YORKTON - You might say we are experiencing something of a Renaissance of collectible card games (CCGs) – now Trading Card Games (TCGs).
There are new ones launching almost weekly it seems – reminiscent of the plethora of games launched in the vapour trail left by the success of Magic: The Gathering when it launched back in the early 1990s. MtG started a fad, that like most fads faded, although it remains hugely popular.
And now a rebirth in interest in the field of TCGs is upon us.
One of those is the recently released Neverrift self-published by designer Markus Schwarze and sporting art from more than a dozen contributors.
So let’s start with the art.
As stated previously in this space art is very much a personal taste thing, but for the most part the art of Neverrift holds together nicely stylistically across the various artist efforts and the four of us at the Meeple Guild table for this review were well-satisfied by the overall aesthetic.
Of course game play is paramount and here things are a bit more confusing.
To begin each player has a deck of 30 cards as well as a tamer with special abilities, determining the factions and the cards the player can use. It feels very TCG. The decks are customizable with booster packs available.
But, this one is played on a board. Players place cards onto a field where creatures battle with bigger generally taking control of smaller. The win goes to the player controlling the most on the board.
By the rules Neverrift plays two-to-five, and because we were four, we opted for that initially, a free-for-all to the finish.
Admittedly we had reservations off the start because experience suggested games played by four with one emerging a winner in battle scenarios just don’t work well. Whatever the first player does, the ‘game field’ changes so dramatically that there is little game control.
And since the board is finite and late game players may know they can’t win, but what they do may help or hinder others – the dreaded king maker element that for us is not an appreciated game situation.
Still by game end it was a close result first to fourth – just not very enjoyable getting there.
As a result four player Neverrift would not warrant recommendation, at least free-for-all. In a teams situation it might uptick a little for four.
Then we went to player versus player and Neverrift shed the aforementioned issues and shone its brightest. Head-to-head you can plan and work a strategy.
The game comes with three different boards which work to really determine game length – the smallest board being very quick. The board options and the overall quickness of Neverrift is a huge plus.
This is ideal for a throwdown with a bud over coffee.
The ability to ‘build’ a deck to fit a strategy is great too, although for casual play the provided decks seem rather well-balanced once cards are fully understood, always a challenge with a TCG where most cards will have a ‘power’ influencing game play in some way.
As a two-player Neverrift wins Meeple Guild praise as it truly surprised after concerns with four.
Check it out at www.neverrift.com
