The Networks Review

After a long hard day at Creaking Shelves HQ it’s time for a relaxing evening in front of the TV… unless An Hour of Shouting is on, I just can’t take their in depth political commentary at 8 on a week day night. They really should have scheduled it better. But, hey. That’s The Networks for you amiright!?

 

 

Players: 1-5

Time: 60-90 mins

Ages: 13+

 

 

 

We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks – that’s show business

The Networks puts the great responsibility of running a (terrible) television network in your greasy fingers. Hopefully you’ll get your hands on some money, but mostly you’ll care about bringing in those sweet, sweet viewers. Whoever has had the most viewers after 5 seasons wins! Much like board game reviewers actually.

To bring in the views you’ll be adding exciting and humorously named shows (Old Folks Complaining or, my personal favourite, Paisley is the New Burnt Umber) to your line up and running them for as long as you can squeeze ratings from them. You’ll add generically named stars to your shows, and you’ll play shenanigans with Network cards. Of course, hiring stars and running shows cost money and while the box cheerfully informs you that it contains $165,000,000 you’ll need to be putting on ads to get access to any of that cash. No TV license payers here.

Unfortunately for you, everyone else wants the best shows, the best stars and the best ads too (the greedy…) so when you get to pick up a card from the grand table-hogging card display, you need to consider carefully which is your priority. And of course, the game isn’t going to make that easy for you! Each TV show offers up different viewing figures in their various projected seasons, a brilliant mechanism: after collecting views each season you age your shows, moving a little cube down the spaces on the right of the cards to indicate what you’ll score next round. When you have stars on board, you slip their card underneath so you can just read across the total viewing figures you bring in. This elegant bit of graphical design makes the game’s systems delightfully straightforward to teach and use.

But shows also come with demands: they want to be on the right time slot, some need adverts, some stars, and some might let you choose to add some more. When you add a new show to your line up, you need to defrost the required stars or ads from their stasis pods in the ‘green room’, which means you need to have some interred in there before you pick up the show. The optional ads/stars can be added later, but that’s less efficient. And of course, adverts and stars are their own demanding beasts too!

Some stars pump out a consistent number of viewers. Professional, you might describe them as. Most of these drama queens don’t, and have a much worse grey side they’ll rotate to if their conditions aren’t met. Some of these conditions are my favourite elements of game, perfectly fitting the cards description. You’ve got the “popular but unpredictable legend” who definitely isn’t Charlie Sheen, that gives you great views if he’s attached during Season 2 or 4, but much less in other seasons. Or the star who needs complete creative control over the show, that gives you much less views when there is another star attached to the same show. These are absolutely brilliant and far too rare.

Ads are similar in that they won’t bring in as much money if they are on the wrong time slot or attached to the wrong kinds of show. My favourites are again those that cleverly fit into the mechanics of the game. There are a few “Coming soon” adverts that if you pay for them will give you bonus viewers, because they are coming back to watch whatever show you were advertising! It’s brilliant and these cards will be making me smile long after the novelty of the shows’ funny names has worn off: they’re just clever.

It’s tough getting to the top

The Networks initially feels very tactical: you’re picking the best cards you can, hoping your preferred card is left alone, but from that strategies start to emerge. The game rewards you for crafting a specialised channel, but that reward is not so large as to be essential. You can see when everyone will be looking to update the shows in their line up. And you know the big end game bonus scoring round is coming: after you score the 5^th season, you age your shows as normal and score them again. This double score can be huge if you’ve prepared for it correctly, or it’ll leave you feeling like you messed up.

In fact, that’s sort of how you feel the entire game. You know how many viewers you can get from a show. If you end up running a show when you know the figures are going to be bad, because you ran out of cash or time to sign a show, you feel like you messed up! And while there’s certainly a sense of satisfaction from getting great viewing figures, when you’re juggling finances and handling demanding actors and preparing for next year, there’s only so much time for you to relish your achievements. That sounds like a criticism, but its not meant as one! It’s exactly the tension and stress you should be feeling! There are always more viewers to earn, better shows to sign. You can’t rest on your laurels! Moo TV just signed the Creepy Vampire for Agents of SHAMPOO, damnit!

