At the time that I was offered the chance to review, I had not read any of the Red Rising books. I quickly downloaded and listened to the first audiobook - out of pure excitement! (But let me be clear. You do NOT have to have read any of the Red Rising books in order to enjoy this game. However, if you have, you’ll enjoy seeing all the characters you remember - from Darrow to Eo, to Pax, to the Jackle. They’re all there!
So, what kind of game is Red Rising? Well, it’s a hand management, combo building game. You’re trying to finish the game with the highest point hand of cards so you can win. All cards have a point value, but they also have some sort of extra scoring condition at the bottom of the card that can either add or subtract points from your total - depending on the other cards in your hand or the position of resources at the end of the game. I’ll be honest. Before the game arrived, I’d worried that I’d gotten in over my head with this review. I’m not a hand management gamer. (I like more abstract strategy, and dice rolling type games - think Azul, Sagrada, That's So Clever, etc.) So I didn’t feel completely comfortable with my ability to pick this game up quickly. I was worried it might be "over my head." But Red Rising was surprisingly straight forward and easy to jump into. The steps are fairly easy to follow. Play a card. Resolve the action on the card. Take a card. Get the bonus from the area the card was taken from. Fairly simple. And yet, this game seems to have lots of strategic possibility and replayability!
What I like:
1.) The art! - This game is BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED! From the cover art, to the card art, to the game pieces. This game is just gorgeous.
2.) The simplicity of play. - I love a game that is easy to start. Red Rising definitely fits that category. The actions you take on your turn are fairly straight forward and any actions written on the cards are pretty well explained.
3.) The variability of scoring. - There are multiple ways to score. This means its not obvious who is gonna win the game. The worst thing for a board/car gamer and to start a game and be able to tell pretty quickly who will win. Red Rising leaves you guessing to the very end.
4.) It scales well to two players. - I get so frustrated when a game says it plays 2-4 players or 2-5 players and then you find out that its really not fun at 2 players because there isn't enough competition. My hubby and I like to play games in the evening, so games that can scale well to 2 players are very important to me. I felt like Red Rising was still very enjoyable at 2!
5.) There's a single player mode! - I haven't tried it yet, but I'm very excited that Red Rising also has a single player (Automa) mode! Stonemaier games with Automas are very well thought out, so I have no doubt that this one is fantastic!
Note: I was fortunate enough to review the Collector's Edition. The game play for both the regular game and the Collector's Edition is exactly the same. The Collector's Edition has some great upgrades, however. The influence cubes, fleet tokens, sovereign token, and first player token are all made of metal instead of the standard plastic, 21 of the cards in the Collector's Edition contain a beautiful gold foil. The collector's edition also contains card holders, a specially numbered box, and a custom plastic insert with lid.
I received this game, free of charge from Stonemaier Games, in exchange for my honest review.
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