The LOOP | Cooperating is hard & Dr Faux is no joke | Board Game Review

There he is, over there in that era! Let's go! Wait, is that just a clone? Now he's moved again... and the rifts, so many rifts 😳.... Welcome to the LOOP, the game with a beautifully infuriating chaos dispenser in the centre of the board that is going to keep you all on the move trying to clean up at a faster rate than Dr Faux can jump eras (and he's pretty fast). So gather your best team of agents, your closest time capsule of cool accoutrements and some green cubes of energy goodness and cooperate your way out of this mess!
The LOOP
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
01:00 Theme overview (Themer)
01:59 Mechanics overview (Thinker)
07:38 Thematic integration (Themer)
09:07 The type of gamers we are
10:12 Cleaning up (risk mitigation)
10:43 It's actually really difficult
12:26 Player count
14:37 Maggie’s solo review
15:37 Wrap up
Designer: Maxime Rambourg, Théo Rivière
Players: 1-4
Play time: 45-75 min
Publisher: Pandasaurus Games
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3...
Thanks for stopping by for our mechanics & theme board game review of The LOOP. We're Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We're an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game - Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the 'world' that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience. Are you #teamthinker or #teamthemer? ❤🏳️‍🌈🇦🇺

[@Theo_Sacha]

Thank you for the very complete review! We definitely designed the game to be hard to beat and winning your fifth game is a pretty nice timing :)

[@ThinkerThemer]

Thank you for creating this challenging experience and getting us out of our comfort zone!! And for making us feel better about our efforts 😂

[@dougrawald6000]

This is a fun family game. My 9 year old son and I have played it a half dozen times since getting it already. There is some tricky strategy to figuring out how to best approach the different missions and work together to win. It feels really good to figure out how to string together a number of actions to complete a mission at just the right time.

[@AaronAndSusie]

Too funny I was just saying on the discord a few days ago how I struggle with games that have this circular layout lol . Love the theme for sure though. It's v similar to one I wrote down in my "boardgames that id like to design but probably never will" brainstorms haha

[@Warriorking.1963]

SIGH... "Cube dispenser... cube tower..."🤦🏻‍♂️, do you girls not even know what your typical, average, bog standard time machine looks like?? 😂 I'm ordering this game when I get paid at the end of the month. I've intended buying it right from it was first released, but have always been bumping it back a month as another game, maybe a hard to get vintage game, has come along and I bought it instead. But that ends this payday, I'm not even looking at other games this month and The Loop will finally be joining my collection. The game looks great, and having watched a lot of videos on it, it also seems to be fun and challenging. But the real reason I want it is because I'm a sucker for games with gadgets, and with this one you get a fully functioning time machine; that takes some beating! Great video as always ladies, I enjoyed that.

[@BillyIndiana]

This sounds like an alternate Pandemic with a cube tower instead of card draw. It also makes me think of The Spill with that tower. I'm really excited to try The Spill because of the theme & art. I'm a little concerned about the luck factor though just as you experienced with The Loop. Great overview and review!

[@theunamiable]

Definitely tempted by this one.

[@unclesamb]

I find coop games like this or pandemic to just be stressful and exhausting. My wife and I are halfway through Pandemic Legacy Season 1 and it's been sitting for 6 months because every time we look at it we shudder and go play something else. Every game feels like an emotional roller coaster and we finish the game and collapse. I find that while I get a lot of joy out of playing against other people, I get very little of that from playing against the game. I don't know exactly why it feels different to lose to the game instead of to someone else but I just find it demoralizing. I get the same feeling from video games as well, when the game is structured as "get as far as you can" or "if you lose you start over", I very quickly lose interest.

[@Lauren-gy4or]

My favourite part was the use of the word ‘accoutrement’ in the description - you don’t hear that word enough these days 🤣. Enjoyed the review!

[@ThinkerThemer]

I feel so seen :D

[@bagookster]

I’m waiting on this one to arrive - I’m not a cooperative gamer either, but I’m always looking for the one i like. 🤞🏻

[@ShelfStories]

I wanna play this!

[@malvinafis6907]

Thanks for getting out of your comfort zone for us.

