Flash Review — Nemesis

Players: 1-5
Works well with just 2: Yes!
Solo quality: Great
Age: 12+
Playtime: 90-180 min
Complexity: 8/10

Your big starship is slowly making its way across the blackness of space, hopefully pointed at Earth, and hopefully with its engines in good running order. But menacing creatures are popping up all over the place, and what do you know – not everyone seems to be working towards a common goal…

I resisted playing this game for a while: it seemed to me like a cheap Alien knockoff. Instead, I played a host of other games, just because they had the official Alien logo stamped on the box – and they all sucked.
Then I gave in and tried Nemesis and realized I had been a fool.
THIS is the Alien boardgame you’ve been waiting for, and it’s got everything you want. Super strong theme, cool mechanics, with dangerous creatures lurking around every corner, and tension that oozes out of your ears from beginning to end.

You’ll explore a darkened ship, repair whatever’s broken, put out fires that always seem to flare up at the worst possible time, keep the ship running, and fight nightmarish monsters – or die trying. (Most probably the latter.) Combat is fast, simple, and not always effective. So keep quiet as you explore the bowels of the ship…

Each player has their own objective, which might – or not – work with whatever their crewmates need to accomplish. This makes Nemesis a semi-coop game, where working together is paramount to survival… until a certain point.
I mean, I don’t normally enjoy launching my escape pod while watching a fellow crew member being torn limb from limb, but if that bastard’s objective was to make sure I didn’t survive the game, then he probably deserved his horrible and bloody fate.

Sure, you could always fight your way to the generator room and flip the self-destruct switch. But will you make it out alive before the clock runs out and the whole thing becomes a cloud of debris?

Nemesis is an astounding experience, and I’ll never turn down a session.
The solo mode doesn’t disappoint: it uses a different set of objectives, but otherwise the game remains the same. Which is to say, as tough as it is satisfying.

Most easily forgotten rule: Characters get wounded by fire only if they end their turn (not round) in a burning room.

# # #