Beast Review: Is This Beast a Beauty?

thank you [Applause] hey everybody I'm Tom vassel I'm Joy Evans today we're reviewing bees which is actually a good name of this game so in this game the theming is you're in some fantasy world where some massive gigantic Beast that as far as I can tell it's considerably easy to kill yeah yeah it's got like three hit points um is uh terrorizing The Villages and eating sheep and people and you need to stop and sometimes it's doing it for good cause I don't know if you read the background when you play the wolf she's she she adapted a human that no one else won it and then someone killed that human and that's why she's wicked well that happens it does I've had it happen to me myself anyway this is a one versus all yep uh it is a hidden movement game where one person's playing the the Beast and they're moving around and everyone else which one to three other players are hunting them down so right here's some more information about the game [Music] the game is going to take place on the map here and this is a there's a there's a site for four players and then aside for two to three players this is the four players side and there's different animals on the map there's bears and pigs and sheep and there's different people here uh normal people and then Lords and the Beast is going to start in the middle and players are going to start in town so one person's going to pick which Beast they would want to be in so right now I have fangria the Wolfpack Queen but there are various beasts that you can pick each Beast has a certain number of hit points they also have a bunch of special abilities and you need to get a certain amount of currency to upgrade these special abilities which use these really tiny tokens by the way and it kind of works because they're embedded into boards but these tokens are tiny really cool artwork here on the beasts then we have the heroes who are going to be hunting down the beasts I'm not I don't know if I love this artwork as much but the same thing they're going to be able to be upgraded and they also have special abilities that they're going to do finally you're going to pick kind of a scenario and there's different number of scenarios again bait this is a four player one but you also might have a two to three player one and this is going to tell you how things start what map you're using kind of a little bit of a background to it and how the Beast wins and how the hunters win so in this case Hunter's win when the Beast is dead or if they make it to the final night this is a three night game get to the final night and if the Beast is if the hunters are if the Beast hasn't won the hunters win the Beast wins when they kills four of these people on the board on this particular one there's also we'll show you at the end of each night it will show you if the different people have accomplished things like here for example the hunters have done a damage to the Beast then they get this reward um if the person's starting and this one is still alive then the hunter is going to reward meanwhile the Beast if they kill two sheep or one Pig they get this reward and so on and so forth so this kind of is your template for the game the Beast also has an optional mini board that they can take that has a little mini map that you're going to be able to you know move tokens around on this mini map to show where you are so you can look at this rather than the main board because the game is about secretly moving to the Beast around it also talks about some of the tokens in this game and different things that will show up on the board so the game takes place over three different 24-hour periods first there's the dawn phase and in Dawn phase you're going to take this small action card deck and you're going to deal a certain amount of cards to each player so let's say you're playing a four player game the Beast gets one then everyone else gets three cards they're each going they're gonna look at these cards you're going to draft one and pass it to the next player now this is an important part of the game because each of these sections here the top part is what the hunters will use the bottom part is what the Beast will use so you are both trying not to pass cards to the Beast or the hunters you know who your opponent whatever they might be you're trying not to pass some good cards but you're also you might want to pass a card to someone on your team if you are another Hunter and so these cards are cards that players are going to be playing however once you get these cards once all the cards are drafted you're also going to have cards that match your character so if I was Fender I might I'm going to also have this card lurk I'm going to have this card every turn once drafting is done player is going to take turns going back and forth and you're going to be able to play one or two cards each card has a blue or an orange piece to it you'll see they make like a whole thing when you put them together it's not like a yin yang kind of thing you could play one of each or you can just play one but you'll do whatever it says so here if I play lurk I move one step in this one in any order I can move one step and or gain a beastly Talent beastly talents and Hunter items are things that can be gotten each player you can get these there's going to be a face up display over here and these are cool cards that will help you out now when moving the hunters are just going to be moving along the dotted lines here on the board when the beast moves they're going to be looking through a deck here of cards they have a no movement but they also have north south east and west and they're going to be secretly moving over here next to the board so what is trying to be accomplished as you do this I mean well you saw that you were going to be following along this card here and maybe you're trying to accomplish your goal and the Beast in this case for example is trying to hunt down these people so there's gonna be a lot of attacking in this game and attacking will do damage and everyone has a certain number of hit points and you can see on this Shield here the sheep have one hit point the bore have two the bear have two they give a certain number of these points that are going to allow you to upgrade things there's settlers and Nobles and but the the hunter is going to be moving around