I guess I'll just keep adding impressions until I'm unimpressed...which I kinda already am I guess, hehe. I'm being so hard on this game, and I feel a little bad. I guess the explanation as to why will come out in this one.
First, some house-keeping. In the last post I said that I didn't see a reason why they used codes at the bottom of the cards instead of having the particular art on the card backs. The reason is because you can design your own EM to use in play. It makes sense, but I can't say I agree with it. Frankly, it seems like a very light game, not meant for serious play. So the customization option I see as somewhat of a distraction, and I would have preferred the quality of life improvement of just having the EM specific art on the cards. But I get that this is a preference thing, and I bet lots of people are jazzed about playing with their own homebrew EM's.
Second, that metal turn counter I was actually fond of, it's two sided, but the sides are the same (the slots numbered 1-5), so you just have to go around the circle twice to get to the 10 turn count. It's a pretty good analogy for the quality of the game overall. Some good stuff stymied by obvious and easily rectifiable problems.
Gameplay: initial thoughts
Alright, I have a couple of learning games under my belt, which has clarified the rules somewhat, but also some rules are just muddled or not stated at all, for instance how cards are chosen for damage.
This game is not bad. It actually seems pretty fun. Its good enough, that I wish it were better. I haven't gone deep enough to really get into understanding the strategy, but definitely a lot of it will come from familiarity with your opponent's deck of cards. Beyond that, any randomness that would usually be brought about by dice is done with cards. This is a lot like my own idea for my mecha game, so it was nice to see in action, though I'm not sure it quite lives up to itself. You can count your own cards (if you've a decent memory) to know (or vaguely know, in my case) what is potentially coming up so you can plan somewhat, but my initial sense of it is that you really cannot plan much past the current turn.
I may be totally wrong on that, but you discard your current hand after every round, so there is no collecting a hand for that really big combo you want. Not that you can make more than a 2 card combo in a round, but you could at least have a two round strategy. The fact that you always discard your hand definitely limits you capacity to plan, but that's part of what makes the game quick and fun. There's no hemming and hawing about what to use, and given the genre's (or the two genres' this mixes) tilt toward analysis paralysis, I'm not going to say that's a bad thing.
So really the main gripe is still the presentation. Embryo Machine has reminded me of a couple different games. The two most prevalent in my mind are Battle Tech (for obvious reasons) and Neuroshima Hex. Hex as a very niche game I'm sure most people have no familiarity with, but it was also a very abstracted kind of strategy game that was very quick to pick up. But with Hex there was a good bit more depth of choice and decisions in one round really cascaded to the next in a satisfying way. The original 1st ed art was also really stylish and eye catching in its very 90s post-apocalyptic punk aesthetic. It had a lot of personality, and the 2nd ed. while being the same game essentially, lost that artistic edge for something much more current and same-y.
EM just doesn't have that artistic edge to begin with. As I already said in my first impressions, I have no clue where this game exist or why. Even the maps are just big fields with some stuff around the edges. Even the rough terrain is just kinda...this red stuff that reminds me of where you get the bricks from in Settlers of Catan. There are no city scapes or ruins or temples or farms or...I just have no idea what is in this world, none.
And there aren't characters at all. No grizzled veterans or scrappy child soldiers in stolen military hardware. It's just "Welcome to the world of Velm. There is neither magic nor monsters here, just giant robots that were discovered forty years ago, and now they fight." That's not a literal quote, but its darn close. They do actually say that there's no magic or monsters, almost as though in apology, like they're trying to prepare us for disappointment.
A game has to find its voice and its place in what it is. An abstract game can stand to be pretty generic. Settlers is actually a decent example. It is a fantastic game and you get lost in the action of the gameplay without any fluff behind it to immerse you. A game like Claustrophobia is different; the action and the plot match so perfectly, that even when you're losing its ok because you're playing out the story in your head. Neuroshima Hex is somewhere between; I wouldn't call it immersive, but there's something very video gamey about it. It's satisfying in the same way an old twin stick shooter like Smash TV was satisfying; there's a plot of some sort, but you're just too engrossed in the game to care that deeply about it. Nonetheless, its great that its there. Smash TV in another setting just wouldn't be the same; the frantic action just makes so much sense as an insane game show, that if you just changed the skin of the game to something else, it would still be the same game but not nearly as memorable or fitting.
Embryo Machine just doesn't have that. The designs on the EM's are well done, but the game pieces are so tiny you can't even appreciate it while you're playing. Its just, idk, there are all these parts that are there that just don't ever come together into a cohesive whole.
The EM's have TONS of armaments. The ones I was using were bristling with lasers and Gatling guns and sabers and rockets and grenade launchers...just a ridiculous amount of weaponry. This is why I felt more of a connection with it and Battle Tech rather than Gundam...although it seemed like some Gundams in the anime would have random weapons pop out from time to time, but usually they had their one or two main armaments and they duked it out with that. So I found myself wanting something lighter than Battle Tech, but not quite as light as Embryo Machine. But then I find myself thinking, no, I'm ok with it being light, I just want to be more engrossed. I want the art on the Gatling to match my mood as I unexpectedly lay it down and use the Motion Sensor to get into the right range...even saying that sounded boring, because "Motion Sensor" just isn't that fun a card to use. Its clinical, and perfect for a game like BTech with its hyper-active tech spec finickiness. I guess, and I feel like people won't get this, but they really should, because for crying out loud, look at games like magic...it feels good to slap a card down if it has powerful art on it that mirrors the action. If its just filler art...ok, so what, I did you 3 damage...yay. That was a lot of work for a measly 3 damage.
Anyway, I have more games to play before I really get a good sense of it, but like my first impressions, I just want this game to be more than it is.
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