20.1.2016

Note that this review now incorporates the original TIME Stories game along with the Marcy expansion pack, which seems fitting given that Amazon seem to combine reviews for the two products. The Marcy review is in an update at the end of the main review.This game follows a recent trade of innovation in board games, but at the time of writing there isn't really a detailed review that explains how the game works, so I thought it was worthwhile explaining the game mechanism.The game is co-operative, and all players operate as members of the T.I.M.E agency, an organisation that has to fix faults with the timeline. What that means in reality is that players must solve mysteries set in a different time period.They do this by being sent into bodies of different people in that time period (much like the tv series Quantum Leap) in order to piece together clues and complete their mission.In terms of game mechanics, there is only one mission in this box. Each time you play the game, you are undertaking a 'run'. During this 'run' you perform actions using your characters, and each action uses up 'temporal units'. You only have a finite number of temporal units, and when you run out of temporal units the 'run' (and game) ends and resets, and you must effectively start the mission from the beginning next time you play. The difference being that for the next 'run' you will already know how to solve the puzzles that you solved in previous 'runs', and don't therefore need to spend temporal units in solving those. You can also play as a different character in each run, and can therefore choose a character in a subsequent run that might be better suited to individual tasks. The idea is that each time you play you get further along and closer to completing the mission. Eventually you will either complete or lose the game entirely.It's worth pointing out from the start that the 'temporal unit' and 'run' mechanic, which resets your game several times but allows you to get further towards completion each time you play, really is excellent. As you would expect from a newly released board game, the production values are high and the artwork is excellent, but it is this mechanic that really immerses you into the game and brings everything together. I've never played anything quite like this, and I found that I was really getting involved in the overall story as I worked through each 'run'. The bottom line is that the gameplay here really does work, and if you are at all interested in the premise you are probably going to really enjoy T.I.M.E Stories.It is also worth noting that, unlike some other co-operative boardgames, there really is no danger of 'quarterbacking' here, which is where one player essentially dominates the others by taking control of the game and telling people what to do, which is for three reasons. First, characters will go to different parts of each area and 'explore' different cards, and whilst they are allowed to tell everyone what is on the card, they cannot show the card to them. That means that everyone playing has to be involved in exchanging information. The second reason is that there is usually not a 'clear' way to go in terms of choices, and when there is a disagreement a vote is taken, with the person that has the tie breaking vote changing each time you change location, so the chances of someone actually dominating in that regard is slim. Thirdly, and most importantly, this game is difficult, at least in terms of the mysteries not at all being straightforward. It is therefore very unlikely that one person will actually know the answers to the problems posed. All in all, it is a game that actively encourages players to all get involved and work together, and it does so extremely well.There are a couple of further points to deal with, both of which are questions that I had before I started playing. The first is that this is a game for 2 to 4 players, and I wondered whether you could play from one game to the next with players that didn't play the previous runs. The short answer is 'yes', because as long as you have players involved that were in the previous runs, they can inform new players of the information that they know, and in practice new players can then very quickly engage with the mission and become involved in solving the next stages of the game. I predominantly played this with my wife, but for one game we had another player as well, and the integration was pretty seamless. In an ideal world you would go through the entire mission with the same group of players, but actually it is perfectly easy to bring other players in if you want to.The other question is perhaps obvious at this stage, and relates to replay value. Basically, once you've finished the mission that comes in this base game, you can't really get the same experience playing it again. The game therefore has very finite replay value, and indeed we finished the first mission in only a handful of 'runs'. On the face of it that raises a question as to value for money, but to my mind that is a necessary trade off considering the nature of the game. The experience that you get with T.I.M.E Stories is narrative driven and is very different to other board games where you start fresh each time. The fact that it is a finite experience is a large part of what makes it so good, and to my mind it does offer good value for money. You just need to appreciate what you're getting in to before you buy it.That said, there's no need to sell the base game as soon as you finish it, because the developers have produced a number of expansions, with more promised. Each of these have an RRP of £20 (the base game has an RRP of £35), and each one has a completely separate mission. More expansions are promised, and as such you can continue to get value out of the base game by buying these expansions. This does sound like something that can result in you spending a lot of money, and it is, but only if you enjoy the base game. If you do, in my view these expansions offer a great way of keep the experience of the game going.Finally, a note about suitability for children. There is nothing in the game that makes it unsuitable for children per se, but the game is designed to challenge your deductive abilities, and it will likely be too challenging for smaller children. I have only played it with adults, but I would have thought it would be too challenging for children below the age of about 13.Overall, I can only recommend T.I.M.E Stories. Like Pandemic Legacy, it is the latest in a range of board games that offer finite experiences, but it is all the more immersive and memorable for it. If you like your co-operative board games and want to take your experience to the next level, this really is an essential purchase.UPDATE 14/02/16 - Updated to add a couple of pictures of the box contents before the first game, which I forgot to add to the review initially, and to add in a couple more details. This is still a clear five star game, and an essential purchase if you have even the slightest interest in the premise.UPDATE 06/03/16 - I have just finished the Marcy Case Expansion, and the has game solidified its five star rating for one main reason, and that is that it is different to the Asylum case in the core box set. By which I don't just mean that it has a different mission with different characters and a different story in a different time period. That would be a given. I mean that the Marcy case has a completely different focus and feel to the Asylum case (right down to having a different art style on the cards), incorporates new rules, including using a section of the board that I hadn't actually realised was even there in the first mission, and forces you to play a different way. I don't want to give away anything by way of spoilers, but I'll simply say that the Marcy case has more of a focus on combat and survival rather pure exploration, and consequently it actually feels like a different game at times rather than just an expansion. That is really encouraging, because is seems that Asmodee are willing and able to mould the core game to create genuinely different scenarios with each expansion, which practically guarantees than I'll be buying each expansion from here on out. But for the purposes of reviewing the Marcy case all you really need to know is that it is a five star expansion in terms of quality, and if you are yet to buy the core set, the fact that it seems that the game will be well supported with quality expansion packs should be a further reason to take the leap and buy a copy.

