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| The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Game Designer: Uncredited Publisher: University Games |
A friend of ours recently bought this game when she found it brand new at Goodwill, still in the shrink wrap with a $30 price tag from Barnes & Nobel still on it for only $1. She thought she had found an incredible deal and brought it over to show it off. She's not big into games so she left it at our place hoping we'd play it and tell her how it was.
So, this afternoon I unwrapped the game and opened it up. Right from the start I wasn't impressed. The game board is thin and the die and pawns are cheap plastic. And the cards in the box were already a bit warped. Then I read the rules. The single letter sized paper has a very large warning on the cover warning people not to attempt the survival techniques described on the cards and disavows the publisher, designer, etc. from any responsibility against people from getting hurt by misusing any of the advice in the cards. The back page of the instructions are basic company information. And the inside contains all you need to know to play the game. The rules amount to:
- Place all the pawns at the Start space.
- Take turns rolling the die and choosing he correct 'survival' answer on the card (have the previous player read the options for you).
- If you answer correctly, move your pawn forward the number of spaces that you rolled.
- Repeat until someone reaches the Finish space.
This game is purely a trivia game and the questions aren't even all that interesting or entertaining. There are no choices to be made and the only things that will affect if you win or lose are how well you answer the questions and how lucky you are at rolling the die.
Unfortunately we couldn't finish a game. Very quickly it devolved into me rolling the die for everyone and just reading the questions off the cards while everyone else went off and did other things. And shortly after that I stopped rolling the die, just moving everyone 6 spaces if they answered correctly. It wasn't long before my family was begging me to just stop asking questions already.
The game is incredibly boring. The questions and scenarios on the cards aren't engaging, funny, or clever (and out of the few dozen I read through, I had questions about the accuracy of some of the information), and the lack of any real control or decisions all contribute to a game that should never have been made. Maybe if you have a need to own all the Worst Case Scenario related media this would be worth it for you (and in that case I know where you can buy a copy of this game that hasn't even been played one full time). People on Amazon seem to either love the game or hate it; I guess I'm in the latter group. All I can say is, at least our friend only paid $1 for this. There might be $1 worth of fun reading through the cards, but that's it.
Preliminary Rating: 1/10
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| The game itself is a bit less interesting than the setup. |
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. And be sure to check out my games on Tabletop Generation.GJJG Game Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends. Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some are print and play versions of games. Where applicable I will indicate if games have been played with kids or adults or a mix (Family Play). I won't go into extensive detail about how to play the game (there are plenty of other sources for that information and I'll occasionally link to those other sources), but I will give my impressions of the game and how my friends and family reacted to the game. First Play Impression reviews will only get a single rating of 1-10 (low-high) based on my first impressions of the game during my first time playing. Hopefully I'll get more chances to play the game and will be able to give it a full review soon.
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