YORKTON - There are games that when I sit down to write a review of on behalf of The Meeple Guild I shudder trying to determine what should be written.
This week’s review of A.I.Pokalypse is one such game.
A 2024 release designer and artist Marian Hilgers from publisher Owly Moly Games is a game that became a conundrum at our table.
To start with when you crack the smallish box and thumb through the cards – this is a card game – the science fiction/cyberpunk-themed art is very solid. Yes, art can be a very personal thing, but in this case you have to like science fiction to be drawn to A.I.Pokalypse so you are likely to like the art quite a lot – we generally did.
It plays solo to eight and that too should be considered a good thing just in terms of versatility out of a small box – although again this is one where players really need to be sci-fi fans going in.
The theme certainly reflects in the background story in the rule book
“The A.I.Pokalypse came swiftly. Within a matter of hours, civil war-like conditions prevailed throughout the solar system. Weapons of mass destruction were deployed, and all digital networks had to be destroyed or permanently shut down.
“The digital eruption in the year 2095 was so massive that the largest nations and corporations fragmented into countless splinter groups. They were left to fend for themselves, and with the collapse of the satellite network, there was no longer any overview of territorial gains or the number of individual factions. From that point on, the rule was: Trust no machine that you haven't built yourself.
Once the chaos subsided, it became evident that previously civilized areas, such as cities and factories, had turned into battlefields, referred to as "combat zones," where the factions fought for the last remaining artifacts of the collapsed high-tech society.
Now it's your turn: Hire your best mercenaries, survive in the combat zone, and be the sole faction to make it out alive!”
In A.I.Pokalypse, you take control of a faction, recruit units, enhance them, and engage them in automated battles in combat zones against your fellow competitors.
So in a broad sense this one feels quite a bit like a myriad of collectible card games released over the years – but with one box there’s no buying packs of cards in search of elusive rare cards – which admittedly holds a hobby interest all its own.
Up to this point A.I.Pokalypse had our positive attention.
Then came the rules – a few online videos to try to confirm just what you do and when – and then onto the table to play.
At this point – and it pains a reviewer to ever say this – but A.I.Pokalypse basically crashed and burned for us. It is simply overly complicated and too convoluted to be enjoyable. We did not find the game play enjoyable and that is ultimately a must for a game to be worthy of recommendation.
That said for those who want to dedicate time to grasping the game play, A.I.Pokalypse might be OK, but frankly in a game room stacked with game options there was not enough here that had our group wanting to put in the effort.
You can find Owly Moly Games via Facebook.
