LogFAQs > #961551393

66. Unsettled

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/290484/unsettled

Category: Cooperative
Key mechanics: Set collection, point-to-point movement, exploration, scenario-based
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 6
Game length: 60-120 minutes
First played: 2021
Experience: 1 play, 3 players
Previous ranks: N/A

Unsettled is probably the single game that most needs a replay on this list. It's a scenario-based game co-op, where the general principle of it is that each scenario can be wildly different.

At the heart of the game is a Pandemic-like engine where you take up to four actions on your turn and then the game makes its moves. Your abilities including moving your character to new tiles to open, mining for gems, picking up gems, and moving the machine. But the game adds a layer of complexity to your action selection by having your action board with moving pieces that you need to manage as well, boosting and restricting your abilities, and occasionally causing you to rest and trigger the game events.

Our scenario had a lot of exploration to it. Our scenario involved constructing pylons to get a spaceship off the ground. But the way it's structured, the first time you go through the scenario, you don't actually find out the next goal until you've achieved the first goal. Unfortunately, the teach, setup, and first run together ran over two hours, and we lost. Over a long gaming weekend already, that easily prevented us from giving it a second go now knowing what we needed to prep for. It's a fiddly game and one where you need to learn customized rules each scenario - I think there's a lot of potential, but this run just didn't bring it out for me.