they will occasionally if they move into a spot where the Beast has been you'll put out a token that matches that particular Beast which by the way I find this to be a very annoying mechanism because I'm like oh I gotta find the right ones for the Beast I'm using I don't know why they couldn't just all have been the same but that's a minor annoyance I guess some people be like that's cool that you have the ones that match your person like yes but anyway um and I should as a side note here say I really do like the little wooden pieces it's a little weird to have these nice screen printed wooden pieces and then stand these um I get it it just it's kind of a mix and this board is a little busier than I would prefer as you look at it here even as you're seeing this whole board it's a little bit hard on the eyes but I digress moving around on the board and attacking are the main things that can happen the hunters will have a chance to drop traps out on the board basically when you drop a trap you're picking secretly a type of terrain and if the Beast steps on that terrain and is on the right section of the map you're going to be putting it in different sections each section has its own trap area the Beast will take damage if you know where the Beast is you can attack the Beast the bees can attack the hunters in fact the Beast can even kill a hunter although the hunter gets resurrected comes back at the end of the next night the Beast is not necessarily hunting the hunters the Beast is hunting these people and animals whenever the Beast attacks they reveal themselves but Hunters can also use searches to figure out and then the Beast is going to have to reveal wherever they might be at that point and there's also ways for the hunters to look at some of the cards and if they see the cards they can probably figure out where the Beast is at the end of the day after everyone has done all the action cards once they're done passing and you can only pass if there's no other player with fewer action cards in your hand than you then you're going to collect your contract rewards for things that you've done and you'll be able to upgrade all action cards are discarded you're gonna have put out new beastly talents and Hunter items next to the board the any animals or settlers that haven't been killed have all their wounds removed from them dead hunters come back to life and you upgrade your characters and go to the next round so that is essentially how the game works one thing I'm still not sure about in this game who is hunting who that's the biggest thing actually oh I'm sorry I mean it's not over there I mean yes the hunters are hunting the beasts right and most most of these one versus all the players are hunting somebody right Mr Ax from Scotland Yard you know Dracula inferior of Dracula but here first of all if I was this big or I'm sorry if I was this big this gigantic Beast uh you ain't hunting me I'm hunting you right I wouldn't be nearly afraid and I have more hit points than three or four too but it's just yeah that was as I played the game it's realizing the hunters are hunting the Beast right right that is the way it is but it it is a little odd in that so A few things that I want to say very positive I I want to say I feel like this is you know we often talk about games being the same Yep they're always trying the same things we trade the same things I don't feel like this one's doing that this one's just trying something completely different even though it's a hidden movement game the idea of drafting the cards that both players are using having your own cards um upgrading giving you a set thing that you need to do with goals each round I've never seen that in any other game no I like the drafting like the Synergy of the cards you have to put down like the idea of that type of stuff I also like it's not just hidden movement when it's also kind of you have to save people too you move them out because you're wanting to not let them be devour certain things because it's kind of his his go-to but then so you're you're combining that with trying to find and kill him so there's a lot going on and I appreciate the fact they try to put more into it yeah and the artwork is incredible I don't like I said I'm not I said I'm not a huge fan of the humans I like the monsters yes yeah humans are fine I don't like the game that much though and I have several reasons why one is not a great rule book no okay it's tough to get into this um but even I don't it's not impossible no it's not a flowing game at all there's some wonky things like I know that there's probably some good game reason why you can play one blue card and one orange card that just feels like an extra layer too much for me why not just play one or two cards it I always was like oh I have a bunch of orange cards I mean it just feels like it's it's making this energy thing that I didn't feel added to the game for me I was like oh I oh I can play two cards I don't know I just and the biggest thing for me well I'm not a huge fan of this is because it's built as a hidden movement game right and it is one of the least interesting hidden movement that part of the game it's one of the least interesting I've ever played because you like the hunters have so many ways to track the Beast yep the Beast has to reveal every time they kill anything yep so I'm never sitting there going where is the Beast it's like probably here and when you're playing the Beast you're like yeah that's where I am it's almost it's not even that negative if they know where you are so no harder I mean it is and I and this is one times I think people are gonna be really expert at the game go well what about all this and this but when you come into this new you're expecting this ooh I'm hiding in stuff I'm not finding that in this game no it's funny how the hidden obviously doesn't work very well when the Beast is killing things like it should the movement sometimes doesn't work very well either because if you don't have that Synergy you can either move or do something I mean if you if your movement if you have no cards to play you'll just move and that's it and that's rough and that you'll move so you're back I'll move north and then the c or whatever is it the c or I forget the one of the one of the characters is basically a Seer yeah and they'll be like I would like to look at your