11.4.2016

Prophecy of Dragons is the second expansion pack for TIME Stories, and it should not therefore be surprising that you need the base game to play it. If you’re not familiar with the base game, you should go and read my review of it to get an idea of the type of game that it is. This review assumes that the person reading it knows how the base game works.I’ll start with an executive summary of this review for those who don’t want to read all of it; Prophecy of Dragons is, at least in my view, not as strong as the Asylum story that comes in the base game or the Marcy Case. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it is clearly the weakest of the three. But it is still a lot of fun to play,and you should certainly buy it if you’ve enjoyed the other two stories. I’m just somewhat torn in having to knock a star off an expansion for a series that, until know, has been of the highest quality.I’ll explain why I knocked the star off later, but I’m going to start with the positives. Prophecy of Dragons is set in an alternative timeline where magic exists, which is essentially TIME Stories’ excuse to play Dungeons & Dragons. Certainly the mission itself is classic D&D, and anyone who has ever had a passing interest in fantasy role playing games, movies or literature will probably be instantly familiar with the characters on offer in this mission and their respective classes.To go along with this new setting Prophecy of Dragons also provides a new set of rules, and as with the Marcy Case these new rules fit the setting and tone of the new story perfectly. As with the Marcy Case, they also force you to play the game in a slightly different way and with a different focus. In that respect, Prophecy of Dragons continues the trend of keeping TIME Stories original. Even if you’ve played and beaten the two stories up to this point, you’ll have to give serious thought to your strategy again this time around as Prophecy of Dragons immerses you in a completely different setting, and that remains the greatest strength of this expansion pack.And indeed, notwithstanding the criticisms of this expansion that I will deal with below, Prophecy of Dragons is a lot of fun to play and has the classic immersion that you will by now have come to expect from these games. On the basis alone, it is well worth buying and playing through.However, the problem with Prophecy of Dragons is that I feel that a number of the new elements just don’t work quite as well as they should. Whilst I’m not going to spoil any element of the game or the story, the style of Prophecy of Dragons encourages preparation from an early stage, and as such your subsequent runs will be categorised more by how you spend the time preparing your characters at the start rather than how you proceed through the story and the locations.Whilst I understand why this expansion has been handled in this manner, I feel that as a result Prophecy of Dragons lost some of the trial and error gameplay that then forced you to hone your strategy on subsequent runs. Indeed, for me the locations are not as varied or interesting in Prophecy of Dragons and do not offer the same sort of challenge. Just to underline that point, my wife and I finished this expansion on our first play through, and we don’t feel that that was through demonstrating any particular logic or skill that is beyond the average person who will have played TIME Stories to this point.Prophecy of Dragons is also missing that classic overarching mystery that was present in the Asylum and the Marcy Case (players who have completed those stories should know exactly what I’m referring to in that regard). It does replace that overarching mystery with something else (which again, I’m not going to elaborate on because this is the last game series that requires any sort of spoiler), but again in my view that does not turn out to be as strong as it might have been.In summary then, Prophecy of Dragons brings in a number of new elements to the game, as happened with the Marcy Case, but they just don’t work as effectively as they should in my view. That is not to say that I don’t recommend it; I absolutely do, and it should certainly be on the shopping list of those who have enjoyed TIME Stories to this point. It just surprised me that I was in a position where I felt that I had to rate this expansion as four stars rather than five, and felt compelled to explain why that was. I still had plenty of fun with this, and will have no hesitation in buying the new expansion, which I hope brings the series fully back on track.

