BOARD GAMES EVERYBODY SHOULD...
  • Home
  • Board Game soundtracks
    • The 7th Citidal
    • Kemet
    • Titan
    • Abyss
    • Claustrophobia 1643
    • The 7th Continent
    • Lucky Duck Games
    • Poule Poule
    • Syrinscape
    • Last Night
  • Board Game Talk
    • Reviews in English
    • Reviews en Français
    • Kickstarters
  • Burky & Badger podcast
  • Contact me

RECENT REVIEW THUMBNAILS

Barry has just played... 

Picture

A bad roll of dice and ... BOOM

6/25/2019

0 Comments

 

FUSE (2015) Review

Picture

Designer : Kane Klenko
Illustrators : Luis Francisco,  Marc Mejia,
      Chris Ostrowski
Publisher : Renegade Game Studios


1-5 players
10 minutes
Age 10 and more


Written by Guilou
Picture

Intruders have been detected. Alert! The space base has been trapped. Hurry up. No less than twenty bombs were detected. The whole base is being evacuated but time is running out. The location of the explosives is known. But we do not have enough people to deal with it. Hurry up. Your team must do the impossible. Tick Tock, Tick Tock. Only you can save the station. Quickly. Show cold blood and professionalism. The timer goes wild. Together you have to defuse all the bombs to prevail.

As you have probably understood, Fuse propels you into the shoes of a specialist group. Their mission? Defuse all the bombs that have been laid. Why so much hatred? How were the bombs installed? Is it because of the translation of the original title? Nobody knows it. The game does not try to answer this.​
Picture

Fuse is a game of Kane Klenko, released by Renegade Game Studios in 2015. This is an upbeat ambience game for one to five players.

Fuse is a cooperative game. You must act together to be the best performer and achieve the most goals in the time allotted. Because yes, it is a game requiring a timer. You can use the one linked to the application, as a free download, or take any timer. The advantage of the application is that it accompanies the game with ambient noises.

Once the set-up is completed, you will benefit from a ten minute counter, to  solve as many objectives as possible. The objectives are represented by the bomb cards. Each player starts with two cards in front of themselves. Once one of these bombs are defused, they immediately replaced it with another available.

You have a big bag of dice in the effigy of the game. One player will draw as many dice as players. Then, throw them (not too far... joke!). Each player must then take one, and only one, available die. Being careful to communicate well. Indeed, if a die can not be selected, it is removed and all players must discard a die of the same color or the same number. This can hurt a lot. It is very important to communicate well between all players but in a concise and precise way. Remember that timer is running out and there are no "pause" buttons while you play. The selected die is placed on the bomb cards that players have in front of them.
Picture

The bomb cards represent combinations of dice to realize to be able to deactivate them. Each combination is based on different things. The dice are normal six dice except that there are five different colors. The combinations to be made will play on it. Sometimes you will have to make sequels, other times superimposing them in a certain order or in pyramid fashion, not to mention recovering precise numbers or even numbers and specific colors ... There is a good variety of possibilities . Each bomb has its own difficulty to solve. Difficulties ranging from 1 to 6 (the latter being more rare and added to increase the difficulty of the game). When choosing your bombs to solve, be careful not to get stuck with two cards too hard to do at once.

To make your bomb defusal day job more complex, you will also come across cards Fuse. These cards are not bombs but represent the difficulties of progression. Immediately revealed, immediately activated. These cards have a color or a number. Once drawn, because they are well concealed within the bomb pile, the players must discard immediately what is indicated on the map, if they are able to do it.

Once a bomb is deactivated, you must put the card aside, discard the dice back in the bag and retrieve one of the five visible bombs, then repurpose a new card and eventually apply the revealed fuse cards. All this, of course, without stopping the clock. I can guarantee you that ten minutes is going to go very fast …​
Picture

Fuse is a frantic game. Time is against you and you will soon feel it’s pressure. It's a very special but effective ambient game.

The graphics of the game are from Luis Francisco, Marc Mejia, Chris Ostrowski. The cover is beautiful. The cards are very simple or even have a mathematical aspect. Far from disturbing, it allows to better visualize the icons and to quickly identify what needs to be done.

Speed ​​is at the heart of the system. Everything is done so that players lose time. You must be attentive at every moment. Think about where to place your dice, draw the right number, discard and recover a bomb in the process ... Little by little, you will have to find the right way to communicate while gaining the most time possible. No more long sentences, players find themselves screaming colors or numbers to be  heard. Players will rage as time goes on and they must discard valuable dice. Or that a sabotage card appears so close to the goal ...

There is clearly a lot of luck in the game. This data is totally part of the mechanism and participates in frustration and rising tension. The game time is quite short, so it is very easy to get back on the adventure and find yourself chaining  games to improve. Especially when the game is very hard. Different game modes exist and I can only advise you to start with the beginner level to understand how it works while improving your reflexes.

You could finally blame everyone a little bit as some will play in their corner. Even though it is completely cooperative, the game can sometimes push the players under the pressure of the timer to jump on the dice that interest them without necessarily worrying about the needs of their partners. You’ll advise players to get out of your corner and game together. Sometimes it works. But most of the time, you’ll end up with unusable dice, which means you’ll have to reroll them and lose things. Very quickly, the players realize that playing like this, pushes the victory away, more and more.
Picture

The difficulty of the game is not to be taken lightly. This is due in particular to the need to save time which leads from the inaccuracy of choice, to the strong presence of chance, to sometimes twisted combinations. Yes, the game is very hard. This can sometimes demotivate some players. On the other hand, that's what makes it so charming. A game of this category, without difficulty then brings no more flavor. Here, we will have to do our best to cooperate and adapt. The more you play, more the victory will reward you.

