Battle of the Factions Begins. Red Rising Review

 Red Rising by Stonemaier Games combines the adventure and fun of a book series with the strategy and challenges of a board game. But was it possible to adapt the novels as well as create a fun game that would appeal to both readers and others?

 We will discuss!

WHAT IS THE GAME ABOUT?

 Red Rising is a combo-based card game based on Piers Brown's Red Rising series and inspired by the Fantasy Realms card game.

 In this game, you start with a hand of 5 cards. On your turn, you will select one of your draw cards into a zone on the field, activating that card's draw advantage. You can then draw a top card from another spot on the board or deck into your hand and benefit from those spots.

 Location benefits allow players to advance their ship on the fleet track, gain helium tokens, gain a sovereignty token (this also activates your personal player/house ability), or place an influence token on the Institute.

 Each card in the game features a unique character from the novels in one of 11 suits. Cards have their own base value and scoring conditions at the end of the game. Endgame scoring conditions require players to have certain named characters or card types in hand for those points to count. This means that a card with a base value of 10 can be worth a lot more than the endgame if the player can get the cards to activate their extra point potential.

COMPLETION OF THE GAME

 Red Rising ends when any combination of players meets all three of the following conditions, or when a single player meets two of the following conditions:

 Player has 7+ Helium Tokens, Player has 7+ Institute Influence, Player has reached or exceeded 7 on Fleet Path.

 When this happens, players will finish taking turns, activate all endgame abilities, and then tally the final scores. Players earn points from the total value of the cards in their hand, their position on the fleet track, the number of helium tokens, the presence of a sovereignty token, and their influence.

 The player with the most points wins.

MY IMPRESSIONS OF THE GAME

 Playing Red Rising was an interesting experiment to see if knowing the book series would benefit both of them in terms of their enjoyment of the game or their ability to succeed.

 A friend of mine has read the entire Red Rising series. I don't myself. I don't think it's particularly necessary to read the novels before sitting down to play the game. Either way, you might want to read them eventually. It's hard not to imagine what kind of relationships and alliances the characters must have with each other when you see which cards score high (or low!) when they're in the hand of another certain character.

 It was interesting to see a friend notice how the events of the book were embodied in the game or how the characters he considered his favorites were represented through the artwork.

 Every card in the game is unique and there are a LOT of cards. 112 to be exact. Not only does this mean your game has more replayability, but it also makes it harder to match certain cards together - there are so many in the deck that you might not get what you need!

 Thematically, for a series about a social hierarchy system where characters from different factions must work with or against each other to gain or maintain power and influence, this was a great game mechanic to tie it all together.

COMBINATION

 Although I haven't read the novels, Red Rising isn't just based on the books. By the way, it is also based on one of my favorite card games: Fantasy Realms. When I say favorites, I mean favorites. For me, Fantasy Realms is a card game of the highest order that always leaves me excited about it after every play, and I think it's a card game that everyone should own. Red Rising copies the card mechanics of Fantasy Realms.

 Just like in Fantasy Realms, each card in Red Rising has a base point potential, as well as a higher point potential depending on whether it can be combined with a specific card or card type. So throughout the game, you'll be discarding cards from your hand to pick up other cards that you think will work better with what you have in hand.

 This can create such a fun tension for the players. You're constantly having to decide which card you're willing to part with in order to hopefully get an even better card and increase your points potential. This is a game of patience. Know when to hold the card and when to let it go. Force yourself to be patient enough to wait for a particular map to be revealed and to be able to change it to a new plan before you are caught off guard.

TOO MANY EVENTS

 While creating all these combos is fun and incredibly satisfying when they work well, the problem with Red Rising is that it takes a Fantasy Realms flavor, executes it beautifully with its 112 character cards….but then confuses everything with a confusing game that takes too long. Games last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or more, depending on how long your teammates have to agonize over which cards they want.

 The best part about Red Rising is that it is inspired by Fantasy Realms. But every time I play Red Rising, I wish I was playing Fantasy Realms instead. This little deck packs a bigger strategic punch and does it in half the game time or less!

 Fantasy Realms is extremely simple, and I think that's really where Red Rising goes wrong. All the deployment actions, location bonuses, helium tokens, fleet track, special abilities, etc. just drag the game out, detracting from the real fun.

 Red Rising is just a bit bloated. When trying to incorporate so many elements of the book (characters, card suits/factions, fleets, etc.) into the game, it ended up overshadowing the best part of it. Even trying to put together a hand full of combo cards is a bit of a drain because the game drags on for so long that jeez if you can't put together a decent hand then what have you been doing??

CONCLUSIONS

 Red Rising isn't a great game, but it's not bad either. It's just a good game.

 Inspired by Fantasy Realms, Red Rising just makes me wish I'd picked up Fantasy Realms instead. The fun of creating combos with character cards drowns out all the extras that drag the game out too long.

 Red Rising is a perfectly decent IP game and, as my friend says, a good implementation of the books. I have no hesitation in recommending it to romance fans. While you don't have to read the novels to enjoy the game, you'll definitely appreciate the little nuances and hints to the story woven into the game's theme and design.

 While I don't think it will stay in our collection forever, I'm very happy that Red Rising is raising the bar for what players should expect from IP games in the future. I hope more publishers feel confident in creating top-tier strategy games for this audience.

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