The Isle of Doctor Necreaux Review

I’ve come to realise that I really, really like card games. Packed in slim, small boxes, with lovely cards and able to offer a beautiful game with minimum fuss. I really, really like card games. I place them inside my sideboard, where they take up little room, and I smile at them and stroke them lovingly.

One of the newest card games to hit the shelves is The Isle of Doctor Necreaux, a co-operative adventure game designed by Jonathan Leistiko and published by AEG. It’s a game about going to a nutter’s island to rescue some scientists.

Inside the box you’ll find two decks of cards. One is a Character Deck, and the other is the Adventure Deck. Three dice come with the game, and a handful of counters to mark “charges”. That’s it. That’s all you need.

At the start of the game, each player is dealt three Character Cards. These character cards represent traits that will make up the player’s character.

You might have the card above, and a Ninja card, and a Stone Cold Killer card. That would make you a Stone Cold Killer Echo Medium Ninja. Which is, you know, a decent calling in life. Each card gives a special ability that will assist your team in the dash through Necreaux’s lair.

Many Character Cards start with “charges”, tokens placed on the card, which are spent to activate abilities. Got all that? Good.

The game itself is very straightforward. The aim is to run through the Adventure Deck until you find the group of scientists and the escape shuttle. Once you’ve found both, you can cheese it and pat each other on the back. Unfortunately, there’s a time limit in play. Each turn, the clock ticks down by one minute, bringing you ever closer to the island exploding and killing every man, woman and Stone Cold Killer Echo Medium Ninja unfortunate enough to still be sunning it on the beach.

In the players’ turn, you can do one of two things as a group. You can Rest, or you can Move. Resting lets you heal up a little, and place a charge on one of your chargeable cards. A Rest action is often necessary, but never chosen lightly, as it advances the clock one stop without moving you any closer to finding the objectives. The Move action is where the meat of the game is, so lets get comfy and go into a bit of detail.

The first major decision players have to make in their Move action is HOW FAST TO MOVE. This is vital, vital shit. Your chosen speed tells you how many cards you will be peeling off the Adventure Deck in that turn. So, for example, if you choose a speed of 5 you will resolve 5 Adventure Cards in that turn. You will be moving 5 cards through the deck, searching for that Escape Shuttle card and these lovely bastards:

I'll look after the one on the right, guys, okay? Sweet.

Inside that Adventure Deck you can expect to find MONSTERS, ITEMS, TRAPS and EVENTS. Your speed often plays into the effects of things such as Trap cards. Many traps ask you to roll over your chosen speed to safely duck the effects, so if you’re hammering through Necreaux’s base at a careless and crazy speed of 15, you’re not going to get much joy from that single dice roll. It’s a nice, logical way to deal with traps. The faster you move, the more your team is likely to blunder into tripwires and lasers. (Although, on occasion, moving swiftly can also help you outrun a trap). The faster you move, the more monsters you will have to battle before you get a chance to take a Rest turn and heal up. So logic would suggest you go slow, right? No, because that clock is ticking and you NEED TO FIND THOSE SCIENTIST SUMBITCHES.

Combat is simple, and rarely slows the pace of this exciting game. It’s simply every player attempting to roll over the Monster’s Combat Value to land a hit. If you roll under, your team takes a hit instead. The hit your team takes can be given to any player, so even in assigning damage there are decisions to be made. Taking a hit means you flip one of your Character Cards face down, losing that ability until you can Rest and flip it back up. Here’s a monster:

He’s a bastard. Just saying.

The most impressive thing about Necreaux is contained in this next block of text. Yes, it is such a good thing I am giving it its own block of text.

I’ve played a lot of co-op games by now. And here’s the dark, terrible secret. Most of them aren’t very co-operative. Often one player becomes the lead voice, pointing out the optimal decisions and steering the entire team. Players can often become passengers. NOT IN THIS GAME, BABY. The table is in constant debate, with everyone discussing their own character’s abilities, and how best to negotiate the obstacles.

“I’ll take the hit, my guy can get a free heal if I roll even.”

“No, just re-roll, I’ll discharge to re-roll.”

“But we’ve seen what’s coming. We might need that re-roll. Let me take the hit, this character’s only useful in-”

“Hang on, if you use that item to shift your charges from that card to my Psychic’s card, I can discharge them to eliminate that point of damage!”

“Yeah, but wait-”

With the flip of almost every card, it’s decision time again. It’s maybe the most co-operative co-op game I’ve played. And it’s just a card game!

In closing, here’s what happened at the end of last night’s game:

–ONE MINUTE ON THE CLOCK–

They could sense that the escape shuttle was up ahead. The team dashed towards it, giggling already at how sweet it would be to snatch this victory from the jaws of defeat. Then…

TRAP!

The ground opened up beneath them.

(The card told us that a pitfall trap had appeared and we had to make a choice – either we lose a minute off the clock to negotiate it safely, or one character has to fall in, taking 5 points of damage. 5 points of damage that would kill any of our characters outright.)

Robert fell in. They tried to save him.

“Give me your hand!”

“Leave me! I’ll only slow you down! GO! RUN!”

With that, Robert slid off into the blackness. The others screamed in horror at the loss of their most beautiful boy. Their perfect beautiful prince.

Later, in the Escape Shuttle, they spoke of how amazing he is and how he is brilliant at everything and is the best.

THE END.

Please buy this wonderful card game. You can even play it solo, so there’s no excuses.