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| By Gale Force Nine |
Take My Love, Take My Land...
When I think of wasted potential, not many things are as prominent in my mind as Firefly. There wasn't a lot of faith in this show from the network. Fox put it on Fridays, and unless it was ABC in the early 90's, that is where TV shows go to die. But, COME ON! Look at this world they create. It was a space WESTERN. Sure, those have been done before, even George Lucas has said that he took inspiration for Star Wars from spaghetti westerns, which in turn took inspiration from Kurosawa samurai films, but Firefly really leaned into it. There were cowboys, pioneers, civil war veterans, and hookers! Tell me where you can see hookers in Star Wars?!?
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| That's right, Mal. You CAN'T because there AREN'T any... |
It had action, it had drama, it was funny, it was fun. It won an EMMY for crying out loud, and Fox still decided that it wasn't good enough. Cancelled before the entire first season even aired. But the Firefly fans (or Browncoats as they like to be called) rallied and got comic books, novels, and even a FEATURE FILM that continues the story that was tragically cut short. Now, 15 years after the final episode of the Firefly TV series aired, Gale Force Nine is giving us a board game. This isn't the first board game with the Firefly theme (Gale Force Nine has released 3 others) but Firefly Adventures tries to recreate the feel of being a part of Mal's crew, and the nitty gritty of pulling off a job to keep flying...
I Aim to Misbehave
Unlike Gale Force Nine's Firefly: the Board Game, which simulates flying through space, picking up cargo or contraband, and delivering it while on the run from the Alliance, Firefly Adventures: Brigands and Browncoats shows you what's happening on the ground level. 1-5 players take control of Mal, Jayne, Zoe, Wash, and Kaylee as they navigate the map tiles, buildings, and goons, attempting to complete their objective. This objective is usually some sort of terminal that needs to be hacked, or cargo that needs to be collected (kind of like River herself). Along the way, they'll need to sneak, shoot, and sometimes negotiate or bribe their way out of trouble.
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| This used to be such a nice shantytown... |
But all of this takes time, you see. Not just actual time (though a single session lasts about 60 min.), but in-game time is a factor. Time in the game is measured in "Moments" and each job only gives you so many of these moments to complete your mission. These moments are kept track of on this Time Track and as you take actions, each action costs a number of Moments, and you move your character's marker along the Time Track accordingly. And the order you take your turn in is determined by the order of this Time Track.
This is a really cool mechanic. It really lets you plan out your actions, figure out when the best time to perform each action will be, and see what some of the consequences of your actions will be. It's like someone at Gale Force Nine was a big fan of Final Fantasy, and said "We can make this into a board game!" and that's a good thing!
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| I really want to see what Wash's Limit Break is... |
In fact, this game also reminds me of ANOTHER classic video game. METAL GEAR SOLID. See, the heroes have two versions of themselves: Heroic and Casual. Each version has different actions that are available to them. Want to move or maybe repair something? Act Casual. Shooting or fighting? Well, that's pretty gorram Heroic! The bad guys only activate if they are within line of sight of a Heroic character, so it is entirely possible to complete an whole mission without engaging in any real shootouts! Hell, Jayne even has a STEALTH KILL in the game! And if you DO kill a bad guy, they leave a body that you have to worry about hiding, or else the other bad guys will catch wise! I have never seen a stealth mechanic work so well in a tabletop game. Massive Darkness does a pretty good job with stealth, but Firefly Adventures puts it to shame.
The issue is that this can get a little fiddly. Switching back and forth between Casual and Heroic means not just flipping over your character card, but also swapping out your miniature. Combine that with moving your character's marker along the time track and that's a whole lot of moving parts for this game.
But my biggest gripe is with the scoring system. Instead of similar cooperative style games, where it's either win or lose, in Firefly Adventures, it's based on how much cash you earn throughout the mission. Different amounts of money give you different levels of success for each mission, but these different levels of success don't mean ANYTHING!
Get away with $3000? Cool. Good job!
Get away with $4000? Cool. Gooder job!
Get away with $1.50 and some toenail clippings? Cool. Not so good job?
There's no better story or any kind of incentive at all for trying any harder than you really need to. All you get is tantamount to the game giving you a pat on the back. Except it's worse. You have to read it yourself, so you're essentially just giving yourself a pat on the back. With words.
