I love Back to the Future and to be honest who does not? If you know someone who does not like the film give them a good kick in the face! I would! Okay maybe not a kick in the face that seems a little harsh. However they do need some sort of punishment for not liking an awesome film! In this game we are going to use dice to complete events that will reward us and try to recover and return items to the correct time line, we will work as a team over a number of turns to hopefully achieve this goal before we are out of time!
Let us look at the basics;
Players: 2 - 4
Age: 10+
Time: 45 - 60 minutes
What do we get in this box?
I have to say that I love the fact that when you open the lid you are greeted with a letter from the film, it was an awesome touch!
In the box we have the following;
1 game board 4 player mats
4 DeLorean movers 4 Biff characters 16 dice (4 for each player)
72 event cards 20 item cards (5 from each time era)
20 paradox tokens
24 Einstein tokens
1 OUTATIME marker 1 First player marker Rulebook
Lots of fun
How to set up the game?
Setting up the game is quick and easy! Should not take to long to have it out on the table and ready to play.
1: Put the game board in the middle of the table.
2: All players should take their player card (1 of the colours) with the matching dice and DeLorean.
3: Shuffle the event cards together and place them in the location marked on the game board.
4: Place all the Einstein tokens text side down and muddle them so they are shuffled, then place the paradox tokens next to them also.
5: Put the item cards in to time era piles and shuffle each pile (not together), then pick your difficulty by drawing the top cards to create the item deck for each time era;
Easy - 2 item cards per time era Normal - 3 item cards per time era Hard - 4 item cards per time era Insane - All 4 item cards per time era We played it on normal and it was difficult enough! Any items cards you do not use return to the box and do not look at them. 6: Place the OUTATIME marker on the time tracker at the top of the board on the 00 place.
7: Place the matching time era Biff on to the location marked Biff Start, this is where they begin the game.
8: All players place their DeLorean on to the matching colour time line on the clock tower starting space!
We have set up the game and we are ready to have lots of fun and dice through time like the mother f**kers we are.
How to win?
Soon as you have returned the last time to the correct time era and location the game ends! You have won, you have fixed the time line and you can all go have a beer or a pizza or what ever you fancy! However if at any point the OUTATIME marker hits the 12 mark it is game over and you all lose :( sad times.
We just managed to return the last item before the 12 mark! It was a close game but we bloody loved it.
How to play?
The game is played over a number of rounds and in each round we have a number of actions we must perform in order! There are;
Draw event cards
Roll the dice
Perform actions
Advance the OUTATIME token Add paradox tokens
Pass the first player token
That is the actions we will take but what does each action mean? Are we alone in this universe? I can answer one of these questions.
Draw event cards: Depending on the number of players will depend on how many event cards we will turn over at the start of our turn.
2 players = 3 event cards
3 players = 5 event cards
4 players = 8 event cards
If at any time you have no event cards left just shuffle the discard pile and create a new deck to draw from again.
Now draw each card one at a time and see what kind of card it is it will be either a location card or a special event card.
Location card = Move these to the time era and location stated on the card for example twin pine mall 1985. If the card contains a biff icon on the top right hand corner you must move Biff to this location also.
Locations can contain multiple cards in the same spot, now in the rule book it does not state if their is a limit but because the spaces on the board show 3 card placement zones I figured it must be a maximum of 3? Not to sure on that, however I never had more then 3 for 1 zone come out. Special event card = Action these when they appear and they will affect the game in one way or another. Roll the dice: All players must now roll their dice, if you had left a dice on the board from the last round you can take it back now and roll it also with the others, the choice is yours.
Perform actions: With the first player all players will perform actions using their dice. If you pass to the next player and realise you could have done something else it is tough luck you can not go back.
Once you use a dice to perform an action it can not be used again! Make sure you use the dice correctly.
When you spend a dice place it on your player mat to show that it was used, we place them on the actual board and where we used them to track what we did each turn.
Each dice symbol will allow you to perform an action which are;
Flux capacitor = Move you to another time era in the same location for example move from 1885 clock tower to 2015 clock tower.
Arrow = Move to any location in that time era, for example 2015 clock tower to Hilldale.
Fist = Move Biff from your current location to another location in the same time era, for example 2015 Hilldale to Skyway. You must be in the same location as Biff to perform this action!
Lightning = Spend this dice to re-roll any dice you have not used this turn, for example you rolled 3 arrows and a lightning but need a flux capacitor you could spend the lightning and roll all 3 arrows again or 2 or even 1!
Doc Brown = Spend this token to remove any 2 paradox tokens from the board, this is important action to keep the game under control.
Wrench = Can be used to match any symbol on an event card, if an event card needs a arrow and lightning and you have 2 wrench's you can spend the two wrenches to complete the event.