5.4.2018

I have found that when reading reviews of Time Stories expansions the most helpful thing for me has been how reviewers compare it with the previous ones in the series. People can be quite polarised on some of the stories and so knowing which previous expansions the game is most similar too helps. I will try to give a breakdown of various aspects of the game here and to which scenario it is most comparative too. For the record, I have played all of the previous scenarios (at 2 or 4 players) leading up to this one and have enjoyed every single one so far.Puzzles: Lumen Fidei's puzzles are most similar to the type of puzzles found in Asylum, the first chapter in the Time Stories series.Although there have been some puzzle aspects to all of the expansions, the ones in Asylum were perhaps the most memorable and most involved, and the puzzles in Lumen Fidei are of a similar ilk.Combat: Overall, combat is on the higher end of the scale. But I think it does depend on both the decisions you make and your party size as to how likely you are to run into enemies. The most similar combat-wise scenario is probably Marcy Case or Prophecy of Dragons.Linear Progression: Some of the later Time Stories have come under fire for perhaps being a bit too linear in their play. I would say the first third of Lumen Fidei is somewhat linear, but the final two thirds are less so. In fact, we had two or three locations that we still hadn't visited by the end of the game which is the first time that has really happened. It is certainly less linear than Expedition Endurance.Length/Ease: We completed this in three runs. Bare in mind that I played this with 2 players and it may vary with different player counts. Also, we got lucky in that some of our decisions during the game meant we could get to certain locations quicker than we otherwise would have, so if you make different decisions then it may take an extra run or two. In terms of the length of the whole story, and the number of locations you can explore, it is probably closest to Prophecy of Dragons.Wider Picture: Some people might want to know how much this story contributes to the wider picture evolving over the Time Stories games. For me, all of the previous expansions have ended strongly and Lumen Fidei continues that trend.In some ways, this expansion is a bit of a mash-up of all those that came before it. I found the story quite compelling, despite it being set in an era I am not very familiar with, and the artwork is amazing as always. I had no problem with card quality like the other reviewer. There is not much new mechanically-speaking, but the game does force you to make a couple of meaningful decisions which you will no doubt agonise over! Can you play this one if you have missed some of the previous scenarios? The answer here is: probably not. Try and play the previous five before delving into this one.

12.1.2017

This is a board game like no other. If you love mysteries, thematic storytelling or you are just looking for a board game that is completely different to ones you have played before then this game is for you. Because the game is effectively one big mystery/investigation you will probably not play the game again once you have completed the story - however, this does not mean that you and your friends will complete the game in one sitting. The idea behind T.I.M.E Stories is that all players are 'temporal agents' who are sent into the bodies of different characters from a specific time and location. There are many ways to fail in T.I.M.E Stories. One bad decision or unfortunate die roll can leave your characters in a dire situation,

