I finished a game of Nemesis today with a friend (his game). We stumbled through half the game the other day, stopping when late night brain melt threatened and home was calling, but felt we had its measure.
Today, re-starting in the blue segment of the game, my Captain and Leigh’s Scientist had a simple task each (as far as our secret objectives allowed us to communicate anyway).
I had the engines under control, Leigh had checked navigation and all was good, ship off to Earth no issues.Of course, with secret objectives, we could both have been lying, which is part of the excellent theming.
I was mesmerised by this theming, the depth of play and comprehensive and clever mechanics. It has alot of moving parts, but at the end of the day, stuff just happens like it should in the (very similar) movies, even with us making several first game mistakes. You really felt that you were playing in character an that almost anything was possible.
Speaking of stuff happening……..
We had not had much trouble during the game. I had killed an adult Creature early in the re-start, taking two wounds, but had those under control. I was well armed and still fully functional (patched up) and Leigh kept finding the one things that would let him wheel about unscathed! So turn 3 from the end and we realised we needed to get back to the sleeping pods safely, settle in and win, basically.
So the Captain, Mr diligent, decided not to move quietly, which was an option, instead he moved fast to have a look into a room that basically did not have a chance of adding anything to the game. Leighs character had to move through it anyway and I could not help, so all I was going to do is send a drone in to have a look before hand (nothing gained).
I did however manage to make some noise and attract the attention of….the Queen!
Nice to get all the toys out, but not something you want to share a room with!
We did not start here, my character managing to escape from the room on the right, but our end of turn event made her follow me into the hibernation room.
2 turns left.
Leighs character arrives and we have a crack at the big girl. Little damage inflicted, so no chance of ending her this turn, then she called a friend (two very nasty events in a row).
Getting crowded and no time left. If we cannot clear the room, we cannot bed down and we die when the ship jumps into warp (next two turns).
I had my powerful six shooter and the boffin had a grenade so theoretically we might have been able to kill or scare them off in one round, but reality bit and we did little, again. Unable to clear the room, we held hands as the ship jumped and we all lost (died horribly as our bodies turned inside out I guess?)*.
So the game allowed us to think all was well, then bit us big time (I actually got bitten twice!). I would love to play it with 4+ crew, so the scheming and hecticness of the game can come out fully, but it’s still good with two or I assume solo.
It felt very real, very right and a bit scary. I must admit, after the first half, I felt this type of game is better free form role-played, but on reflection, the comprehensive nature of the game and theming would be more work than just learning this game (but the game could be a great base for an rpg scenario) .
*We worked out I actually won in the end, unsatifyingly, as the ship jumped back to earth, which was my secret objective. Did not feel much like it though.