New, but very familiar

I was afraid that the recently arrived 👽 Nemesis: Retaliation would be stuck on our shelf of opportunity for months (especially with SPIEL right around the corner) - but a chance visit from my brother made us look for some cool thematic games on the shelf, and lo and behold: even though learning new Awaken Realms games can be a struggle, we went for Nemesis Retaliation. 🥳

I have to say our impressions are somewhat bittersweet. 😑 This is still Nemesis, still a huge ameri… Games are swingy, so depending on how you draw cards and roll dice you could either have an impossible game, or a cakewalk (ok, maybe I am exaggerating there, Nemesis is never easy 😄). But I guess that was always part of the emerging storytelling of Nemesis. With 3 players we also decided to do full-coop instead of the backstabbing semi-coop, and maybe that raises the difficulty too?

After Nemesis Lockdown, Retaliation promises a bit different gameplay - or a slight shift in theme. You aren’t caught unaware of the alien intruders, instead you come armed to the teeth, ready to bring the fight to them 💪 - at least supposedly. The majority of dice faces you can roll are so weak that you’ll still keep running away most of the time. So even though this is a bit different, you pretty much get a very familiar Nemesis experience.

There are some differences though: aliens can be either in rooms or corridors, and you can burst into corridors, dispatching potentially multiple beasts. ☠️ Fighting in rooms is harder but uses almost no ammo. There is a cool oxygen mechanic too, so you keep having to fill up or find and reactivate the life support systems. 

The best part is undoubtedly the way the map is randomly built up. 🤩 You draw exploration cards that show what type of room comes and how corridors connect, so each game has a different layout. Cards can also show additional stuff like fire, malfunction, noise or special things that happen.

In spite of some negative feelings, I did also enjoy our games a lot (we played back-to-back 3 full games, practically the whole Sunday), and I really can’t wait to set the game up again. There is so much more to try and experience! 😁