17.10.2016

ALMOST wanted to hate this game. I was actually reluctant to make the purchase knowing that it was about a 5 hour playthrough and that's it. No replay. However, after forcing the whole family to read through the rules so they would "get it" we played the entire game through. I really wanted to stretch out the experience over a few days to feel I got more out of my money, but we were having such a good time that we kept barreling through it. Again, there is a question of whether it is worth it for a single day's play, but I can't think of the last time we were so absorbed as a family that we couldn't break away...no iPhones, no tablets, no computers,

26.4.2020

After buying and playing all the Unlock! we could get his hands on, my husband thought that maybe SpaceCowboys would have other artful games and that's how he found out about Time Stories.Time Stories is like a themed-computer game where each game is a cartridge.T.I.M.E Stories: AsylumThe first game of Time Stories immersed us into the futuristic story of time travellers. We got to a time where Europe was dealing with mental health illnesses and how the time period view spirits and magic.This is like playing Sherlock Holmes just futuristic. Because this is more of deduction, it's best to take down notes.Also, because of the theme, the art work also shows hideous faces - being a scaredy cat,

5.10.2017

A great, cooperative game that will make everyone involved in the story. The story that comes with the core box has amazing art and is very immersive and the puzzles are challenging. The save system is really neat and it guarantees that you can continue the game after.After completing the first story we had to buy the expansions - each provides a unique, challenging story with a mystery to solve.If you, friends or family like themed games and getting into a good story, this game is for you. It is best played with 4 players because you can have more minds thinking and discussing the situation at hand, but with 2 players it is just as fun!

1.1.2016

Wow! This game is worth your attention if you like table games and don't mind intellectual challenge that you need to solve in the team (co-operation is important). Artwork is superb and maintains the atmosphere. Unfortunately this is a game that can be played only once, but you get about 5-6 hours of non-forgettable group experience, that in my opinion if worth the money. Can work as a family game, just make sure kids are at least 13-14+In my opinion it is possible to solo the game, though part of fun related to group play will be lost.

5.7.2017

Had heard good things about this game and certainly we enjoyed it. The concept of rejigging your 'receptacles' and re-planning your path through the game based on what we had learned the first run through is superb. The only downside is the lack of replayability in the core box (at least for a couple of years, when we might try and get top score) and the only realistic option is to buy the extra adventures for something like £20 per go. That said I enjoyed the first adventure provided in this box enough that I will be buying the next one.

21.2.2019

I play this as a two player game most often, with two players runs take much longer and feel a little less chaotic. We tend to play as highly collaborative players, really getting into the depth of the story. The only weaknesses I would say is the setting of the first story, I’m not a huge fan of ‘asylum’ type scenarios and they feel a little on the nose however the other expansions are much more to my taste. I won’t subtract a star for it simply not being ‘my thing’ as the game made a setting I normally dislike still enjoyable to play

9.12.2016

We had an amazing time playing but we completed it in 5 hours, as games go that's not the best value for money. When I compare it to pandemic legacy- another one shot game, it doesn't really compare in value especially when the exansions seem to be readily available at a reasonable price. Still if you can get over the cost issue (or borrow it from a friend) it is an excellent experience for puzzle lovers!

20.1.2016

I love this game, it's definitely one of my favourite in my collection. Loads of story telling, etc.The one difference compared to other games is that once you know the story, it's a lot less interesting, so the replayability isn't the best.It doesn't matter though, because Asmodée releases new stories as they go, and they are all just as good!Highly recommended for a great story-telling adventure.

5.4.2018

This is the first expansion to the T.I.M.E. Stories game. (Base game required to play)This was an interesting play-through. The mission is to save a girl named Marcy from a life or death fate.The nature of the game means that playing through once will follow a fairly linear storyline that will make playing through later again predictable.Warning: contains Zombies.

28.7.2017

Another great TIME stories game (you do need the base game to play) which is a great way to spend quite a few hours. Takes a little while to get going and fully understand the rules but once in place these games are great - following the clues and deciding whether to complete or ignore 'side quests' in order to complete the mission. Great fun

12.7.2018

Excellent co-operative game and concept, Art work and production quality top notch... a couple of negative points in an otherwise awesome game.1.mechanics a little clunky2. You can only play it once (so its a bit steep price wise for a one time play however I do not regret the purchase.)The game arrived prompty and was well packaged.

T.I.M.E Stories - The Marcy Case - Reviews

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