UNCHARTED BOARD GAME

So if you told me this board game existed, I'd probably tell you that it likely sucked without having played it. Terrible, I know...but a video game to board game translation can generally end up in the same territory that movie games end up in. However, BanDai somehow manages to overcome this with:

Not "Uncharted: The Board Game" but, "UNCHARTED BOARD GAME." 

Theme

You're a Treasure Hunter, Drake! In UNCHARTED VIDEO GAME (not actually called that) your goals are simple. Nathan Drake wants treasure. He goes to find treasure. He fights bad guys along the way and inevitably gets double-crossed once or twice or more as well. Sorry if I've spoiled the plots to all the games, but in a nutshell, that is what happens in all of them. In UNCHARTED BOARD GAME (last time I'm doing this, I'll just say Uncharted from now on) the goals are the same. Get the treasure, kill some bad guys, get backstabbed. How the game actually wraps in this theme is very interesting though.

Components

Uncharted is a card game. It isn't actually a board game. Sure, it comes with a board, but the game is played with cards.

Behold! Nathan Drakes' starting play area! Each player starts with these four cards.

Cards in the game are split up into two main types: Action cards and Adventure cards. Action cards are used to interact with the Adventure cards currently on the board.The cards are of decent quality and there are quite a few of them. Sorry I don't have the exact number of each, but the action cards outnumber the adventure cards.

Board set up and ready to go

Playing the Game

The goal of the game is to have the most victory points at the end, and you gain victory points by taking treasure or defeating enemies. There are a few cards that can add to your point total at the end of the game, but generally you are taking Adventure cards from the board in order to move up the victory track. Players both choose a character from the game and place their life token at 12.

Each turn you are able to do two things.

1. Play a card from your hand into your play area (shown in the above picture)
2. Rest (tap for all intents and purposes) a card to use its effect
3. Attack an enemy
4. Use a color-based special ability (more on this later)
5. Pass

You are able to do the same thing twice. Except pass...you can't pass twice; that'd be stupid.

Part of what makes this game interesting is the way that cards are played. To play a card, you have to discard cards from your hand equal to its cost. Now, you don't play cards as "instants" or in response to something, you pay the cost and put them into your play area. In your play area, you can have up to three cards of each color. To play another card of that color, you must get rid of one that already exists. Once in your play area, you are able to "Rest" the card in order to use its effect. There are some pretty powerful cards too that can really mess with your opponent if you keep using them, and while they generally cost more to play, the effect for the rest of the game can be pretty drastic.

As mentioned, you interact with the Adventure cards by using your Action cards that are in play. In order to win a treasure card, and therein its victory points, you have to place search tokens on it. To put a search token on something, you'd "Rest" a card in your play area that let you place one or more, using one of your "things to do" and then put it on a treasure card. Once there are a cumulative amount of tokens equal to that treasures cost, whoever has the most tokens on it wins the treasure. Sometimes treasure cards have effects that are valid only while they are on the board. For example, one of the treasure cards in play let players who had at least one search token on it player Yellow color cards for one less than their cost. Other times they have effects that apply once the treasure is won. For example, once a particular treasure card was won (my wife and I tied, so we both go the effect as stated on the card) we each named a color and drew a card from the Action deck. If the card was the color named, we showed it to the other, and got to draw another card. In my case, my wife got an extra card due to her excellent guessing powers and I did not. In either case, treasures are always worth a certain number of victory points.

You also use the cards in your play area to attack the enemy. Killing an enemy gets you the stated victory points as well. To attack, you "Rest" any number of weapons you have played or effects you have available to get your Attack Power equal to or over the enemies health value. If you do this, you defeat the enemy and gain the victory points. 

When a treasure or enemy card is removed from the adventure area, it is replaced with one from the adventure deck.

The special color abilities allow you to discard a card of a particular color to do one of three things.

• Yellow - Place a search token
• Blue - Gain two life
• Green - Take two more "things to do"

After all players have taken their turns, it's time for the enemies on the board to attack. They attack all players simultaneously with their added Attack Power. Players are able to defend by "Resting" a card that isn't rested yet or by using effects on cards in their play area that may add to their defense. For each point that isn't defended, you lose a life. After this, cards are "stood up" (untapped) and the round begins again.

The game ends when:

• The end of the round after the last adventure card is played
• Only one player remains

What Works

What stood out for me in the first play of the game was the multiple paths to victory. In some games of this ilk, you don't have a lot of player interaction and are simply trying to win by amassing your own treasures. I almost won by setting up the board to kill my wife. Her character, that is. She only had enough cards to defend, and therefore couldn't "Rest" any of her cards unless she wanted to take damage. I had two cards in play that added to my defense during the enemy attack phase. I refused to attack enemies and instead went after the remaining treasures actually hoping that it would get replaced with another enemy to further put her in a bind. Unfortunately, a "special" treasure came out that read, "As long as a player has a search token on this treasure, they take no damage." So she then used that to her advantage to win. So you can see the themes I mentioned at the beginning actually working here in the actual mechanics and strategies. I appreciate this.

What Doesn't Work

I wish that the characters had a bit more flavor. I could easily add a starting ability for each and I don't think that would break that balancing and would actually help make it more "Uncharted" in feeling. UPDATE! It turns out that there are abilities on each character card. They are just never mentioned in the manual and are on the back of the cards. Since the game only ever shows the front side, I assumed the back was just a solid back. MY BAD. As mentioned, cards are decent, but they could be a bit better in quality. I'll be sleeving this game for sure. The included holding tray in the box BARELY holds all the card without some spilling out of the top, so I'll likely remove that and just bag the cards.

Summary

My wife and I really enjoyed this game. I was ready to laugh at it, but came away very surprised. Some of my turns took a few minutes simply because the options available can change so much or have a drastic effect for the opposing player. It's easy to teach while still providing a decent amount of strategy based on what comes up. It also has rules for a "Deathmatch" style game and a "Survival co-op" style. The themes of Uncharted are woven into the game play and I feel they work really well. I'm not going to give a number score, because numbers are arbitrary. Suffice to say, this will get played again soon and its a relatively cheap investment, so I easily recommend it for purchase.

My wife's hand and play area at the end of the game.

My play area at the end of the game. Drake got beat up.