The essence of board games is spending time together with family and friends. However, it happens that we do not have anyone to play with, and yet we would like to take out a box and lean over the board. There are people who just like a given title and use it often to get to know the decks, mechanics and possible strategies as much as possible. Solo games or single-player games have been developed for such players. There are quite a lot of them on the market. They have different levels of advancement, so everyone will find something for themselves.
Terraformacja Marsa
Terraformacja Marsais one of my favorite board games. It works well in any group, although with more players we have to wait longer for our move. The author also provides for a solo game, which is mechanically the same as a multiplayer game. The obvious difference is that there are no enemies, so falling asteroids don’t make sense if they can’t destroy someone else’s resources. However, the goal remains the same – the climatic conditions on Mars should be changed so that people can live there. We raise the temperature and oxygen levels in the atmosphere and create oceans, but we have to do it ourselves. We have 14 generations for this, which may be a challenge at first. With each new playthrough it will be easier to achieve success, but it still depends on the cards that come in. For people who know the game well,
Horror w Arkham
Several good board games and card games were created, drawing on the work of Lovecraft. Discussions about which one is the best remain pending, but I chose to present Arkham Horror. The second edition of this board game was the first game from this universe that I had the opportunity to play, so I have the greatest fondness for it. Readers familiar with the books know what to expect – all sorts of Cthulhu monsters will attack us, and we as researchers must defeat them and close the portals through which terrible monsters enter our world. The action takes place in the title city of Arkham, and the gameplay itself is very atmospheric. It is a cooperative game, so both solo and with friends we compete against the game itself. The rules can be overwhelming at first, so this is unlikely to be a beginner’s position, but after a few games it gets easier. As in most adventure games, our fate is largely ruled by bones,
Robinson Crusoe: An Adventure on a Damned Island
Robinson Crusoe: An Adventure on a Damned Islandis a cooperative game that I liked after the first game and I hated it thanks to each subsequent game played in a larger group. Great atmosphere, different scenarios and a pretty nice performance. Unfortunately, this title is very susceptible to a dominant alpha player who can steer and tell the rest of the players what to do on their turn. However, for an obvious reason, this problem disappears in a single player game. It is quite a challenge to face the island and its difficult conditions alone, but I like this option the most. Nevertheless, the initial games are likely to be lost, which is standard in this game. We get wounds for the lack of food, adequate shelter and unsuccessful encounters with animals. And the weather cube does not help at all, because only someone who is very naive can expect sun on it. It always rains, only sometimes more.
Smart Games
The Smart Games series consists of dozens of games for one person with various topics and levels of difficulty. Most of them have beautiful, three-dimensional components that, in the case of younger players, can also be used for other games. Each box contains a booklet with dozens of tasks. Each of them shows the initial setting of the game elements. Then we have to add the remaining components in such a way as to achieve a specific goal. We can arrange the tiles with the islands so that the herbivorous dinosaurs do not meet the carnivores (Dinosaurs: The Mysterious Island), lead the space shuttle out of the asteroid swarm (Star Escape) or try to contain all the animals on the boat (Noah’s Ark).Some games are magnetic, so they are also suitable for travel. My newest acquisition is Escape from Atlantis . As you might guess, the goal is to escape the sinking Atlantis. Buildings and stairs should be arranged in such a way as to reach the highest tower, where rescue awaits us. As you can see, the thematic range is very wide. Everyone will find something for himself. Even though these are rather games intended for children, adults will also have fun with these beautiful, logical puzzles.
Escape room: Sphinx riddles
The games of the Fox Games publishing house, based on popular escape rooms, are ideal for solo games . Several titles are already available on the Polish market. So far, I liked the Escape Room: Zagadki Sphinsa the most.We move to Egypt, where we get trapped in a pyramid. There is nothing left for us to do but follow the corridor and find another way out. It is known, however, that ancient structures are full of traps and puzzles that must be solved in order to be able to move on. Certainly, the mummy does not help in focusing, as with each mistake it gets closer and closer to us. The puzzles are diverse and interesting. Some of them really took me a while, which is a good sign of the authors’ ingenuity. Unfortunately, the games in this series are one-time only. There is no point in going through them again, because we already know all the answers. On the other hand, the low price and satisfaction with a good result are enough to reach for more boxes, especially that more parts are to be released this year.