Thread to actually discuss MEQ

the*mad*gamer wrote:

I guess I'm a Ffg shill/whore/payola recipient because I fucking loved it.
I'm sure it's just the free game talking, but there's some really brilliant
stuff going on in it, thematically and mechanically.

I guess I'd better give it a bad review or lose all my credibility.
That's too bad, because I think it could be the next great AT game

Brilliant mechanics mean nothing.

It is a game not a science project.

The only thing that matters is FUN FACTOR

You know what's fun? NOT YOU.

Grudunza, I think you're right on the money- the variety is going to come from the gameplay, decisions, and the random timing of events than a lot of executive-level chrome.

However, the fact that Gandalf, the Shire, Ringwraiths, and all that are there does make me feel a little "Tolkein fatigue". I'd rather the game have been a new setting. I mean, all fantasy is influenced by Tolkein anyway, so changing out the names and places wouldn't have affected the game that much.

Let's be honest, if it was an original IP you'd more than likely bemoan about how it's just a Tolkein rip off. Unless of course it was an original original IP. Actually, it kind of sounds like it could have been set in FFG's own Midnight setting. But I won't complain, I like Tolkein.

That's there's only 3 items in the game sounds very Tolkein to me. Of course there are powerful items in the books (Aragorn's sword, Gandalf's sword, Sting, the mythril armor, etc) but except the case when the Fellowship is given gifts in Lothlorien nobody ever finds an Axe of Lightning +2 or Wand of the Wise +1/

2 hours sounds promising, that's the sweet spot for adventure games in my book.

I think the number of people who are turned off by the Tolkien theme as "overplayed" is going to be dwarfed (see what I did there) by the number of people who say "Oooooh, Tolkien!".

We're talking about geeks, after all.

Name license trumps random new idea. That's just the way the geek world works.

Not Sure wrote:

I think the number of people who are turned off by the Tolkien theme as "overplayed" is going to be dwarfed (see what I did there) by the number of people who say "Oooooh, Tolkien!".

We're talking about geeks, after all.

Name license trumps random new idea. That's just the way the geek world works.

Yeah, I think we all know that.

Still, I wish they'd licensed something ELSE. There's plenty of popular fantasy licenses out there.

Michael Barnes wrote:

OK, I have time to write more about it now.

First off, I think the only thing I'm going to wind up chafing against is actually the Tolkien theme. It's fine, it works, and the mechanics of the game DEFINITELY represent concepts and narrative elements from the source material. You get to see the Shadow spread, corruption take root, and the actions of heroic individuals steadfastly turning the tide. That all happens, and as a sort of "side story" to the events in LOTR. However, the fact that Gandalf, the Shire, Ringwraiths, and all that are there does make me feel a little "Tolkein fatigue". I'd rather the game have been a new setting. I mean, all fantasy is influenced by Tolkein anyway, so changing out the names and places wouldn't have affected the game that much.

However, the game is, at least on one play, pretty awesome. It TOTALLY breaks the stranglehold of existing adventure game design templates. like Bulwyf said elsewhere, it very much stands on the shoulders of giants, and you can definitely see the influences of FFG's past top-shelf titles (the tough decisions of BSG, the cooperation and coordination of AH, and the combat of STARCRAFT in particular) with some more subtle elements from NETRUNNER and MAGIC REALM.

It really is two games- the Sauron game is completely different than the hero game. It's quite compelling to see how the two games interact and interfere with each other.

The combat system is STARCRAFT but refined. At first, I thought it was simplistic but there's a HUGE tactical element that affords the cards a lot of versatility. The looming threat of exhaustion adds an awesome sense of pressure and desparation. Having to use cards to pay for movement and then fight creates a lot of difficult decision points, and the use of the cards as the measure of player life is brilliant.

That's really a good way of summing up the game, actually. For the heroes, it's all pressure and desparation. The game runs on a very, very tight schedule. For the Sauron player, it's all about butting up against restrictions that gradually strip away over the course of the game or that require certain coordinated actions to overcome. The sense of fighting a rising power is palpable. And the feeling that bad choices in the short term have long term ramifications, particularly for the heroes, is constantly present.

We had a blast with it. It's a new take on the adventure game genre, and one that has a lot more depth and strategy than I expected. This is not TALISMAN, TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, or ARKHAM HORROR.

