Above and Below review
Above and Below the first game that I was able to get my wife to play that had a storytelling or even RPG mechanic in. This is partially because I left out that that information when I asked her to play this game. With that being said we both really like Above and Below.
I have always been a fan of storytelling and roll playing games but can never find a group that is dedicated enough to play them, but with Above and Below you can play a fun worker placement game with a splash of storytelling. In this game you will be recruiting and training workers to build your village both above and below ground. You will achieve this by building your huts and exploring caves and participating in a “choose your own fate” type adventure. These adventures are by far my favorite part of the game and the system on which your adventures are selected are great and allow for great reply-ability. It was so much fun to decide how many of my people I wanted to send into the caves and then listen to my wife read me a story on the encounters that I faced. In my opinion this is where this game shines.
I have always been a fan of storytelling and roll playing games but can never find a group that is dedicated enough to play them, but with Above and Below you can play a fun worker placement game with a splash of storytelling. In this game you will be recruiting and training workers to build your village both above and below ground. You will achieve this by building your huts and exploring caves and participating in a “choose your own fate” type adventure. These adventures are by far my favorite part of the game and the system on which your adventures are selected are great and allow for great reply-ability. It was so much fun to decide how many of my people I wanted to send into the caves and then listen to my wife read me a story on the encounters that I faced. In my opinion this is where this game shines.
Like I said before, this game is basically a typical worker placement which is (if you read my Game Mechanics article) one of my favorite type of game mechanics. I really like how all of your characters can have different abilities and often do. This makes it that much more important to recruit the right workers for your specific strategy.
As you have probably figured out, I like to judge games on how much I think a person would be to play it with little or no game experience. Above and Below is kind of tricky to judge this way. On one hand, it is a game that is very easy to learn, teach and play but on the other I could see the story telling part of this game “turning them off”. To those people I say that you really need to try it out. I find that the storytelling and journey while playing this game is the best part. I end up losing more often then not but always go back to the great encounters that I had. With all of this being said I would recommend this game to just about anyone.
