Live Magazine September 2014 Volume 9/2014 | Page 80

board games

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
BOARD GAME REVIEW

Gandolf once said “I’m looking for
someone to share in an adventure”
and The Hobbit: An Unexpected
Journey Board Game by Cryptozoic
allows just that. An unique and challenging game based on the motion
picture of the same name, it is a
cooperative game that allows for 1
to 4 players to take on the companion’s adventure across two games
boards. Along your journey you and
your companions will be faced with
limited resources to use but are they
enough or will you use them wisely
enough to survive the many obstacles along your path.
After many years of playing board
games The Hobbit is the first that I
have played which is cooperative.

ers win the game. To overcome the
obstacles in your path at the start
of each players round they role the
four dice and assign the pictures on
the dice rolled to a specific event on
the current board. Each event has a
specific number of pictures required
to complete. If the correct number
of pictures are rolled the event is
cleared and the next player can move
on to the next event. If the required is
not met you lose a resource from the
board. Once all 6 resources are lost
the game is over. The 14 companion
cards are also dealt to the players
and along with the 6 resources available to use at the start of the game
these help to complete the events.
While rolling the dice is all down to
luck, this is where the skill, strategy

needed to be cleared. If you are lenient with these and allow multiple
rolls then these can be passed if not
then the rate of losing a resource
card increases tenfold.
I found the rules of the game aren’t
explained well enough and this puts
a disappointing feel to playing it the
first couple of times. Once you have
deciphered the rules and are up for
the challenge the game is quite enjoyable. The quality of the materials
used to make the game are very
good. The board, cards and token
are all printed clearly and brightly
on thick cardboard.
As a whole I found The Hobbit: An
Unexpected Journey as an enjoy-

“ONCE YOU HAVE DECIPHERED THE RULES AND ARE UP FOR THE
CHALLENGE THE GAME IS QUITE ENJOYABLE.”
Players win or lose as a team. While
some may see this as a drawback
and feel the competitiveness and difficulty is taken out of the game this
is not the case. The game is challenging, requires strategy, planning
and the competitiveness against it is
very strong. The game is set across
two boards that include events that
happen in the movie which must
be overcome before a board can
be completed. If the objectives on
both boards are completed the play-

and competitiveness come into the
game. Both the resources and companions can only be used once and
it is best to discuss with your teammates before you do. If these are not
used wisely the game will win. The
game constantly ramps up the difficulty with event cards that will up
the number of pictures needed to
clear an obstacle or by needing to
complete them straight away. The
instant event cards aren’t explained
well enough to know how they are

able game to play with others. It is a
cooperative game that allows you to
discuss strategy and planning with
others for the 40 minutes it takes to
complete. If you want to try out a
different spin on board games defiantly give this one a try and it’s also
great as it can be played alone allowing you to remember epic sections of a great movie.

Written by Jess Wilson