Fuse is very simple in its learning. In a few minutes, all players are ready to try the adventure. But behind its ease of access, the game is smart and extremely addictive. Stress is ubiquitous. It is not uncommon for players to start hurrying each other to go even quicker with manipulation with the speed of actions, with the risk of logical reasoning disappearing.

Fuse is clearly a very nice surprise. In the genre, it competes easily with other cooperative games. I can only advise you to throw body and soul into this fun experience that is really worth it. Fast, with a huge replayability, simple, frenetic, full-bodied, Fuse is a must for those into atmosphere games. Easy to get out, quick to install, short to play, it’s is waiting for you.


Technical Score 7/10
Many dice, sober cards (with a specific format), everything is functional without being exceptional. Everything works and the icons are easily readable and understood.

My BGG Score 8/10
(Very good game. Always want to play and would suggest it)
Simple to explain, hard to win. The game is frantic and very fun. It offers good moments of pressure allied to a need to communicate well. An excellent game of atmosphere, sadly with little exposure.

Combined Score 7,5/10
Now, it's your turn to play ...
0 Comments
    Picture

    Authors

    Barry &
    Guilou & Arnauld

    shortcuts

    All
    1st Impressions
    99 Monkeys
    ABACUSSPIELE
    Act In Game
    Alderac Entertainment Group
    Ameritrash Games
    Arnauld
    Asmodee
    Atalia
    Aurora Games
    Barry
    ​Bellwether Games
    Blackfire
    Blackrock Games
    Blog
    Blue Orange Games
    Bombyx
    Bonjour Games
    Burky & Badger
    Buzzy Games
    Catch Up Games
    Choice Provisions
    Clyde & Cart Press
    CMON Limited
    Cool Mini Or Not
    Cosmo Duck
    Cranio Creations
    Cryptozoic Entertainment
    Czech Games Edition
    Draco Ideas
    Druid City Games
    DV Giochi
    Eagle-Gryphon Games
    Eclipse Editorial
    Edge Entertainment
    Eggertspiele
    Elwin Klappe
    EmperorS4
    Essen Spiel
    Events
    Fantasy Flight Game
    Filosofia Editions
    Flying Carpet Games
    Flying Frog
    Funky Sheep
    Game Brewer
    Game Works
    Gen Con
    Gigamic
    GMT Games
    Golden Egg Games
    GREIFERISTO
    Grimlord Games
    GRRRE Games
    Guillotine Games
    Guilou
    Haba
    Hasbro
    Helvetiq
    Hexy Studio
    Holy Grail Games
    Homosapien Lab
    Homosapiens Lab
    Horrible Games
    How To Play
    HUCH!
    Iello
    Imperial Publishing
    Impressions
    Inside Up Games
    Interview
    Intrafin
    Itten
    Japan Brand
    Jeux Opla
    Jolly Dutch Productions
    Jolly Thinkers
    Jumping Turtle Games
    Junk Spirit Games
    Karma Games
    Kickstarter
    KOSMOS
    La Boite De Jeu
    Last Night
    Lifestyle Boardgames
    Lucky Duck Games
    Ludonaute
    Ludonova
    Mandoo Game
    Matagot
    Meeple City Games
    Modiphius
    Monolith
    Monthly
    Moonster Games
    Morning
    MOZI Game
    My Cup Of Tea
    Mythic Games
    Nauvoo Games
    Next Move Games
    Norsker Games
    North Star Games
    Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag
    Oink Games
    Oka Luda Editions
    Osprey Games
    Oya
    Ozaku Brand
    Oz Editions
    Pandasaurus Games
    Paris Est Ludique
    Parker Brothers
    Pegasus Spiele
    Pixie Games
    Plan B Games
    Player 3
    Podcast
    Precisamente
    Preview
    Quantum Quiz
    Queen Games
    Renegade Game Studios
    Review
    RUNES Editions
    Say Cheves
    Schmidt Spiele
    Second Gate Games
    Serious Poulp
    Sit Down!
    Sorry We Are French
    Soundscape
    Space Cowboys
    Spielworxx
    Steamforged Games
    Stronghold Games
    Superlude Editions
    Super Meeple
    Sweet Games
    Tasty Minstrel Games
    Tested
    The Flying Games
    ThinkNoodle Games
    Tiki Editions
    Top Ten
    Treefrog Games
    Twitch TV
    TWOPLUS Games
    UK Gaming Expo
    USAopoly
    Weta Workshop
    White Goblin Games
    Yoka By Tsume
    Z-Man Games

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture

Contact me

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Board Game soundtracks
    • The 7th Citidal
    • Kemet
    • Titan
    • Abyss
    • Claustrophobia 1643
    • The 7th Continent
    • Lucky Duck Games
    • Poule Poule
    • Syrinscape
    • Last Night
  • Board Game Talk
    • Reviews in English
    • Reviews en Français
    • Kickstarters
  • Burky & Badger podcast
  • Contact me