don’t think you can outright ignore stuff. Everyone has to do a bit of everything to stay competitive. Otherwise scores will be different but specialization isn’t a thing in this game. Everyone basically does similar things and the point difference in the end is based on who did it more efficiently. Of course that is a staple of Euros and I’m not disputing that. It’s just bog standard.

[@maartenterhorst4341]

@@elqord.1118 No you can’t ignore stuff, because it’s an integral system. You need to do almost everything. I played Endless Winter today and there you can say: I won’t hunt and still win. This is different you need to do all, but there is so much more depth. But you really need to have at least played it in order to be able to say with such certainty that it won’t stand the test of time. Goes for any game btw; owning 100+ games won’t cut it.

[@modemacabre]

At my local game nights we only have two copies of the game and typically ten to twelve people who want to play. Definitely the most popular game with the two separate groups since Dune Imperium. I'm so glad I own one of the copies. It's my game of the year. I can't speak for the play throughs you've watched, but we've had very close games and large spreads. It so depends on the random board set up and how you play your objectives. And that player board. I was so daunted by it the first time I saw it, but it really makes so much sense once you sit down and play.

[@elqord.1118]

@@maartenterhorst4341 Nah, I'm good. I had similar doubts about Arnak and people said the same thing " it's different when you play it, great decision space"...so they talked me into it and it was exactly what I imagined it would be like. A solid game and that's it. And that is Revive is, a solid game. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, it doesn't blow me away.

[@matthewholland2816]

Stellarion

[@wallyvdb87]

As you say it: 'You can ignore the campaign, so who cares'... then why do you guys (as always) keep bashing campaign systems in euro games... At least I know my group really loves those campaign systems in euro games, even if the story is thin or the change in machanisms/components is small... it just gives a little push to keep coming back to the game at least for the nr of campaign sessions and gives us the feeling of going through some 'story' together... soooooo pleeeeeaaaase stop bashing on campaign systems in euro games (certainly if you can ignore them!) cause in my opinion you guys are hurting the industry with it (with your influence I can see that publishers of designers could get hesitant to try campaign systems.... or new story/campaign/narrative... things in general in euro games). Please consider this alternative perspective.

[@George-kk5rw]

i hate campaings. manual complexity. extra wasted development. extra cost some times

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

No theme and a pain to teach with a front loaded ruleset ..... Hmmm. I'll wait for retail release and see then, but this won't be a "must grab ASAP" title.

[@SleepyVoice]

Not any more heavy then Ark Nova or Grand Austria Hotel in my opinion, and most euros have theme but aren’t that thematic - it’s the mechanics that need to shine the most and this one does so in an excellent presentation :) But if you want thematic euros that are easy too teach, keep away!

[@JayNabedian]

I was taught this (including all "advanced" rules) in 15 minutes and I fully grokked it immediately. Not really complex. The gameplay is right up my alley: lots of individual areas to focus on that must be balanced to make them all do well together; lots of combo opportunities; TRACKS!; positive player interaction. After that one play, I was willing to pay full MSRP + crazy shipping to get a copy sent over from Europe (to USA) immediately. I do agree with the comments that the theme is not strong, if that is important in your decision. Having watched your Top 100 and being about 70% in line with your tastes, I would predict this landing somewhere in the high teens for you.

[@erythrocebuspatas]

Harry Potter does that too. I'm always telling people: "play 7th year straight out of the box".

[@JhoffDJ.]

This overview was rough. Very hard to follow.

[@aarondowning5791]

The worst box cover since Concordia almost made me pass on this one.

[@danvenables4935]

Fastest explanation ever for such a complex game. Don't know how they expect anyone to understand anything about the game based on that, sounded like utter nonsense. The discussion is good st least but fix your how to play vids, Dilisio is the best!

[@nobledicegames]

Not that good as other in the same genre/mechanics

[@nirszi]

I accept this is a good game but I can't get over how boring it looks, every part of it.

[@Jau111]

Agreed. It's getting some good reviews but I don't like the look of the main board or player boards at all. It's like they decided to borrow the colour palette from a Fallout game.

[@ChibiFlashify]

I cannot agree more. It's crazy that they made a game about bringing things to life and made it look so lifeless.

[@LectureFilms]

GOTY?

[@borreholic]

All hail GB. Never heard you sir so bubbly as during the Essen talk! :) The shear love for board games coming through.

[@Leiderg]

I really liked this game is definitely on my top 3 of this year and feel like Mike was set to just not like it, it feels a little hypocrite tbh specially when all the bad things he said about the game, are a lot worst in Dwellings of Eldervale which is one of his favorites, I mean, really? Complaining about theme? I still have no idea what the idea of DoE is, other than some generic fantasy thing with workers, you don't play this kinds of games because of theme to start with, and just to be clear I really like DoE too.

[@michaeldilisio557]

It would be lovely if you could disagree with someone without resorting to calling them a hypocrite. I can tell you that I wasn’t set out to just not like it. Perhaps that’s why I gave it a score of 7 and a recommendation.

[@Leiderg]

@@michaeldilisio557 I'm sorry if you took it like an insult that wasn't my intention, just the literal meaning of the word, and I said it feels like it, not flat out calling you that.

[@Listan1]

What is the complexity level of this one, did everyone find? How does this play at 2?

[@TheAmazingYeti]

Not sure how you compare this to DoE? This game is a straight up euro, DoE you are chucking dice and moving giant plastic miniatures around. I love DoE quite a bit myself, but not once have I tried to compare it to straight up euro games. I am so in-between on this one, as it seems very abstract and the mechanisms don't really seem to make much sense. I honestly get the impression that the gorgeous art tricks you in to playing what is more than likely a beige Euro underneath all that pretty paint. Which also isn't a bad thing, I love games like Concordia too. Ultimately coming in here and calling someone a hypocrite because of a difference of opinion seems a bit weird. There is just simply no way we will ever all agree on our opinions of games. I love hearing from four different perspectives and forming my own decision. Usually, I can walk away from one of their reviews and know if I want a game or not... not this time. Luckily this game hasn't hit USA shelves quite yet... so I have more time.