Crysis: Analogue Edition Brings The FPS To Board Games

[Fanghawk]

Crysis: Analogue Edition Brings The FPS To Board Games

Frame6 is bringing the Crysis multiplayer experience to tabletops - complete with Nanosuit abilities and that fancy bow.

Above all else, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/crysis>the Crysis franchise is known for gorgeous graphics and visual effects that usually prompt some kind of hardware upgrade. That's why it's a little odd to imagine a version that only requires a tabletop - but it's exactly what Crysis: Analogue Edition intends to provide. This Kickstarter project from Frame6 will convert Crysis' advanced Nanosuit abilities and FPS gameplay into an eight-player strategy board game, right down to the futuristic weapons and chest-high walls.

Frame6's goal is to adapt <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/reviews/8740-Crysis-2-Review.2>Crysis 2 and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/reviews/10210-Crysis-3-Review-Nothing-Underneath-the-Suit>3's multiplayer into a competitive board game experience. Players begin by laying out protective walls and covers across a 700 x 500 mm board, then pite CELL and USF teams against each other in Team Instant Action or Capture the Relay modes. Each player has a soldier board - effectively a character sheet - that manages health, suit energy, and abilities. Cards are used to highlight weapons, consumables, and in-game tactics as each side battles for supremacy.

So far so good, but the Nanosuit mechanic is where the Analogue Edition really stands out. On each turn, players can switch to one of three Nanosuit modes representing attack, defense, and stealth. Combined with maneuver and tactics cards, this opens up multiple combat approaches - you could sneak behind enemies, form strong defenses behind walls, make sniper attacks from long range, and more.

[kickstarter=frame6/crysis-analogue-edition-the-board-game/]

Of course, it wouldn't be a Kickstarter project without backer rewards. Outside of tiers offering the game itself, backers can directly sponsor individual weapon cards, or pick up a Collector's Edition with four alien CEPH combatants. In the stretch goals, Frame6 is also offering individual miniatures complete with two Nanosuit types, and an alternate scenario board for Ling-Shan island.

Crysis wouldn't be the first title <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136667-XCom-The-Board-Game-Needs-You-Commander>to jump from video to board game formats, but if it can bring the futuristic gunplay to tabletop - along with that bow and arrow - it could prove a very interesting one. The campaign is running until June 13, 2015.

Source: Kickstarter

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[Dalek Caan]

I've always wanted to try out tabletop games and a Crysis one sounds pretty cool.

Too bad I live in the middle of nowhere in Ireland, where most people would think I've been possessed if I suggested playing a game like this.

 

[F-I-D-O]

It seems cool, but Crysis never seemed like a game that would be suited to turn based combat, given the reactionary nature of the suit powers.

That said, I hope they post a full gameplay video. The card based movement seems anti-thematic for me - why would anyone in a Nanosuit be unable to move at a given time? "I'm sorry, I'll just stand here while I get shot. Guess I'm powering up armor." I want to see that system in play over the course of an entire game, not just in an overview or in the rules, and I won't be giving any money until I see that.
I need to see stealth in a game as well - the overview made it seem incredibly OP (just lay down cards until you run out of energy, and then do ALL of them at once), with no downside.
Also, unless teams go all at once, there's going to be a lot of downtime in this game. If you do a full game, player 1 has to wait for 7 people to execute a turn.

 

[Fanghawk]

It seems cool, but Crysis never seemed like a game that would be suited to turn based combat, given the reactionary nature of the suit powers.

That said, I hope they post a full gameplay video. The card based movement seems anti-thematic for me - why would anyone in a Nanosuit be unable to move at a given time? "I'm sorry, I'll just stand here while I get shot. Guess I'm powering up armor." I want to see that system in play over the course of an entire game, not just in an overview or in the rules, and I won't be giving any money until I see that.
I need to see stealth in a game as well - the overview made it seem incredibly OP (just lay down cards until you run out of energy, and then do ALL of them at once), with no downside.
Also, unless teams go all at once, there's going to be a lot of downtime in this game. If you do a full game, player 1 has to wait for 7 people to execute a turn.

Ask and you shall receive!


I didn't include it in the news post just so I wasn't overwhelming it with videos.

 

[Kahani]

The obvious question is - will we have to upgrade our tables to be able to play it?

 

[F-I-D-O]

--sniping all but the video---

I saw that, but it didn't do much to get rid of my concerns. A tactical mini game has a lot of moving parts, that even if there is a 10 minute gameplay overview, it won't show how those systems work when the game is in action. I'm mostly curious about how the game behaves over the course of a game, not in a straight rules overview. Something along the lines of a tabletop episode length would be really helpful here, or at least the game going through a couple rounds like in a dice tower review. How does movement work when you can't? How are the movement and tactics cards when you can't show off a pre-planned hand? Most importantly, how do the tactics develop? is there an evident snowball problem, or an inherent imbalance with cards and implementations?
These questions can't really be shown with a standard reading of the rules, and do need some form of gameplay preview to be shown, especially in a card reliant system. Essentially, the rules overview was an interesting cinematic trailer, but I need to see it in action before I throw down $78 + shipping on a game from untested developers.