Embryo Machine 2nd Impressions

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.

Embryo Machine First Impressions (not yet a full review)

I thought I'd take a break from the usual and write up some impressions of a new table top game I got. This was one of those games from Kickstarter I got near the beginning of the pandemic. At a base level it resembled an idea for a mecha combat game I have in my own mind, so I kinda had to go for it. It just arrived yesterday at last, and I feel compelled to give some first impressions. 

They aren't good.

Embryo Machine is a light, map based tactical and deck building game of mecha vs. mecha combat, published stateside by LionWing Studios (LWS). LWS is in the business of translating and distributing games they like from Japan. The player/s take control of 1-3 Embryo Machines (the eponymous mecha; EM hereafter) in combat against an equal number of EMs.

Fair warning, these are first impressions and subject to change. These impressions are mostly about the physical components of the game, not the gameplay, since I haven't played it yet myself.

So let's just jump straight in with my primary criticism:

It's ugly. 

Now I knew when I backed it on Kickstarter that it wasn't the prettiest looking game, but I'm okay with a lean and even simplistic art design if the gameplay makes up for it (or if the simplistic nature makes for speedier, more intuitive gameplay, that's even better). As I said, I haven't played it yet myself, but from what I've watched online, I'm inclined to say the design does not help the play. The design isn't just bad because it ranges from lackluster to ugly, its bad because it actively hampers easy use.

Why make things easy when we can make them hard?

Here's a prime example, and so far my biggest design based gripe:

Each EM has an associated deck of cards. These cards represent both the different actions that can be performed and the different equipment that can be kitted out to a particular EM. The different actions and equipment are generic (all the Laser Rifles, Movement Actions, etc. use the same picture), but still are meant for specific EMs. To delineate which cards go with each EM, the cards have a little ID code at the bottom: the initials of the EM, along with a black circle if the card is for the basic game, a black diamond if for the advanced game, and both if its for use with both. 

So here's the most glaringly obvious design issue: Why are the cards only IDed with a tiny code at the bottom rather than a picture of the EM they're meant for on the back? The art for each EM already exists and could easily have been printed on the back of the cards meant for that EM. That would have made them ten times easier to keep organized in their decks and made the initial process of sorting much easier. So its a one time issue--the cards as initially packaged come with like cards, ie. all the Laser Rifles are together, rather than all the cards meant for Arachne, etc--but also a continuous issue--any time I have to separate decks, I have to do it with the tiny codes at the bottom of the cards rather than easily identifiable pictures.

The circle and diamond that let me know if I should play the card based on using the base or advanced EM? I can tell the difference between them, but they're small enough, and similar enough at that size that I do have to actively look at them. I can't just rifle through the cards and tell at an immediate glance. Its a small thing, but it makes a difference. Likewise, the EM initials: There are EMs with similar names, so, again, its not hard to tell the difference from AG (for Argyros) and AR (for Arachne), but its one more thing I have to pay attention to rather than just seeing the difference at a glance. I realize these are small details that might seem like nitpicking, but these are the little difference that make organizing either a pleasure or a chore.

There may be reasons they chose initials instead of pictures on the back of cards; for instance if you lose or bend a card for one EM, you could swap out an identical card from a different EM's deck, but that's the only case, and if that's the case, they shouldn't have made everything EM specific; they should have had some EM specific cards, and let the others (like movement) just be generic, so you didn't have so many copies of them. Maybe there's a valid game play reason for this that I'll discover when I have some games under my belt, but so far, I'm not seeing it.

They never replaced the place-holder art...

What else is ugly? Everything except the EMs themselves. Like the maps. I get that you want features to be readily identifiable for what they are and what square on the map is what, but honestly, the art just looks cheap. It looks like a budget competitor to BattleTech from the 90s. 

Likewise, the action and gear cards: If they're for specific EMs, why can't we have non-generic gear? Why can't the action cards have pictures of the EM running or walking rather than just green arrows? Frankly, even the arrows look thrown together and shortchanged, like they were made by a 1st year art student. 

With the exception of the EMs themselves, which are well drawn, all the art assets look like place-holders. They're just generic and blah. Again, when I first saw them online, I was okay with it because for a fast game, its nice to have very clear, simple art to tell you what to do. But in hand, its frankly underwhelming.

The rules, too...

The rules are blessedly brief, but the language is clunky and harder to follow than it should be. I'm super forgiving of passive voice in writing, and I think some folks make too big a deal of it, so if I'm reformulating your passive voice automatically, you got problems.

There are very few gameplay examples to clarify how things work, so after reading the rules, I still didn't get how it operated. Luckily there's a how-to-play video on youtube that describes it pretty well (though I'm uncertain they're placing mines correctly, at least from my interpretation of the rules, which maybe tells you something).

There's also a sheet that lays out what all the different action and gear cards do. I don't really know why this is necessary, given how generic most of the cards are, but if they were going to do this, they might as well have made the text bigger and easier to read. I feel like a grandpa trying to read this text.

The unit information cards make me feel like a kid at Denny's, in a bad way...

What about the unit info cards, the things that allow you to keep track of the different facets of your EM while playing? They do seem functional, with spots to separate your deck: a discard slot, a destroyed slot, two "Plot" slots (which are your actions for the round), a slot for equipment, probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. All that seems like it works. 

