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Reviews backlog!
Apr. 29th, 2022 07:30 pmMysterium Park:
This game is kind of a cross between Dixit and Codenames. One player takes the role of a ghost, trying to convey to the rest of the players who killed them and where. The setting is a creepy circus, so the available culprits and locations are suitably themed. Each round, the ghost draws a hand of weird, Dixit-style cards and presents them to each other player, to try to identify a particular character or location. Eventually, once things have been narrowed down, the team have to declare their choice of murderer and crime scene, based on the information provided by the ghost.
When we played it in Cheltenham at the weekend, I was the ghost, and had tremendous fun, trying to give the team the right information, and getting frustrated when they interpreted my visions incorrectly. We actually did really well, overall, and I loved it. Though I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much, if I wasn't playing the ghost... The number of characters and locations is quite limited, as well, so I think it would get a bit repetitive after a while, especially if you play it a lot with the same people.
But lots of fun, overall, especially for a first-time play.
Trapwords:
This was a gift for Dave's 50th birthday, but we didn't have enough people to give it a try, until our Cheltenham trip. Another sort of Codenames variant, each cluegiver has to convey a particular word to their team, without using any of the 'trapwords' identified by the other team. There's a dungeon-crawling element, whereby the teams have to progress through rooms to defeat a monster at the end. There are also curses along the way, that place more restrictions on what the cluegiver can and can't say.
Some aspects of the game were great fun - but I did feel there were too many restrictions - the cluegiver doesn't know what the trapwords are, there's a time limit, and the team only has five guesses. If you then add the curse restrictions, it gets very, very tricky.
The appeal for me was in trying to think of obscure, roundabout ways to describe the word - but several times, the first word out of a cluegiver's mouth was a trapword (the best example being "sheep" as a trapword for "cyclops"!), which was a bit deflating.
I think, if we play again, I might propose a Taboo-type approach, whereby the cluegiver is allowed to see the trapwords - which then makes the time limit and the restriction on the number of guesses much more reasonable, and always allows the cluegiver the opportunity to try and come up with something clever.
Turning Red:
After watching the trailer for this film, I had no interest in seeing it, because I found the animation style and the presentation of the main characters really off-putting. But one of our Cheltenham friends highly recommended it, so we decided to give it a try - and it was awesome!
The first few minutes were a bit much, but it settled down quite quickly and, overall, I loved it. It made me laugh quite a bit, the red panda was adorable, the friendship group was wonderful, and the mother-daughter storyline was very emotional. So, it hit all the right beats - thoroughly enjoyable.
Broken Homes:
This is the fourth in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. For some reason, I thought I had decided, after the last one, that I didn't want to carry on listening to these, even despite the wonderful dulcet tones of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
Then, I got into a conversation with a friend about the series and she persuaded me to go back to them. I the looked up my review of the third one, and it was almost entirely positive, so I'm really not sure why I didn't go on to number four much earlier...
Anyway, it was lovely to have Kobna back in my ears, and I do love Peter Grant, as a character.
I found the main thread of the plot in this one a bit difficult to follow in places (and I apparently had the same problem with the previous book), as it seemed very fragmented, with lots of different cases that weren't clearly connected, at least at first. But I loved all the character interactions, and the world is still very engaging.
The shock ending wasn't really one, because I'd already spoilered myself for what happened somehow - which I think was a good thing, as otherwise I might have been rather upset...
But, all things considered, I will be continuing on with the series - as long as I can remember that I want to!
Whit:
I definitely read Whit, by Iain Banks, in the late 90s, but a copy recently came into my possession, so I thought I'd read it again.
It felt familiar as I was reading it, but I only remembered certain plot points as they came along, so it was almost like reading it for the first time.
Banks' writing is very engaging and Isis makes for an excellent viewpoint character. She's been brought up in a small religious sect, in an out-of-the-way commune in the Scottish highlands, and is destined to take over, once her grandfather, the founder and current leader, can no longer be in charge.
I love the way Banks presents Isis' beliefs and convictions - particularly her rationalisations for some of the stranger rules of the order. And Isis' genuine desire to be a good person, and her utter certainty that everything to do with the order is beneficial, make her a very sympathetic character.
When the incident that makes her start questioning things occurs, it hits hard, and is perhaps a bit much. But the quest it leads her on, to find the truth and resurrect her faith, is powerful and satisfying.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with where things end up, in terms of the presentation of such isolationist and restrictive societies, but I'm prepared to back Isis all the way.
