Some Recent Reviews
As the Kickstarter campaign period for UFO Wave drew to an end, we continued to receive various reviews of UFO Wave in from both local and international game reviewers on Instagram. In case you missed them, here's everyone's thoughts! We've included the direct links to the Instagram posts. It's recommended you read them by clicking on these links as each comes with a number of awesome photos of the game, but if you don't use Instagram you can see individual photos and the wording of each below...
Lez Play Board Games (UK)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CS30ubts8Z5/
"UFO Wave (Part 1) Overview:
@ufowavegame is a tactical card game where you play as one of 6 different Alien Species who visit Earth to perform activities and interact with humans. You win the game by being the Alien with the most Extra Terrestrial (ET) points when the endgame triggers.
To collect ET points you use 2 decks, the Plan Deck & the Scan Deck. The Plan Deck, from which you draw your hand, is made up of Power & Craft cards. Power cards trigger a variety of abilities including Mind Control & Dimensional Shift that allow you to manipulate the Scan (a central market of sorts), give yourself a boost or hinder your opponent/s. Craft cards can be played with a Power card to activate Advanced Level abilities or with a matching Craft card to discard Humans watching you.
During set up, 7 cards are dealt face up from the Scan Deck to form The Scan which represents what you can see in the vicinity. The cards in The Scan are either Activities (which score ET points), Humans (who can be helpful or harmful), Energy or Events. Humans guard Activities adjacent to them, so when you perform an activity to claim those sweet ET points, adjacent Humans will start watching you. Watch out for the Men in Black and the Millitary, both of whom will knock ET points off of your total score!
Taking your turn is simple, first you draw a Plan card & then play as many Plan cards as you wish. Use your Power cards to manipulate the Scan to your advantage or try to hinder your opponent/s. Then you can either Perform an Activity (to gain ET points) or Lead a Human (to mess with your opponent/s). End your turn by discarding down to your maximum hand size (if necessary). A game of UFO Wave ends when the Scan Deck is depleted & the Scan has no more Activities or Humans. Total your ET points and see which Alien has reigned supreme!
Read our thoughts on this card game, which is live on Kickstarter right now, in part 2 of this review."
https://www.instagram.com/p/CS7ldaSsCYz/
"UFO Wave (Part 2) Our Thoughts:
@ufowavegame has 4 days left on Kickstarter. Thinking of backing but still unsure if it’s the game for you? Read our last post for a quick overview of the game, or continue reading to find out what we thought.
UFO Wave is an easy to learn, easy to teach, competitive card game that works well at 2 players. It has a solo mode (which we unfortunately didn’t have time to try) & can handle up to 6 players. At 2 we found the listed play time of 20-45mins to be spot on, all games we played took around 30mins. We found it easy to pick up & play thanks to the clear & concise rulebook.
The artwork has a quirky feel to it, while at first we weren’t too sure about some of the artistic choices, its nostalgic cartoony style grew on us. The artist responsible for the distinctive style has had contact experiences which you can read about in the rule book.
There are 6 species of Alien to play as, each of which auto-triggers a different power card. We found a few of them more appealing than others as the power they triggered was handier to have (e.g. Protective Aura lets you protect a card in The Scan & claim it on your next turn). Each Alien also has a preferred activity type which awards extra ET points at the end of the game. This acts as an incentive to pick certain Activities over others from The Scan. It also means you can mess with your opponents by taking cards that would score them extra points.
Humans are the main antagonists, taking away points at the end of the game depending on how many of a certain type are watching you, but we felt like there could be more of them, or more variety to add more tension to the game.
Alien enthusiasts will enjoy this game, & we feel it would also go down well with older kids. It is strategic enough to keep us coming back, & simple enough to prevent analysis paralysis & be able to set up & play whenever we have a spare 30 mins.
Overall we enjoyed playing UFO Wave & would definitely play it again, it would certainly be at home in our filler games rotation.
If you enjoy quick card games, alien themes, & proving your supremacy, then back this on Kickstarter before you miss out!"
Brendo Plays Board Games (Canada)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CS78bk-FbpL/
"Let's talk about UFO Wave: A Tactical Card Game of Alien Supremacy, a game currently on Kickstarter with only three days to go at time of writing.
For disclosure, a prototype copy was provided by Paradigm Games.
The game plays 1-6 players, each of whom will take on the role of one of six alien races carrying out different actions to acquire ET points. When the game is over, the person (or rather, alien) with the most ET points is the winner. Simple as that.