The info cards themselves are large (probably the right size for what they do) and made of thin card stock, maybe the thickness of a business card, so they do wobble some when lifted. I think if they had made them thicker, they would have had to have been much thicker. These are thin enough that they don't crease when they bend under their own weight. I won't say this flimsiness is bad; I think they'll last okay, but it definitely broadcasts that this is a budget product, a preoccupation for a few game sessions, not a long term game to keep coming back to. 

 They do feel a bit like children's place-mats at a chain diner or fast food joint...something to occupy the kiddos with from the latest licensed action cartoon.

This isn't flavor country...

There's almost no flavor text anywhere. You get a brief blurb on the back of the box and basically the same thing on the front of the rule-book, which doesn't even have art on it. We're given the briefest of descriptions for the background, which amounts to "On some planet, 40 years ago, some giant mecha were discovered, and now they fight." I shit you not, that's all you're given for background, but they manage to even wring that simple description into like four more unnecessary sentences.

There is very little art in the rule-book. There are exactly 1 2/3 Embryo Machine artistic pictures to look at, and then a handful of explanatory diagrams.

 I have no idea what kind of world I'm playing in. I don't even know what the level of civilization on this planet is. This could be a medieval planet where peasants discover giant mecha to fight each other with; I have no clue. If its not going to be at least a little immersive, why not make it more abstract, or just go all Steve Jackson Games generic on it?

The design on the EMs themselves--the mecha--is gorgeous, and nothing is lacking there. They just don't have a larger world to be part of. Everything is generic...

except for the turn counter. Some thought went into the turn counter--and the Ace level Kickstarter even has a metal one, which makes it seem like it should have some important global design element to it. It looks like a cross-section of a revolver's (six-shooter) cylinder (except it only has 5 cartridge slots--I feel like there's a correct term for this).

 But...Why? Where else in this game is there a motif of a revolver's cylinder? Is there a "main" EM that has a giant six-gun...er, five-gun? Not that I can tell. It's like it came from nowhere, or from some other game entirely. It's not bad, its just bewildering and increases the disjointed feel of the design in this game. It doesn't match anything else, and it frankly isn't easier to keep track of than if you just had a slider or a pile of chits that you subtracted one from each round. It just makes me think that they had some idea they didn't have the time or inclination to flesh out.

I will say though, that metal turn counter from the Kickstarter is pretty great. The indentations hold the turn token perfectly; I think they could have maybe put a depression on either side so its easier to grab, but its not that bad. What makes it great is the sound. When you put the token in the slot it makes a satisfying metallic ping. I'm not sure how much they thought that out; it could be just an unintentional biproduct, but it is the most satisfying element of the design so far.

You don't need a work-around for good design...

I want to focus on the main game package rather than Kickstarter specifics, but I do feel the need to hash a little bit on the plastic standees that were included for Ace Level backers. 

They're hard to look at.

They are small, the colors muted, and they are one sided so if you're looking from behind, you don't see the backside of the EM, just the reverse of the art printed on the front. So you're looking at essentially a blurry gray silhouette of the EM under your control. You're not going to convince me this is a perk rather than a bug; its more than a little half-assed, especially when you consider that some of the EMs' silhouettes are fairly similar. 

The front art itself also uses muted colors, and again is just another way in which I have to pay more attention to what is what rather than being able to immediately tell at a glance.

The plastic standees also don't work with the colored tokens for team identification. These team markers are supposed to fit around the plastic stands that act as bases for the cardboard standees from the base game. The collars fit very loosely around the bottoms of the plastic standees, so if you're moving the piece, the collar just sags and jiggles and just in general is not pleasing, even if it technically functions. Because slots of the bases are a tight fit for the plastic standees, I had intended to cement the standees to the bases; I also suspect that the plastic will wear out if I take the standees in and out too many times, and then won't hold the standee at all, so I'm inclined to cement them together for this reason as well. However, if I cement them together, I won't be able to slide the team colors on at all. 

Can I work around this? Of course. Should I have to? No.

Storage, old school...

What about game component storage in the box?

There isn't any. 

Its just a box. 

(Also the box arrived with some of the paper peeling from the inside.)

There's not even anything to hold the cards in place. I suppose I'll just have to rubber band the decks so they don't slide around. Is it the end of the world? No. But its just one more way that the game feels  incomplete or like a much older product.

Final Thoughts...

So yeah, those are my impressions of this game so far. Its unpolished, incomplete, and amateurish. The most consistent design element is that things are harder to look at than they should be.

It's style doesn't fit itself and it doesn't look like it fits in LWS's other offerings either, quality-wise. The only other LWS product I have is Gun and Gun, a competitive deck building game where two cyber-lolis fight with giant guns, but the design in that game is both gorgeous--with excellent production values--and it actively helps the game play. 

LWS doesn't design these games, they just translate and import them, but I'm frankly bewildered as to why they went with Embryo Machine. I'm sure its actually fun to play--I'll have to let you know about that later--but design-wise, it strikes out.

I'll update this with pictures and maybe even a video later.

Normalize Democracy

 

Happiness is allowed

 And anybody who says otherwise is a fascist

Centrally enforced democratized tyranny

But I don’t want to be a pirate

 I look particularly weird in this video….i wasn’t wearing makeup that day…

Meeeeeemoriiiiereesss…

 Actually it’s seriously depressing me and I don’t know what to do. 

The Brandy of Christ complesss juuuu