BattleTech: Kick Starter

[Part of the BattleTech Story.]

In between hunting pirates, Gabriel recruits a shady character called El Duce who literally pays 100,000 credit to join the team / escape from his planet. He is a better pilot than usual because apparently he's a Kickstarter backer!? He also has interesting information in that Kid working as a spy for the enemy. A quiet investigation supports this but instead of firing her, Gabriel keeps her on to feed her misinformation. El Duce also takes her spot on in the Catapult on the grounds that he has "more experience" (though Gabriel knew Kid was better than him by now).

I wish you were allowed to field more than 4 units.

The enemy has no such restriction.

Not long after Lady Kamea requests the Marauders aid once more, this time for some base defense against a large Directorate force. Fortunately it is mostly composed of light to medium mechs supported by a fleet of APCs. With good positioning, multiple base turrets, and misinformation fed to the enemy, they are easily wiped out. Kid, realizing she's been made, attempts a last ditch attack on the Argo using a virus vial. Rattlesnake and Silverlight manage to tackle her into a sealed room when the vial breaks though, exposing only the three of them to the sickness.

They are immediately taken to the now high tech medical facilities of the ship, and while treatment would take awhile - all of them would live. In tears, Kid explains she was forced to do this to try save her family who had been enslaved to Kamea's evil uncle. Despite the damage she caused, the team promise that they'll do their best to help her.

NBI Talkback: GamerGate and Unfinished Games

For completionists sake I'm answering the first two NBI Talkback questions today, because I like to think that I can be both early and late at the same time. :P


NBI Talkback #1: How did #GamerGate affect you?

While it changed Izzy for the better, let Mr Luvvaluvva find more gamers, made WolfDragon feel ashamed, scared Rambling Redshirt and Starshadow and made Belghast and Liore paranoid, I'm afraid I'm in the "it had no effect whatsoever" camp along with Randar, Isey, Partybusiness, Tyrannodorkus and Jeromai. Sure a lot of people posted stuff about it when it was in full swing, but having my entire feed of people talking about something I didn't quite understand? Basically I just ignored all of it as like Tobold says, it's just "feeding trolls".

Since it's actually an NBI topic this year I thought I'd actually try work out what its about though, and guess what?

I still have no clue because it's become so many things. Too many. Whatever identity it was supposed to have is now lost on me and I am pretty much back to not caring as, from my perspective, it just looks like internet arguing.


NBI Talkback #2: Early Access and Kickstarter - Do you support unfinished games?

While I don't pay for any computer games for myself (it's a self imposed rule) as I get plenty gifted to me and know that there are enough F2P titles out there to keep me entertained, I will never purchase an Early Access / Alpha / Beta / Kickstarter as a gift for any of my friends unless they have it on their wishlist.

I feel that ultimately it all comes down to a matter of personal preference and have no issues with Dev's selling said "products" or "ideas of products" if people are willing to pay for them.

The closest example I can think of is something like this: You can sell a car without wheels. Some people will pay you for that, as there are still many parts that are usable. However, just because of that I don't want to assume that all my friends want a car without wheels - no matter how shiny the paint job is or how new the model.

Police Precinct: A city full of crime, but only one Murderer!

For a kickstarter game, this is actually a pretty well balanced and tested offering, in coop mode anyway. The artwork is decent enough and the gameplay is only just slightly more involved than the game I consider to be the best for people new to board games, Flashpoint: Fire Rescue. In Police Precinct everyone is plays as a cop (with each officer having some semi-unique special ability) and are either depicted as a marked police car (moves faster) or an unmarked police car token (better for investigation) as they drive around the medium sized city.

To win the game the cops must collect enough evidence to fill up their investigation board and catch a murderer. This is slowed down by the ever increasing thug numbers on the streets as well as what appears to be an insane crime spree as literally emergencies ranging from traffic accidents and gas leaks to car thieves, bank robbers, and kidnappers. If the crime meter goes to high or the murderer escapes without being caught the good guys lose.

In the groups I played in we found victory as the murderer was halfway through his escape. What really takes the cake though are the unknown circumstance cards which play in addition to an emergency. For example you can try deal with a suicidal employee but when you get there find that he or she has an angry dog, or try to nab a pickpocket who also has a bomb. These WTF moments actually make the game better for me as you can share the laughs all around the table.

There's also a version where one or two players could be "dirty" cops where they secretly try to let the crime escalate and the murderer escape but being a coop guy I haven't tried that out, nor do I want to really. With a bigger variety of things going on but still being easy to learn and pretty quick to play (1 - 1.5 hours at most per game), it's a pretty fun experience all around. I just wish the manual was a bit easier to read. Overall I give it 2.5 out of 5 police sirens, and my tick of approval.

Score after re-review: 1.5 out of 5 police sirens.