last card you moved so they flip over and everyone's like you move north you're like yeah I did I did it's just yes I did so the whole time you're as a player so you're just trying to get to the Beast there's very little guesswork on where he is right and there's also I don't think a lot of other strategy don't hunt the Beast go get him any and that's how a lot of hidden movement games are right the person down but this game is like almost purporting to be something more like oh gotta protect the villagers go you know and yes that is what the game is but I guess you could argue you should go to where the villagers are and just stand there and wait for the Beast to come to you yeah but then where's the fun in that and the thing is is like also when you've got when you have to get that Synergy cards so many times it happens I know they say bad drafting it's not the way it works you'll just have you'll have one card you can play and that's it so you're there's a lot of waiting for a game that's just short now the one thing this game has going for it is it is short I mean it is probably I mean two players probably 60 minutes but there are other short hidden movement games too that you feel a lot more involved and you can do a lot more during this there's a lot of just waiting or trying to get to the Beast so there's no real hidden to it yeah I don't know I kept running into little things like there's these swords that you can get that let you do an extra day great why is a wolf have a sword I know again it's just a minor thing but it's a little weird to me on the other hand then I'd be like oh I get to upgrade yep I love upgrading stuff let me see what what you know abilities I want to get they're kind of that's kind of cool but my problem is and this is the way it's going to be with a lot of games is Beast doesn't exist in a vacuum so right and as a here's a side note by the way folks we haven't played this game together at all actually no we played in two separate play groups with different people yep um uh so there's no group thing going on here but when we were playing people kept saying it's kind of like Fury or Dracula I'm like you're right because if you're a Dracula does have the whole we're gonna hunt someone who's powerful Dracula right and we're gonna beat the snot out of him but he also can fight back yep and it's an amazing thematic experience then there's also games like mind management and Scotland Yard which are just go find the person and they're all about the logic of finding the person this game is a leans towards Fury of Dracula but and it's like those other ones but it's not as good as either you know I like hidden movement games a lot and this is one of my least favorite I've played I agree too and now I like the when I first was able to lay traps traps were interesting you know they are but what's the difference see that's the thing it has interesting ideas but the reality doesn't deliver on it for a lot because like you mentioned hidden hidden Movement Like mind management Fury I can't imagine a time I'd ever pick this over either one of those if you like the battling go Fury you know because if you're a Sniper Elite or Sniper Elite is great too but then if you like just that 60 Minute hit movement mind management is just so smooth yeah like that you mentioned that thing about traps that's another one of the little things that would pull me out you're like I said a trap did you set it in a spot here no I said it in one of those terrain pieces when he received a hundred these are rules and theme and this game has a lot of them a lot of them but they should kind of work together and the trap one is one of those ones where you're like well yes from a game perspective it makes sense to be able to do that thematically my mind is having a hard time processing that especially since the whole game is based on theme yeah now this being said Studio midhole this is a nice bang out the production here really solid production I love it I love the Miniatures or the shrinky dinks or whatever you call them I love those I love the way it looks and the artwork on on the map itself is great yeah I said it was a little busy but yeah I didn't mind the artwork I liked it I liked the look of it yeah and I think it's a really good thing and a lot of people seem to be really having a great time playing this game yep but I'm giving you my thoughts on it and I I went into this one with very high expectations because hidden movement is a genre that I really enjoy right um and I kind of left this one feeling dissatisfied for me this one is not as bad as I've been making it sound I'm giving it a six because if you tied me in and shared so let's play it again I'd be like okay let's try it again I want to see the good in this game but it's just not gelling for me to be one that I would recommend to people what about you no I agree I can a little higher 6.5 only because I want to like this game and I'm still up here I like the artwork I like the ideas of certain mechanics in it although they didn't deliver so I like the I like a lot of the ideas in this game but it's not one of those that I can't really recommend going to get this unless you've kind of have a vault of hidden movement and you want to try everything this does have new things but I just yeah 6.5 is where I land on it I I play it again if somebody had it set up I'd sit down and try it again but it was and it's possible that there's a combo of beasts and Hunters which is unbelievably cool I haven't tried all the different combos right right I don't know but yeah well there you go folks that's Beast I'm Tom Russell I'm Joey Evans and one of us is the Beast hunt us [Music] [Applause] thank you

Channel: The Dice Tower

Views: 35,992

Keywords: board game, board, game, dice, card game, cards, catan, monopoly, tower, dice tower, vasel, review, tom vasel, vassel, settlers, gaming, GeekUsername: TomVasel, board game review, boardgame, uno, ticket to ride, apples to apples, educational games, educational, top 10, juegosdemesa, Brettspiele, ボードゲーム, brädspel, jeuxdesociété, משחקילוח, 보드게임, deskováhra, graplanszowa, bordspel, 棋盘游戏, gioco da tavolo, desková hra, gra planszowa, настольная игра, trò chơi trên bàn cờ, jogo de tabuleiro, لعبة اللوحة

Id: bMxMw2V86BU

Length: 18min 44sec (1124 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 06 2023