Worst New-To-You Games 2016?

Scott_F wrote: Terraforming Mars. God did I hate playing this game. Head down, calculate how to turn resources into other resources into points. Ignore other players except the total symbols on their played cards. Heavy optimization, VP salad, engine building. Long. The only interaction is in the form of take that asteroids that are completely random and unpreventable and rob a player of one type of resource. Half the cards you draw each round are unusable for the first half of the game, leaving you little to do some early turns while other players with better card draws jump ahead because they have actual cards to play.

I can almost understand the praise this is getting from the euro crowd. As a euro, it has a strong theme, is sci-fi, and the art on the cards looks good. But the gameplay, dear god I'd rather work on spreadsheets at work because at least then I'm getting paid for it. Somehow the asteroids as the main form of interaction make the game worse because they cannot be planned for and cannot be prevented, they just randomly destroy resources and are somewhat rare. The other interaction, claiming the awards or scoring bonuses, just involves a quick scan of the other players' tableau cards, nothing more. And the map is even less interactive than a worker placement game and denying resources since once terraformed and claimed the better spots are gone for good. I played the game once and would leave a game day if this was my only option. Far too solitary of gameplay with typical turn resources into other resources into points, albeit with a pretty sci-fi theme.

Accepting that your experience is valid, literally none of this is true. I've played over 20 times in the last month and every game (full game only) is rife with sniping sites, screwing with cities, stealing production, eating livestock, timing actions to prevent screwage. It's not quite Pax Porfiriana but it's not so far off.

Sushi Go! - This is barely a game but it was short so it was slightly better than...

Star Trek: Frontiers - I never played Mage Knight and now I never want to. Wow this game is boring. This was one of the worst let downs I've maybe ever had from a game cause I was actually looking forward to it. Funny that the best game I played this year was also a Star Trek game...

Hit Z Road - Wallace phoned this one In

Kingsburg

Sorry JEM I don't believe it. I hated Terraforming Mars and definitely won't play again. I don't see how you can argue that there is significant interaction in this game. Sniping sites and destroying the plant resources based on asteroid cards is not interaction.

I meet with a euro gaming group once or twice a month and most of the games there I tolerate (I go to see the people mainly) although some are OK but I'm not going to list them all as me not liking a euro isn't a sign of a bad game, there was one game though that has been mentioned here that I just thought was bad - A Study in Emerald (2nd Ed). Apparently Mr Wallace had to euro-fy it as very few people understood, or liked, the first edition but this was just an abstract cube pushing effort that lacked any theme.

Exploding Kittens - Junk-branded junk.

Noches de Sangre - This game is the kind of awful that you would get if you asked the average gamer to design a game in five minutes. Basically, it's a Coop-Munchkin without player interaction, hidden information or, well, anything resembling strategy or fun. It doesn't even work as intended, either, so the designers put a lot of "mechanical patches" in, like cards that make whole "weeks" go by when you draw them, forcing you to pay upkeep again.

It also has terribly drawn gore, making it go neck-to-neck with Secret Hitler for "most pointlessly disgusting theme in a game".

Roll Player - An extremely dull point salad euro. It's the kind of game where "depth" is measured not by evaluating different strategies but by solving equations. I didn't bother with that and still won because, like all other point salad euros, there are no bad choices and no player interaction. It's as engaging as staring into a wall.

The "dice" gimmick is the worst part because handling them is incredibly slow. The guys I played with, who play 5 new games each week, disagreed, because they were "good components" and one of the reasons they kickstartered the thing.

Shout out to Xia, a 3 hour game with so much downtime you won't be actually playing for 2 of those hours.

All in all, I played massive amounts of junk this year and the guy who bought all those games is already threatening us with another 3-4 new games for January. I like the guy, he's a great friend, but me and the other guy he plays with are already talking about playing with another group because we are beyond tired of this.

I haven't played a bunch of new games this year. Ain't nobody got time fo' dat.

But the worst new to me games were, by far, Star Wars Rebellion and Imperial Assault. Especially the latter.
I am really not the target audience of these things, as I was sitting there the entire time trying to get into the groove and setting, but feeling so rushed that there was nothing to actually enjoy.

Overrated doesn't begin to describe these titles.

FFG needs to take a long, hard stare at their design 'quality' nowadays. Innovation, or at least solid foundation of design is lacking and the gaping holes are just covered up by expensive IP and the companion art. Hasbro and GW are making them look like fools. Hasbro...and GW. Jesus.

Unicron wrote: Vast- The Cave Management Game(tm) was pretty boring and had factions/characters that operated differently in a functional but unfun way.
The Last Friday- Imagine a mashup of Letters from Whitechapel, Psycho Raiders and Fury of Dracula that eschews everything interesting that those games do.

Agree with these and New Angeles. Also would add Salem and Chicken Caesar to the list. I don't remember what I thought about Medieval Conspiracy but I don't think I hated it... it'd be good for the on-hiatus Monday night group I go to.

Exploding Kittens for me. I Kickstarted it, because my wife actually encouraged me to! She loves the Oatmeal. I have EK in my Secret Satan pile for 2017, but the Mrs. is requesting we play again. This time, with a group that is familiar with the Oatmeal brand... IDK...

I forgot all about Exploding Kittens, and I first encountered that game just last month. The theme is stupid, the art is terrible, and the game is even worse. I saw a five-player game take nearly two hours, and none of the eliminated players stuck around more than a minute or two after being ousted. It is probably the worst game that I have seen since the idiotic Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot game.

Lords of Waterdeep Gah, I HATE that game. Spreadsheet in a box. Rolling up 1st ed characters was more fun than playing that shite game.

Rliyen wrote: Lords of Waterdeep Gah, I HATE that game. Spreadsheet in a box. Rolling up 1st ed characters was more fun than playing that shite game.

Yeah, the allure eludes me. The most frequent praise I hear is "I can play it with my (insert here)," not that the game is compelling in any way. Or, "have you played with the expansion?"

I think I played Exploding Kittens in 2015, so I can't jump on that bandwagon.

If anything, the expansion makes it worse.

VAST

Rliyen wrote: Lords of Waterdeep Gah, I HATE that game. Spreadsheet in a box. Rolling up 1st ed characters was more fun than playing that shite game.

Luckily I only get to play shite games like that with my euro group a maximum of once, when it first hits the table (and if I have reviewed it before and know I will hate it then zero as I will just not show up).