Impressions of the game Dead Reckoning

 As well as thoughts on sandboxes and salt pans from the genres behind this game. Warning: This is not a Dead Reckoning review

 So, we have a conditional sandbox on the conditional deckbuilder engine. Build a hand of cards that will evolve over the course of the game, growing new abilities on a pack of translucent upgrades in one protector. See what symbols are available on the cards and have fun on the whole reel. Ride the sea, discover new lands, buy upgrades, capture islands, carry barrels, trade, produce, loot, fire at your neighbor, pump your deck and your ship.

 Immediately about the best. Feature with pumping cards in deckbuilding is a direct killer feature. After training on the cool Mystic Vale and the obscure Edge of Darkness (didn't try), John D. Clare released a unique system. Each of the 12 starting characters can be pumped up to level 4 and hung up to 3 different upgrades to your liking. In TTS, it is implemented a little crookedly, but in real life, it is probably much more fun to stuff these translucent cards, creating a super soldier. And try to scroll the deck faster so that the favorites return to the hand again. Moreover, instead of a traditional game tablet, all strategies were put into this deck. Whom you caress, this is the direction you strengthen, it's all up to you. In short, this is what I liked the most. Fortunately, the hand mechanics here are normal (and not like in "Dune"). You can keep any cards in your hand between turns, and save one upgrade to wait for your perfect carrier. Because when a combo is stubbornly not a combo, it is the scourge of many deckbuilders.

 Attacking another player or innocent merchants at sea requires a black flag symbol and a certain number of cannon icons. According to the amount of guns, you collect a bunch of cubes of your color and fall asleep in the miracle tower. Not dais, simple wooden ones. If there is a duel, then both collect and pour into this shaytan machine. I'll say it straight: I don't like the cube tower for combat. But that's because, in principle, I don't like cube launchers. And here is the same cube thrower in a different format: you throw a handful of wooden cubes into the tower, and they fall on one of the 14 faces. Yes, it's faster, easier and, what's more, funnier than traditional American-Cubans, but still a wildly random event. But the fact that I don't like it does not cancel the fact that it is a really cool and cool find. I wouldn't refuse to see it in other projects, just not for the randomization of combat, but, say, for the response of monsters or something else.

 Next, about the structure of the move. I like it less and less when games have huge moves with a bunch of options. Yes, in "Knight-Mage" you can think for 15 minutes about how two clearings are better to pass, but that's why it's a solo game. In Dead Reckoning, you can charge a bunch of sails, swim there, scout here, buy a map here, buy a map there, and during the break you can still control the island. And you sit and consider how and for what your cards will be enough. The potential for downtime is huge, I'm afraid to even imagine. It was not very noticeable on two. While one walks, the other upgrades between turns. I prefer to trust a party member and not control his every step. Yes, I am half listening to what he got and where he went. So it was adequate. But I know there are suffocators to whom show and tell everything, but don't deceive them, but here you have a speed not of 6, but of 5. I'm afraid, for four it would be hell and burning ephedrone.

 The most common scourge of many sandbox games like Runbound, Outer Ring, or Xia is huge downtime between turns, little interaction, and inadequate duration. Everyone plays their own role or fantasy in this world, rarely conflicts with others, and it is generally unclear why we are sitting at the same table together. On the one hand, I understand the desire of players to have many ways of development, so that everyone chooses something for himself. On the other hand, in some games it turns out that everyone evaporates into something different, and there is no great competition in the "enemy" area. Why other players? For example, in Dead Reckoning I mostly bought cards, captured islands and carried barrels. Because I don't like to rely on randomness, and these are obvious classes. And Lyosha explored, pumped up the ship and sometimes fought. And now, if it weren't for his principled attempt to sink me with full holds, we would hardly have crossed paths the entire game. Everyone cares for themselves, and that's fine. Let's say, a frequent complaint against "Agricola" is that the game forces you to do little by little, and you can't specialize. But this is where the main conflict comes from! Everyone needs food and wood, and that's what they grab first, until the war for the first player. It's not like you went to monuments, I went to adventures, and the third one went to collecting crystals, and we don't really get along. It comes to an absurdity like "Traders' Bay", where everyone plays giga-super-asymmetry, but you have no business with the opponent's tablet. Again, I'm not saying it's wrong. It's just that I like to play solo and try to find game-mechanical reasons to be in the games of other live players other than for a nice chat.

 Further, unlike Agricola, in the same "Caverna" I choose arbitrarily whether I want to build sheepfolds, deep caves or gather a gang of armed adventurers. Nothing in the layout leads to anything, the initial room market is inadequately huge, and jumping to another strategy later can be problematic. And you choose a bit at random, rather because you decided to express yourself that way today, and not because the situation on the field demands it. Therefore, in my opinion, one or two people are optimal there, and the third one is useless. And from Dead Reckoning, the feelings are similar. The rules clearly spell out 4 conventional roles with tips on how to play them and what cards to pump for them: pirate, privateer, merchant and explorer. By the way, I didn't get into any of them, I was tormented by something of my own. It looks like a European sandbox. Choose who you are today and play with your imagination.

 But I don't really understand this desire to put everything into one game at once: engine optimization, and to be able to punch a neighbor's face with a cube. I'm curious when a game does some of its ideas that sell really well, and not all at once. Hence the cool attitude to many modern hybridizations (Dwellings of Eldervale, "Dune. Empire"), and in general to 4X-gigantism ("Sickle", "Eclipse", Dark Ages). But such games are very popular now, so I have no business judging people's preferences.

 Never been a fan of pirate romance (or any gangster, mafia, etc. themes). Robberies, murders, rapes, slave trade, torture, unsanitary conditions, drunkenness - cool, cheerful mischief from fairy tales for children, yes. That's why I didn't bother with the setting. No, everything is adequate with the theme, but I did not find a lot of adventure and atmosphere. Even in such a rusk as "Maracaibo" there is enough soulfulness for me, but here it is not radically juicier or wetter. "Sickle about pirates" is a little humiliating, but not so far from the truth. Although someone, hearing this, on the contrary, will rush to buy. In this mincemeat of familiar Euro mechanisms, "everyone will be able to find something for themselves" is a trite and well-worn phrase. I've seen reviews like it's an epic ultimate pirate game and... well, I haven't seen that.

 No, I won't say that all of the above makes Dead Reckoning exactly a bad game. But all these symptoms are characteristic of her. Yes, if you wish, you can directly destroy the neighbor's cabin, and the interaction will appear for you. And there is no desire, then it will not be. But this is my traditional problem with projects where three games were crammed into one. Someone is playing Eurooptimization, and cubes fly into his face. Or someone is looking for sea adventures and atmosphere, while another is suffocating for every point. Again, not a specific game complaint, rather this type of game. In general, it's cool. Deckbuilding fire, and the rest of the brine seems to be working. Just not mine. The solo deck was not brought to TTS, so the traditional consolidation of impressions in solo mode will not work. Therefore, most likely, I will not play anymore. But I would sit down for real in the future. After 3-4 years, "Kramnychka" will decide that it's time to finish what was promised (yes, it's a trick). I would touch the transparent maps, put a handful of Kubans to sleep in the tower - that's all.