I think it could challenge WAR OF THE RING as the top Tolkien game. As it stands now, after one play mind you, I'd play it in a hearbeat over WotR.

Thanks for all the info! I finally registered after lurking.

How does it compare to Descent/Doom, as it seems more like those than the others with 1 player controlling the baddies?
Lee

Thanks for all the info! I finally registered after lurking.

Welcome sir!

Hi Lee, glad to have you on board and I'm glad you were able to get to the right thread to talk about the game.

How does it compare to Descent/Doom, as it seems more like those than the others with 1 player controlling the baddies?

Well, obviously, the games are totally different since those are dungeoncrawls...but beyond that, I think the main difference is that you're not playing a tactical movement game as the bad guy, you're trying to get long-term plots that advance story markers in play and keep them there. You also provide interference for the heroes with cards, corruption, and on-board monsters and minions. What you're doing is something very different in those games, and actually much more involved. A big part of the bad guy's game is to spread influence out from the shadow strongholds because you have to have influence in order to do things like put out new monster tiles.

It's much more of an epic, "big picture" feel playing as Sauron in this one. A lot of the plot cards require you to have certain things in certain places or other restrictions so a big part of it is coordinating and making these long term plans come to fruition.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Hi Lee, glad to have you on board and I'm glad you were able to get to the right thread to talk about the game.

How does it compare to Descent/Doom, as it seems more like those than the others with 1 player controlling the baddies?

Well, obviously, the games are totally different since those are dungeoncrawls...but beyond that, I think the main difference is that you're not playing a tactical movement game as the bad guy, you're trying to get long-term plots that advance story markers in play and keep them there. You also provide interference for the heroes with cards, corruption, and on-board monsters and minions. What you're doing is something very different in those games, and actually much more involved. A big part of the bad guy's game is to spread influence out from the shadow strongholds because you have to have influence in order to do things like put out new monster tiles.

It's much more of an epic, "big picture" feel playing as Sauron in this one. A lot of the plot cards require you to have certain things in certain places or other restrictions so a big part of it is coordinating and making these long term plans come to fruition.

That's a good point, Sauron isn't really moving 'dudes on a map' for the most part, but trying to drive influence and plots.

Well I think there's enough here for me to pull the trigger on the game. Thanks for the feedback MB.

-Will

Middle Earth Quest better be good. Wednesday was birthday so I decided to get myself MEQ. However, I just dropped my clutch on my 1990 Miata driving down to Canton Games in Baltimore to buy the game. I ended up having to restart the car in in 3rd gear at every stop light. This might end up being the most expensive game I've ever purchased.

On the bright side I pre-ordered BSG - Pegasus. Shipments for Pegasus should come in October.

I'm really disapointed that I didn't get to go to Gen Con this year, and to get to demo MEQ.

Happy B-day Kingput!

Thanks for the quick 'n dirty, Michael, can't wait to take it out for a spin. Just preordered MEQ and Pegasus. Too many games! Not enough time!

Jason Lutes wrote:

Thanks for the quick 'n dirty, Michael, can't wait to take it out for a spin. Just preordered MEQ and Pegasus. Too many games! Not enough time!

Preordered this one from Amazon to use up this $25 gift certificate for a final price of ~$24. Of course, I won't see the bloody thing until Christmas or so, but I can't think of a single time I've ever been in a particular hurry for a game....

So far I love almost everything about MEQ.

Things I love MEQ:
1. Hero Movement - Kind of like Runebound but much quicker
2. Hero rest / move / battle cards system - Brilliant
3. Plots, Missions, Quests - Tons of stuff going on all at the same time. I live for this kind of stuff
4. Battles - Great system
5. Events and encounters - Nice
6. Size and scope - Perfect

Thing I don't like about MEQ:
1. 30 different posts about MEQ on F:AT. 15 posts that are more about Weeks than MEQ
2. The finale battle - You play a cool game for 3 hours and then it comes down to this? I don't know but this is pretty a pretty lame let down. Kind of like Monsters Menace America.
3. MEQ? Looks and sounds terrible. It sound like something you'd burp up.
4. Broken Minis. Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

The game may not be worth a new transmission but for 50-60 bucks this may end up my favorite game of 2009.