This is alleviated somewhat if you play through the missions campaign style. This way, the amount of money you earn is the amount that you have to spend on supplies for the next mission, which is cool, but if you don't want to play campaign style, it seems like there's something lacking.
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| I know, Jayne, most gamers would never even think about not fighting either... |
The issue is that this can get a little fiddly. Switching back and forth between Casual and Heroic means not just flipping over your character card, but also swapping out your miniature. Combine that with moving your character's marker along the time track and that's a whole lot of moving parts for this game.
But my biggest gripe is with the scoring system. Instead of similar cooperative style games, where it's either win or lose, in Firefly Adventures, it's based on how much cash you earn throughout the mission. Different amounts of money give you different levels of success for each mission, but these different levels of success don't mean ANYTHING!
Get away with $3000? Cool. Good job!
Get away with $4000? Cool. Gooder job!
Get away with $1.50 and some toenail clippings? Cool. Not so good job?
There's no better story or any kind of incentive at all for trying any harder than you really need to. All you get is tantamount to the game giving you a pat on the back. Except it's worse. You have to read it yourself, so you're essentially just giving yourself a pat on the back. With words.
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| Geez. Thanks, Obama... |
This is alleviated somewhat if you play through the missions campaign style. This way, the amount of money you earn is the amount that you have to spend on supplies for the next mission, which is cool, but if you don't want to play campaign style, it seems like there's something lacking.
Shiny
Okay, before I get into the components, let me say, that this game looks really good. Like really, REALLY good. After I had painted both the Heroic and Casual Mal minis, I thought that I had a Lilliputian version of Nathan Fillion that I could take with me wherever I went.
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| We would be the best of friends... |
Sure, the idea of having both a Heroic and Casual version of each character is a little gimicky, but it makes thematic sense. It's like they're changing clothes when they're trying to be inconspicuous or some such thing.
But we need to talk about those damn buildings. Or, should I say "Buildings". They are the WORST. When you first see them, you'd probably do what I did, thinking "Oh, wow, these are really cool." WRONG. They block ACTUAL line of sight from the player to anything inside.
Does that building have any bad guys inside? Hold on, let me get up on my chair and look directly down at it.
Not to mention that they don't even fit on the tiles correctly. They're too big, so they stick out just enough into the surrounding spaces to be annoying. And heaven forbid your bump the table. They are so light, those suckers will go flying like Wash through the horde of Reaver ships (spoilers).
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| Not quite like a leaf on the wind... |
I honestly would have just as well gotten rid of them. Building tiles would have served the same purpose, and would have been much nicer, though the buildings do serve as a type of de facto organizer/insert.
Buy It!, Try It!, or Fly It!
My ratings system is as follows:
Buy It! = Go buy this, right now! It is fantastic and worth your hard earned money!
Try It! = Play it with a friend or at your local game store. You might like it or you might not.
Fly It! = %&#! this game!
Buy It! = Go buy this, right now! It is fantastic and worth your hard earned money!
Try It! = Play it with a friend or at your local game store. You might like it or you might not.
Fly It! = %&#! this game!
This was honestly the hardest decision I've had to make as a reviewer. At the end of the day, I have to separate my fandom for the property, and evaluate the game itself. It's not whether or not Firefly Adventures is a good game. It is. But how good of a game is it? How much fun did I really have playing it? It's got some REALLY cool mechanics for a cooperative miniatures game, but at its heart, does it really compare with its contemporaries?
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| I know, I know... |
My biggest problem is still with the scoring system. Playing a one off mission just doesn't have the same satisfaction as some of the black and white, win or lose, style cooperative games like Pandemic or Forbidden Desert. But at it's heart, beyond the crappy buildings, beyond the lackadaisical scoring, beyond the fever dreams to experience more adventures with Mal and his crew, Gale Force Nine has given us a good game, and almost more importantly, the closest we've gotten to "Firefly in a Box".
It really does simulate the feeling of going on a heist. Get in, get out, get paid, and try to do it as quietly as possible. Going in guns blazing WILL NOT earn you that sweet, sweet pat on the back from yourself that you so desperately crave, and it just works, through and through. And it's something different than Descent or just strict dungeon crawl that is going to be worth your time and money, regardless of whether or not you've read the comic book backstory of Shepherd Book or all you know is that Hulu keeps suggesting that you watch this weird looking show called Firefly.
The Verdict...?
BUY IT!
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