A very good read.
This game is kind of a cross between Dixit and Codenames. One player takes the role of a ghost, trying to convey to the rest of the players who killed them and where. The setting is a creepy circus, so the available culprits and locations are suitably themed. Each round, the ghost draws a hand of weird, Dixit-style cards and presents them to each other player, to try to identify a particular character or location. Eventually, once things have been narrowed down, the team have to declare their choice of murderer and crime scene, based on the information provided by the ghost.
When we played it in Cheltenham at the weekend, I was the ghost, and had tremendous fun, trying to give the team the right information, and getting frustrated when they interpreted my visions incorrectly. We actually did really well, overall, and I loved it. Though I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much, if I wasn't playing the ghost... The number of characters and locations is quite limited, as well, so I think it would get a bit repetitive after a while, especially if you play it a lot with the same people.
But lots of fun, overall, especially for a first-time play.
Trapwords:
This was a gift for Dave's 50th birthday, but we didn't have enough people to give it a try, until our Cheltenham trip. Another sort of Codenames variant, each cluegiver has to convey a particular word to their team, without using any of the 'trapwords' identified by the other team. There's a dungeon-crawling element, whereby the teams have to progress through rooms to defeat a monster at the end. There are also curses along the way, that place more restrictions on what the cluegiver can and can't say.
Some aspects of the game were great fun - but I did feel there were too many restrictions - the cluegiver doesn't know what the trapwords are, there's a time limit, and the team only has five guesses. If you then add the curse restrictions, it gets very, very tricky.
The appeal for me was in trying to think of obscure, roundabout ways to describe the word - but several times, the first word out of a cluegiver's mouth was a trapword (the best example being "sheep" as a trapword for "cyclops"!), which was a bit deflating.
I think, if we play again, I might propose a Taboo-type approach, whereby the cluegiver is allowed to see the trapwords - which then makes the time limit and the restriction on the number of guesses much more reasonable, and always allows the cluegiver the opportunity to try and come up with something clever.
Turning Red:
After watching the trailer for this film, I had no interest in seeing it, because I found the animation style and the presentation of the main characters really off-putting. But one of our Cheltenham friends highly recommended it, so we decided to give it a try - and it was awesome!
The first few minutes were a bit much, but it settled down quite quickly and, overall, I loved it. It made me laugh quite a bit, the red panda was adorable, the friendship group was wonderful, and the mother-daughter storyline was very emotional. So, it hit all the right beats - thoroughly enjoyable.
Broken Homes:
This is the fourth in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. For some reason, I thought I had decided, after the last one, that I didn't want to carry on listening to these, even despite the wonderful dulcet tones of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
Then, I got into a conversation with a friend about the series and she persuaded me to go back to them. I the looked up my review of the third one, and it was almost entirely positive, so I'm really not sure why I didn't go on to number four much earlier...
Anyway, it was lovely to have Kobna back in my ears, and I do love Peter Grant, as a character.
I found the main thread of the plot in this one a bit difficult to follow in places (and I apparently had the same problem with the previous book), as it seemed very fragmented, with lots of different cases that weren't clearly connected, at least at first. But I loved all the character interactions, and the world is still very engaging.
The shock ending wasn't really one, because I'd already spoilered myself for what happened somehow - which I think was a good thing, as otherwise I might have been rather upset...
But, all things considered, I will be continuing on with the series - as long as I can remember that I want to!
Whit:
I definitely read Whit, by Iain Banks, in the late 90s, but a copy recently came into my possession, so I thought I'd read it again.
It felt familiar as I was reading it, but I only remembered certain plot points as they came along, so it was almost like reading it for the first time.
Banks' writing is very engaging and Isis makes for an excellent viewpoint character. She's been brought up in a small religious sect, in an out-of-the-way commune in the Scottish highlands, and is destined to take over, once her grandfather, the founder and current leader, can no longer be in charge.
I love the way Banks presents Isis' beliefs and convictions - particularly her rationalisations for some of the stranger rules of the order. And Isis' genuine desire to be a good person, and her utter certainty that everything to do with the order is beneficial, make her a very sympathetic character.
When the incident that makes her start questioning things occurs, it hits hard, and is perhaps a bit much. But the quest it leads her on, to find the truth and resurrect her faith, is powerful and satisfying.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with where things end up, in terms of the presentation of such isolationist and restrictive societies, but I'm prepared to back Isis all the way.
A very good read.
