First Impressions of Crisis

 

Read the full review of Crisis here!

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A nation is in Crisis! Faced with the longest running recession in recent history, and a political system on the brink of collapse, the Economic Union of neighbouring countries has agreed to step in and help, but only if the country is able to reach a series of punishing economic targets. Greece!? Who said Greece!? This has nothing to do with Greece (I mean, apart from the designers). This is Axia.

Crisis is now up on Kickstarter! This first impression is based on a pre-Kickstarter prototype, so please take that into account when reading.

You, fine player, will be an industrialist of this once great nation! Will you help lift your country out of depression, and make some money on the side too? There are businesses to invest in, workers to employ, demand for goods from across the sea to fulfil! But operating in this climate of instability has its dangers and its challenges.

Each round, all players will have a target number of victory points to achieve by the end of that round, with the country’s economy responding according to the net position of all players; even if you reach the target, any stragglers will drag the economy down for everyone. This results in worse events triggering each round and, if the economy ever hits rock bottom, the game ends and everyone’s money will be worthless, offering the intriguing possibility of killing the economy intentionally to render a high money strategy wasted…

Fundamentally, Crisis is a game of worker placement and resource management, but it sets itself apart with this semi-cooperative element and the target you’ll be chasing throughout the game. Being told you need to gain at least 2 VPs in round 1 really makes you re-evaluate how you approach this kind of game! Yet it never pigeon holes you into certain behaviour. By taking a hit in the opening round, I was able to invest in my infrastructure and be comfortably above target and in the lead, with money in the kitty, at the end of round 3. Just like in a real business! (I think Creaking Shelves must still be in round 1… just you wait, Dice Tower!)

The industries available to you lend themselves to nice combos if you can set it up, with one output providing input to other factories on later turns, although our demo was tragically cut short before I could put mine to the test. I also love the fact that this game has a point to make too, highlighting the challenges faced by the weaker economies of the (real) EU. It provides a nice twist in terms of gameplay, raises some knowing smiles, but gives you something more to think about after you play.

There are a ridiculous number of action spaces available to you and while you still have competition, the board is covered in a bewildering amount of stuff, preventing the artwork from coming through and making the board feel more like one giant interface. But the mechanics still drive the feel of the world. I do have concerns over the randomness of the events and how to deal with a runaway leader once a player has a powerful engine going. At the end of 3 turns I felt I was in a strong position to accelerate away; this was only the halfway point of the game! Unfortunately our demo ended too soon to see long term effects come into play.

Crisis is extremely interesting and well worth checking out! It features fantastic components (custom wooden resources!), variable gameplay (from the industries and workers that are available each round) and a valuable message regarding the EU economic crisis. Successfully powering up your industry was great fun and I can see great scope there, I just wish I had chance to see where the game was taking us.

If Crisis sounds like a game you want to check out (it should!) be sure to check out the Kickstarter: it’s up until the end of August!