There are a few more additional dice rules that are handy to know;
a) You can spend any 1 dice to move one location (left or right) from your current location.
b) You can spend two matching dice to use Mr Fusion that will allow you to perform any one action. For example you could spend 2 arrows to be a flux capacitor and move time eras! Handy!
c) Lock in dice on a location for some one else to use or for you to use on another turn, now this dice can be used in any future time era but only in the same column (location). This means if you locked in a dice in 1985 location it could be used in 1995 and 2015 but not 1885 as that is in the past. That is how we spend the dice to perform actions but there is also event cards we need to complete, to complete an event card we need to;
Be in the same location
No Biff in the location
Have the matching dice of the event or event cards in that location
If we match all of the above we can complete the event. Let us look at this more in depth to explain this further.
Completing an event: This is the main element of the game, we need to complete these events to collect items which we need to return and keep the game board under control! When you move to a location with an event card we can try and complete the event, like we mentioned above there can not be a Biff on this location, if there is we need to use a fist to move him to another location.
Once we are on the location and there are no Biff's on the location we need the matching dice symbol shown on the left hand side of the card, if there are more than 1 card in this location we also need the matching dice symbol for that card too. You can not clear 1 event if there are more than 1 card in that location we need to clear them all in one go!
For example if we were on the location Lou's Cafe in 1955 and we had two event cards in this location with a wrench, Lightning and arrow we would need to have dice with the 3 matching symbols to complete the events on this location, if we did not have them all we can not complete them. However we can lock in dice for the next turn to try and help us complete the event.
If you complete the event you then put them or the card in the discard pile, you then collect 1 item card from that time era (if there are none left in this time era you collect nothing, if you complete 2 events in 1 location you only still collect 1 item) and place it on your player mat in 1 of the 2 items slots, you can never carry more then 2 items!
Returning items: Okay so you might have completed an event and need to return an items, each item will tell you the time era it is form and the location, you need to get to that location and time and that is it! However, there can be no events on this location or a Biff, if there are events they need to be completed before you can hand it in, if there is a Biff you need to move him. Once the item is returned you need to do the following;
Move the OUTATIME marker back 1 space (yay).
Then randomly pick a Einstein token and place it with the symbol side face up on the space provided on the board. Any player on their turn can use this token during the perform an action phase. This means they can be spent like dice to perform an action, once used though it is discarded! They are 1 use only!
The last thing we need to mention here is what happens if you end up in the same location as another player, this basically breaks the time space continuum and you must straight away move the OUTATIME marker forward 2 spaces! Try to avoid this at all costs as it can really f**k you over before you know it!
That is about it for perform an action so let us continue with the other actions you need to take.
Move the OUTATIME marker: Once all players have spent their dice we need to check locations on each time era and the zone with the most locations we move the OUTATIME marker that many locations.
For example if 1885 has 0 events, 1985 as 1 event on one location, 1995 as 2 events on the same location and 2015 as 2 events on 1 location and another event on 1 location we would move the OUTATIME token 2 spaces for 2015 (the 2 events on the same location only counts as 1 location). If the time era contains any paradox tokens we move the OUTATIME token 1 more space only (if there are 3 paradox tokens it still only moves 1 space). Also if it ends in a tie the earlies time ear is selected automatically.
Add paradox tokens: The time era that was used to perform the move the OUTATIME marker is now used to place paradox tokens, place 1 token on each location in that time era with an event card (if there are tokens on already do not place any, 1 location can only have 1 paradox token). Pass the first player token: Pass the token to the next player on the right and start again from the event card drawing phase. That is how you play the game, it is really straight forward and easy to understand. It is all about keeping paradox's to a minimum, clearing events and returning the items ASAP. You will need to work as a team and talk about what you think you should do and come up with a game plan. The key to this game is team work and planning ahead.
Final Thoughts
This game can be quite hard if the dice are against you, if you just not can get the rolls you need then you are a little bit f**ked with this game. However, I never found it frustrating or annoying, I had a lot of fun playing this game. I love the design of the game, all the move references, I love the letter printed on the back of the board, I like all the game pieces, I enjoyed the concept of the game, I liked how easy it was to set up, learn and play. There was not much I disliked about this game! I do not know if I am biased because I do love the movies, maybe I would dislike the game if I was not a huge fan but it is hard to say for sure. I do like dice games, I have a soft spot for them, that maybe helped me enjoy it more. I am struggling to say why I actually really enjoyed the game, it is odd I thought I would be bursting with information to say at this point but I am stumped, all I know is that I loved it but I am struggling to say why in depth I loved it.
It was just a great game and I shall leave it at that!
8/10
