Wednesday night saw a small band of intrepid researchers gather to look for new life forms!
It’d been a very long day, because I had been up since 3:45am (yes that is normally the case on a game night). Work has been extremely busy recently. So I was more than a little tired. Unusual for me I had had a little nap before going out. I never do that.
Plus I’d rearranged my days off this week. A fact I’d forgotten when I arranged this game night. So no next day off as I usually have to catch up on sleep after a long day of work and gaming in the evening. I’d be getting up at bloody early again the next morning. A little tmi on this. I normally have gone to sleep by 6:30pm – 7pm when working the next morning. My whole day routine has shifted to adjust for that early start. I was going to be so fucked Thursday!
I have to say I really like Cryptid.
It’s quick to setup both for a first play, and for subsequent plays. I’m not sure how using the “app” (well website they call an app) could make it any easier or faster. But the one advantage the “app“ does have is that there are many more setups that can be played. However having the companion “app” as an additional thing you can use if you want is a big plus for me. We all know how I feel about games that can only be played using an app. This is the correct way to go about it.
I found it handy just to have another player (Jeff) to double check the placement of the structures before starting play. It’s not necessary but cuts out any setup mistakes.
I like how there are two play modes for the game. The more advanced mode introduces not clues, ie “it’s not on mountains or forest” and a fourth coloured structures.
I was tired and just not switched on because our first game with the advanced mode saw me use the incorrect token for my initial clues. Something I had to apologise for and correct very early on.
The not clues do add to the complication of trying to work out what clue the others had. But it’s a nice complication despite my initial tiredness induced confusion.
I love the trying to guess what the other clues are while trying to not give away your own clue. And that starts from the initial setup when placing your first two cubes (a cube indicates the Cryptid isn’t in that hex). It’s great when you think you know what another’s clue is, only for them to place a cube or a cylinder that ruins your theory about their clue. You get a whole new level of doubt. Especially about if the player has given the correct answer. But you can’t openly ask them as you don’t want to give any information away! And then it’s back to the drawing board trying to work out what the clue could be.
A less tired me would have concentrated/focused more on what the others were doing with their cubes. My cognitive processing was most definitely impaired. I’m playing this game on a weekend next time. Most likely will still get my butt kicked but I’ll have no excuse then!
Cryptid along with Search for Planet X both take interesting but different routes to do the same thing, find an item. Whether that’s the space where a Cryptid is or where Planet X is. I like both approaches. I know Jonathan prefers Search out of the two (although he does like Cryptid), whilst my preference is Cryptid. What swings it for me is the lack of dependence on an app. Game mechanics wise I really do like both approaches the same. I know Search can be played without an app by hunting down online the free print and play pack from the designers. Which does give it about the same number of scenarios as Cryptid has. But the draw back is it needs printing out, and it takes out a player from the game. As one person basically has to act as a game master running the game handing out clues. I’m not sure how much fun that’d be for that person.
I’d love to see an expansion for this that is just a deck of new setup and clue cards. The game doesn’t need anything more than that. It’d be a cheap expansion too.
For the record I wasn’t as tired at work as I was expecting to be yesterday. Still knackered tho’.
I found Cryptid to be a reasonably good deduction game with one or two nitpicks.
I wonder if this should be called an abstract deduction game, as the theme is so wafer thin, it might as well not be there. I did not feel like I was tracking a monster; a better theme might have been buried treasure, but I suppose monsters sell. I wonder if more could have been done to make players feel like that is what they were doing? Even the art didn’t evoke the monster theme, which is a shame.
I liked the Tobago-like nature of narrowing down the spaces to eliminate all but one, but I had trouble parsing the inverse of the clues in the higher (?) difficulty setting. Personally, I would have preferred to play the entire session at the normal difficulty level, rather than rush in with changing the difficulty; it might have helped me gel better with the game. I just couldn’t get my head around them, so it ended up spoiling the game a bit for me; I accept, that might be an issue with me more than the game though.
I think the game suffers from lack of a decent player aid, but that really was only for the first couple of games. I realise that there is a player aid on the back of the rulebook, so this is a rather minor issue, but one per player would have been a nice touch. Components are good though; no real complaints there.
Would I play this again. Well, cards on the table, as a deduction game, it is not as good as The Search for Planet X is, which is in every way superior, but at least you don’t need to use an app to play (which can be problematic for some). Don’t get me wrong, I’d happily play Cryptid again, but perhaps without the inverse clues (at least until I get used to it). As a general rule, I love deduction games; deduction is one of my favourite genres, but this is not a game that I feel the need to rush out and add to my personal collection anytime soon.