[@distantbabble]

Co-ops shouldn't be easy, but some games can be nearing impossible (Ghost Stories). I haven't played this one, but the theme and art draws me in. Co-ops certainly need a few plays and I do feel that open communication helps, and if you aren't used to playing co-ops, you may struggle a bit more. This was a very fun review.

[@debbielowe9467]

Thanks for the review. I love that while this is not the perfect game for you, it sounds like the perfect game for me. It is what makes board games simply the best.

[@benjamindebetencourt1526]

I really like the Loop ! Usually I am not a fan of chaos and randomness in competitive games, but I love it in a cooperative one as everyone is affected and rattle together on how fate is against us. Have you tried Orleans Invasion, that adds a cooperative mode to the game? You are working towards a goal to achieve in a certain number of rounds and you are planning ahead to meet those objectives that don't change. You have events coming randomly at the beginning of each rounds, that can bring a little disrupt in the plan but you have more knowledge and less chaos.

[@ThinkerThemer]

No we haven't!! But I do love an event 🤔

[@DenisRyan]

I think, based on your experience that you've talked about here that The Loop isn't for me. My favourite co-op game is Burgle Bros and in my experience, those games end with the feeling that you were just a turn away from it going the other way on you. Like, when you all escape together and celebrate, you look back and it feels like the guard was about to catch you but the team will worked together to pull off some cool sequence of actions to escape at the last second. Those are my favourite moments. I don't want to totally dominate a co-op game, nor to be destroyed with no clear chance of winning. I want to feel my heart racing with that last action determining our fate.

[@ThinkerThemer]

We've never played Burgle Bros but have heard good things Denis! Maybe one day at a con!! :D It does sound like a different experience to the co-ops we've played in the past...

[@darlene7165]

Thanks for this great review! Rhado loves this game and I have been interested in what you girls think, knowing you don't care for CO OP. I do enjoy cooperative games but I have a quite a few of them on my shelf and don't feel the need to add too many more. They really have to draw me in to take up shelf space. For some reason I am still on the fence with this game. My favorite "Cube Tower" game is Amerigo! Competitive Euro game with a rondel! If you haven't tried it, you should! I will keep an eye on this game and hope to play it at DTW! Thanks for another great review

[@ThinkerThemer]

It is out of print so you're going to have to teach us at DTW Darlene!!

[@darlene7165]

@@ThinkerThemer That is a deal! I am driving so will be able to bring a bunch of games with me. I think I will post my list in our discord in the DTW channel and have those going pick some games for me bring. That way we can make sure we have them and not worry about it being checked out all the time or not in the game library. Amerigo is now on my list bring! 😁

[@TheShoogunn]

I love that game, but I ended up house ruling it : instead of making 1 card available at the start of each round, I make 2 cards available. A very simple change that ended up making the game a bit easier, and allowing for the deckbuilding aspect to shine more and for each player to personalize their deck more. Also, who read the rule book? Because I think it was designed specifically for Maggie! It's one of the most thematic rulebook I have read.

[@ThinkerThemer]

Actually I (Amy) read this one! But I didn't struggle with the thematic terms here so it must've been a nice balance.

[@craiggruesome6400]

Thanks for this review. I was curious about the time travel elements. Did that shine through?

[@ThinkerThemer]

Hmmm.. the cards are themed to the era, and as Maggie mentioned the "rifts" / ripples in time make sense, but I guess there's not much sense of moving through time. It could easily be a different theme on the different spaces.

[@gregmay8049]

I have been checking the rulebook too to see if anything is wrong! I keep losing! (2 player game).

[@leslieshergold5002]

Haven't beaten this game yet (played three times), spent most of the review trying to work out if Maggie was wearing dice ear rings...

[@ThinkerThemer]

No! She doesn't own any, but she should! Lol !

[@Sebastian-rt9qf]

Yup, seems you've been fooled by Dr's Faux whimsical look. Had this game on my radar for some time now. Still haven't got myself to add it to my shelves. Keep hearing how hard it is, but maybe that's due to 'luck' based element of the core in the game. But art wise I wouldn't mind have it in my hands ;-)

[@tiberiocamargo]

surrounding foo is not hard because you know where he'll go based on the discard piles

[@StephenGrubb]

Love the look of this game, but it sounds too luck-based for my taste. Also, my husband and I are being cautious and playing mostly 2-player at the moment. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this game.