Can’t find your first Nemesis and still want to venture into a complex full of threats? So, today we have a worthy replacement board for you. In fact, this is the heir to the famous work called Nemesis: Lockdown. Where it will take you and what it will offer in terms of gameplay, the following paragraphs of our text will tell you.
- Number of players: 15
- Game time: 120 – 180 minutes
- Price: CZK 3599 (Tlama Games)
- Age: 12+
Nemesis: Lockdown will take you to the classic settings
Mars is the setting for a number of horror films and games. One of its bases even played an important role in the first part of the Doom series, so it is not surprising that creators of different genres so often send their heroes here. The story of the semi-cooperative Nemesis: Lockdown also takes place on a red giant, where humanity managed to build a more or less well-functioning complex. That was until something went wrong. Now you have an infected area in front of you, from which you must get out at any cost.
The space base in Nemesis: Lockdown consists of a series of rooms that you will discover as you progress through the story. There are about thirty core room tokens that can be turned over, which are often unique in nature, some have a clearly defined position, while others are discovered as you travel through the hallways. Thus, you may encounter a generator that can serve as a source of energy, or a threat whose goal is to blow up the entire base, which you can of course prevent when you find it.
The menu of rooms you can enter also includes a nest of enemy entities or an isolation chamber, which from a certain point represents one of the potential options to escape death from the claws of alien monsters. Unless, of course, the base explodes. The explosion does not choose. However, before you get to this place, you have a long journey ahead of you, associated with an unprecedented amount of fear and hardship. In addition, you can always count on critical moments that can affect the course of the entire adventure.
For each of the characters, your priority is to survive. Individual heroes will be able to select their secret mission from a card menu. Some missions pit you against invaders or force you to focus on rescuing other players. Still others work with the fact that no one is allowed to know about the incident, which in practice means that you have to kill the remaining survivors. Quests are often related to the number of players. Not all of them can be applied when playing in a certain set.
You choose what you focus on at the beginning of the game, as well as during the selection phase of your hero. There are six characters to choose from in the menu, and it’s not a bad idea to choose them depending on what task you’re facing, which is probably the main reason why character selection only happens after the task has been selected. At your disposal are the base personnel and survivors of the first Nemesis. Each has its own starting room, monster knowledge, starting item, and special equipment.
For example, a couple of survivors from the first Nemesis begin their journey in an isolation chamber. Neither of them have a starting item, but they do have their own special item (card). For example, Subject X is equipped with a Howl, which can place a noise token in each corridor in the area where he stands, or, conversely, remove noise from the environment. The noise itself in Nemesis: Lockdown is created through a basic movement where you roll a die. You can avoid the throw if you make a careful move.
Noisy individuals do not survive here for long.
You do not create noise, so it is good to place a bet at the moment when one chip is already lying in the corridor, because the world around is already reacting to the second. First, you tune out all the noise from your surroundings, after which you rummage through your bag, where various intruders may be waiting for you. But if you’re lucky, it may well happen that you draw an empty token, which means that no monster will appear, but the space around you will be “filled” with noise tokens.
If an extraterrestrial life form does arrive on the scene, a fight will break out. If a character is tied to a monster, only three basic actions are available to him. He can attack with a melee weapon, shoot, or try to retreat. If you have ammo dice in Nemesis: Lockdown, you can shoot, which in practice looks like rolling a red die. You can hurt your opponent or miss them completely. Interestingly, certain symbols may not harm certain types of attackers.
Assuming you decide to leave the premises without a fight, you need to first evaluate the actions of the intruder(s). They do not roll dice, but directly evaluate the event cards of their species. Sometimes it’s a violent impulse, sometimes it’s just a “little” scratch associated with a nasty infection. The effects are usually worse in the absence of light. Yes, you read that right. Since Nemesis: Lockdown takes place in a giant complex, you’ll have to keep it running.
If you ignore this factor, it’s possible that you’ll end up with the lights going out while your characters are having fun. Personally, I really like this element because it puts much more pressure on the player than without it. However, some fans of the original Nemesis concept may not like this. However, the game gives you the option to reduce its influence with items. For example, chemical light can sting you quite badly, and if you also discover the aliens’ Light Shyness weakness while using the laboratory, its effect on enemies will increase even more.
However, this does not mean that you will reach the end of the Nemesis: Lockdown campaign. During each story, you may become infected with an alien infection, be exposed to slime, get set on fire, or be otherwise injured. Injuries can increase the cost of certain actions or reduce the maximum number of cards you can have in your hand. Therefore, you will only achieve victory if you cooperate for at least most of the game. Even traitors want to survive, and you definitely can’t do it alone.
The impressive Nemesis: Lockdown brings you an adventure full of tension and unexpected twists.
It took me many hours to complete the scenario in Nemesis: Lockdown and I must admit that it was full of fear and pressure. There were many monsters everywhere, besides, I did not know which of my companions I could really trust, and which, on the other hand, were the “servants” of those who were pursuing me. The base design was decent, so no playthrough was the same thanks to it and a number of other elements.
In many ways, Nemesis: Lockdown reminded me of the board game Unfathomable. However, the overall experience was a little more brutal than sailing on the ocean. So, if you’re looking for a board game that will always leave you feeling scared and uncertain and, above all, experiencing powerful stories, this is almost a safe bet.
We would like to thank Czech distributor Mindok for providing us with a copy of Nemesis: Lockdown.
Source :Indian TV