UFO Wave is a deceptively simple little game, with a really satisfying and straight forward loop to each round. We played with four people, and after a turn each we had a clear sense of what we were doing. The game feels good to play and there is plenty of room for it to get extremely competitive.
The art is colourful and consistent, it gives the game a clear sense of identity and a unique look.
All in all the game is light, satisfying, and a clear labour of love. The creators credit themselves as being a believer and one as having had a direct encounter. If it seems like the kind of thing you're looking to add to your collection then you absolutely should jump on and back them.
The link to their Kickstarter will be in my profile until it closes, show support to a small project. Just do it."
No Ordinary Meeple (UK)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CTDf6avt29T/
"With just 24hrs left of its #Kickstarter, we feel lucky to have received a promo copy of @ufowavegame from designer Dave Hodrien to play, review and …play again, and again!
1-6 players
8+
30mins
#ufowavegame is a tactical card game that has you taking on the role of a visiting alien species performing activities, hopefully ones that give you points galore without being spotted by those pesky humans.
You begin by choosing a species that provide special abilities and bonuses on a specific type of activity card you claim.
Next you deal out a 7 card row of ‘Scan’ cards which forms the said SCAN.
2 event cards (actions that effect the state of play for ALL players) are then shuffled into the scan deck which is placed face down just above the SCAN.
Also just above the scan is the pile of PLAN cards 5 of which are now dealt to each player forming their initial hand.
SCAN CARDS consist of:
• ACTIVITY cards of various types that can score you various points, one type of which will tally with your species to produce a bonus.
• ENERGY CARDS of various types that if next to cards you claim get automatically claimed too. Some of these can be negative energy so watch out.
HUMAN CARDS represent humans of various types some helpful, some disruptive and some downright dirty (especially if thrust at you by an opponent).
2x EVENT CARDS as mentioned earlier, events that effect the state of play for all players.
The PLAN deck:
• CRAFT CARDS that allow you to discard hurtful human cards by playing 2 of the same type OR by giving access to advanced actions.
• Various ACTION cards with a Basic and an Advanced action (triggered by using a CRAFT card alongside the action card) these allow you to manipulate your turns to get maximum benefit OR defend against an opponents superior play.
Once you’re up to speed with how scan cards interact with one another this game becomes a really fun mix of fast paced turns full of points hauls, player interaction and tactical card manipulation that got us very competitive very quickly.
42-39
45-39
We’re poised for a decider. Get Scanning!
RECOMMENDED and WE BACKED IT!"
Boardgaming Duo (USA)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CTc8xy6Leog/
"We got our chance to check out UFO Wave by @paradigmgamesuk
This was sent to us to as a review copy, and it arrived right as the Kickstarter ended.
The goal of the game is to earn ET points by performing activities that are displayed in front of you from the scan deck. This same deck also includes humans, who watch your every move and can help or hinder depending on who they are, energy cards, that can help gain or lose ET points, and event cards, that impact everyone playing!
Each player picks a species from the 6 that are available, which have a bonus way to gain ET points, and certain powers that automatically get upgraded when you use them.
You’ll use your hand of plan cards to try and gain an advantage by manipulating the visible scan cards in your view, or manipulating what other players can do. You also have the option of using Crafts to use more powerful, upgraded versions of your powers.
The game plays over a series of rounds until the scan deck has been depleted. Then players add together their positive, and negative points, to see who has the highest score and ultimately wins!
We’d like to say thank you and congratulations to @ufowavegame for both letting us review this game and for getting fully funded on Kickstarter!
This ended up being a really fun game for us to play through. We don’t typically like a lot of ‘take that’ in the games we play, especially being at a 2 player count. But the way it’s implemented in this game seems to flow really well. And with the amount of points you’re gaining through the game losing a few from having specific humans isn’t as detrimental as we’ve seen in other games.
The idea of a game based around alien invasions/take overs was really intriguing to us, and the artwork we saw as this game got to Kickstarter got us pretty excited for it to show up. And it didn’t disappoint at the 2 player count. There’s a good amount of back and forth and I imagine that only picks up more with more players. I think anyone who got this game as a Kickstarter is going to really enjoy it. The rules are simple to pickup, the gameplay isn’t overly complicated, it’s a great travel size game and it doesn’t take up much space.
Overall, this would be a great, lighthearted game with a group of folks that want a game to play while they’re hanging out having conversation and still want to play a game that wouldn’t require a ton of focus or strategizing."
If you missed out on the Kickstarter campaign for UFO Wave and wish you hadn't, you'll soon have thwe chance to make a late pledge via the Gamefound pledge manager which is currently in development. Keep an eye on site updates for further details on this!