We continue to study board games in popular universes. This time we have in our hands a cooperative friv board game "Gravity Falls" from an online game developer Friv2Online, based on the animated series of the same name. We share our impressions in the review.
While the board game Rick and Morty: Close Rick-Degree Ricks discussed in the previous review was based on one of the show's episodes, Gravity Falls does not focus on any particular event of the series, but borrows locations and monsters from different episodes.
And it’s even more interesting this way: you immediately notice familiar places, remember the series associated with them, and even decide to reconsider some of them. For example, the boss Rumble Maxkermish recalled the tenth episode of the first season, which in itself is a big reference to fighting games, primarily the Street Fighter series.
The plot of the board friv game tells about the holidays of Dipper and Mabel in the city of Gravity Falls. The heroes must enlist the support of the inhabitants of the town and defeat three monsters that roam the area. If they fail to reach the goal, they will have to get on the bus and go home to their parents, putting an end to an exciting summer adventure. And, despite the frivolity and cartoonishness of the game, you should not expect it to be a cakewalk.
Difficulties begin already at the stage of learning the rules. Gravity Falls is quite difficult to master, and children will most likely need adult help - at least during the first two or three matches. Moreover, after playing several games, you understand that the rules here are not very complicated, but it takes time to remember the sequence of all the actions that players and monsters perform. Fortunately, in addition to a detailed book of rules, there are small memo cards that players can keep with them, referring to them as needed.
So, the main playing field consists of many locations connected by roads. Next to it is an alarm scale - it grows as the monsters mischief, gradually bringing players closer to the terrifying bus icon, which symbolizes a shameful defeat and departure from Gravity Falls.
Participants choose characters, each of which has some kind of unique ability, and three monsters, which also have special abilities. Next, the characters and monsters are randomly placed on the field. There, for each of the locations, double-sided support / distrust tokens (green / red) are added, indicating the support of the townspeople.
Heroes by their actions (which are expressed by dice rolls) receive the approval of the inhabitants of Gravity Falls; monsters, on the other hand, wreak havoc, turning support into distrust. Above all this, Bill Cipher hovers invisibly, distributing curses to the characters. The friv game ends when all three monsters have been slain, or if the protagonists fail to reach the target and allow the alarm gauge to fill up.
Players and monsters take turns. First, the participant plays one of the action cards that are in his hand. The map is divided into two sections: the number of roads the character must move on and the number of dice he can roll.
Having reached the location, the hero draws chips from neighboring locations to himself, and then rolls the dice, the number of which is summed up from the number indicated on the card and the likes located nearby (but not more than seven).
There are three symbols on the sides of the dice: success, movement and curse. The first symbol allows you to flip all distrust tokens in the location, turning them into support tokens, and if the player is fighting a monster, this symbol determines the probability of defeating him. An unsuccessful attack on the enemy, fortunately, does not carry any consequences, so you can attack the monsters as much as you like.
The second symbol obliges to move tokens from the player's location to neighboring locations. Finally, the third symbol is the most unpleasant: the player must take a curse card and play it, which brings certain penalties - for example, the player can roll no more than five dice, and for dice beyond this limit he receives new curses.
At the end of the turn, the participant draws cards into his hand, and if there are no monsters and distrust tokens in the location, he can place a die of courage (which blocks the movement of monsters to this location and prohibits them from drawing tokens from it), and also try to discard the existing curses by rolling so many cubes, how many tokens with likes are in his location.
Next, the monster walks - the closest to the character that just descended. The monsters' movements are determined by the cards that the players draw from the appropriate deck. After teleporting to a location, the villain draws tokens from neighboring locations to him, increases the level of anxiety by the number of distrust tokens, and also flips all support tokens.
At the end of the monster's turn, there is a chance to draw an event card: these are actions that are played immediately and can clutter up the heroes' plans - for example, make them move one location away from the nearest enemy.
So, alternating the moves of players and monsters, the friv game in Gravity Falls is moving towards its denouement. The gameplay is cooperative, so there is no PvP confrontation. On the contrary, participants must work together to defeat opponents - otherwise everyone will lose.
Meanwhile, the anxiety scale is growing rapidly, and therefore there is no time to walk around the locations - you need to act aggressively and attack the monsters, otherwise you can pick up curses and significantly complicate your gameplay. The title is revealed in a large company: if you play together, you will spend a lot of time chasing monsters, and the game will stretch for a good two hours. The more participants, the easier it will be to drive the enemy into a corner and finish it off there.
The friv game also allows you to change the difficulty by using special "childish" rules: with them, monsters lose their abilities, event cards are removed from the deck, and the alarm bar does not have effects. It becomes easier to play, so this mode can be used to get acquainted with the project or adventure with young participants.
Gravity Falls is a universal game. It takes time to master it, but after that it will provide good replay value. You can advise the project primarily to fans of the universe, but non-fans of the animated series will also be interested. However, it is worth remembering that it is better for children to start getting acquainted with the game together with adult participants.