The real opportunity for clapping yourself on the back comes from the pink Network Cards and the clever moves they let you pull. While some are simple, immediate rewards, some only unlock their full potential with good timing and canny preparation. For example, I was able to use the Spinoff card to save 2 stars from a cancelled show, which I timed to allow me to use not-Charlie Sheen in both Seasons 2 and 4. I still feel very smug about that one. Some of these cards let you interact with the other players but you can see how careful the designer has been with these. Any action that harms players harms all the other players at once, so no one feels like a target. And if you really don’t want to get hit then you’ll just have to spend one of your actions to take that card. They’ve all been marked as interactive cards too so if you really hate those kinds of actions you can remove them from the deck, but to be fair most help boost the player according to others rather than actively harm anyone. Mostly.

Netflix and Chill

One thing the Networks does incredibly well is implementing a one and two player version of the game. In fact, I’d say The Networks’ 2-player game is one of the best implementations for a drafting style strategy game I’ve ever come across! Every couple of turns or so you slip the top Network card from the deck and remove cards from the draft according to the symbols on the bottom of the card. These are always removed from the leftmost cards, so each season you have a new style of risk vs reward decision to make: how long until the cards you want most are removed by the deck? You know it’ll run from left to right, but you don’t know how fast. In multiplayer games you can have a reasonable sense of how your opponents will act, so this is not a bad simulation.

The solo game, naturally, extends this even further. In addition to the Network cards stripping away your options, if a row empties and you’re told to remove a card from that row, you get a black mark against your name. Get 5 and you instantly lose! It creates a wonderful tension and begs you to push your luck for a few more viewers. If you push yourself far enough during the early and mid-game you’ll get to remove one as reward… but only if you make the target! It is just a ‘beat your own score’ type of game but that push your luck element really does a great job of maintaining the tension as you play, and is well worth trying out!

Lights, Camera, Action!

There’s something about this game that niggles at the back of my mind, and I ask you to indulge me for a minute with some slightly irreverent discussion. After a word from our sponsors that is.

The thing is, The Networks feels like a designed game. Which is an odd statement, but what I mean is that it feels a little too clean, a little empty. It’s missing that grit, the dirty, grimy smell of the editing room late at night, filled with cigarette butts and coffee mug rings, lit only by the haze of monitors. The back room where “Unlocking Your Cat’s Psychic Potential” was hacked together. The Networks itself feels like a game show, with 4 enthusiastic members of the public pretend to build a TV network from wittily titled shows… somewhat ironic, no? It’s as if The Networks is a parody of itself.

The presentation is almost too neat, too precise. The game is challenging, but not too challenging. You feel tense, but not too tense. The decisions feel interesting and yet no matter where you’ll step you’ll be ok. There are no dark holes to fall into. You are going to succeed, it’s just a question of how much. And that’s fine! That’s sensible euro game mechanics! It means everyone can enjoy this game and I really approve of those decisions. But at the same time, because you don’t have the danger, you lose some of the potential pay off.

The world of The Networks is painted on to a wooden set and if you’re happy to go along with the illusion, to laugh at the jokes and applaud when the autocue says to, you will have a lovely time. I have had a lovely time! But the more I played the more I wondered what’s behind the curtain, behind the presenter’s pearly white smile. I can happily enjoy a game show, but in some ways I wish it went just a little bit further, to show us some of the darker corners and offer us a little bit more depth.

This isn’t really a criticism of the game. It’s not the game they wanted to create! The Networks is fantastic at what it does. It’s a great “gateway+”. My girlfriend, who is on the “willing to play a game occasionally” end of the board gamer spectrum, enjoyed it. It’s good fun, and if you or someone you want to play with is ready for the next step up the complexity ladder from your Ticket to Rides this is a fantastic option! I was just left with the feeling that, despite occasional flashes of brilliance, they were just holding back from the kind of depth of options and mechanics that could have made this perfect for me too.

Hmmm… what’s on the TV tonight then?

Rating(s): Going up!

 

Our copy of The Networks was provided for review by the publisher, Formal Ferret Games.