Hidden Movement Masterpiece - Mind MGMT Review

today on Shut Up & Sit Down we're looking at  Mind MGMT sent to us by publishers Matagot   a game of psychic warfare which is fitting  because this manual looks like it's trying   to give you a migraine what on earth is going on now but don't worry because I'm sure Mind MGMT will make more sense once we look at  it all set up oh no set up Mind MGMT looks   more confusing naturally there's a grid  of Zanzibar as well as numbered brains   a black ops dolphin and meeples within  meeples if Franz Kafka was alive today   and embarked on a particularly bizarre  career change she might make a board game   that looks a bit like this one what  are we looking at here who is this for spoiler it's for me I had an unusually terrific time  playing Mind MGMT 10 years of reviewing   board games has left me with a heart the size  and color of a sultana and yet Mind MGMT    had me making sounds like a percussive  instrument I'm talking claps YES! slaps   gasps ohhhh and whatever this is well if I ah wait ehhh ohh AHHH I'm here to tell you that I think  Mind MGMT is a terrific board game   let me show you how it works Mind MGMT is what's called a hidden movement   game a genre of board games that ask what if  hide and seek was designed by a poindexter in   Mind MGMT one player known as the recruiter  sits behind this screen with their own private   miniature version of the main board and is going  to be plotting their hidden movement around town   each turn of the game the recruiter has to take  a step without doubling back on themselves or   moving into a space that has a rogue agent in it  and these four rogue agents are controlled by a   whole team of one to four players working together  to hunt the recruiter down if the psychic secret   agent lasts 10 turns without being caught they  win and let me tell you if you've never played   a board game that comes with a screen before  this is intoxicating like being a man with a van   but you're a bean with a screen although mostly  you'll feel like a rat in a trap spending your   turn making just one little notch on the board  showing where you've gone and then experiencing   the queasily exciting sensation of listening to  a whole team of players use all of the deduction   and prediction and psychology at their disposal  to hunt you down here's the good news the tools   that the team of rogue agents have to catch you  are incredibly annoying to use if you are a rat   it's like they're trying to catch you with a lasso  let's look at the game from their perspective   as a rogue agent on each of your turns  you can move an agent on the board   up to two spaces and perform one action which will  always give you some information and usually feel   kind of bad if you spend your time using the  ask action you pick a feature in your square   and ask the secret recruiter player if  they've visited one or more of those features   if they have they then have to place a red step  token on one of them or if they haven't been   to any of that feature you then get to paper the  board with notes reminding you that the recruiter   wasn't there during this time which immediately  has the effect of making your deductions look a   bit pepe silvia if a rogue agent instead chooses  to take the reveal action on their turn they   take the footprint in their location and ask  the recruiter when they were there the answer   might be ages ago or moments ago but to win the  rogue agents actually need to catch the recruiter   which means spending your turn taking the capture  action which means you walk to a space and spend   your whole time going are you in this space right  now and if the recruiter is the rogue agents win   in a tremendous adrenaline rush but if they're  not there right now this action does nothing   this win condition is pretty common in hidden  movement games and it is one of my favourite   game mechanics ever because the seeking team  has to put everything on the line to take the   capture action it means that they become likably  gutsy and so if the game ends this way it feels   narratively satisfying so that's the  genre that we call hidden movement now to those of you thinking oh this is a logic  puzzle it is and it's a great one but to those of   you thinking oh no this is a logic puzzle please  consider stopping watching this video because you   haven't heard the half of it quite literally we're  only halfway through the rules explanation and I  don't want to be responsible for what happens to  your brain so the recruiter actually has another   way to win namely recruiting potential psychics in  Zanzibar hence recruiter at the start of the game   the recruiter is secretly dealt three features  where they can recruit people and these appear on   the board five times each each time the recruiter  passes one of these features they recruit someone   and if they recruit 12 people they win early but  every other turn the recruiter has to reveal how   many recruits they've collected so the rogue  agents slowly develop this super bizarre data   set where they know how many of these three  features the recruiter has passed but not   what those features are the recruiter also has four bodyguards known as immortals on the board   and each time the recruiter moves they  can also publicly move an immortal   now the team of rogue agents are not allowed  to use the ask action to ask about a feature   that currently has an immortal standing  on it but also there are always two public   immortal recruiting features in front of the  recruiter's screen and if two immortals are ever   stood on one of those features the recruiter gets  a free extra recruitment and the card is replaced   is your brain starting to melt like  candle wax yet because *drums on table* there's more   the rogue agents actually have a fourth action to  choose from they can spend their turn shaking down   an immortal which lets them move that immortal  one space but also lets them guess one of the   three secret recruiting features behind the  screen and if they're right the recruiter loses   it forever but wait! the recruiter also has some  special movement powers the two temples on the   board let them move to and from them diagonally  and the recruiter also has a special mind slip   power that lets them leap across the board in  a style unique to the character they chose and   the rogue agents don't know what character  that was so they also have to deduce that   but wait! the four rogue agents each have their own  special power like tossing immortals around like   sacks of rice or something called psychic cross  hairs but wait! the rogue agents have a dolphin   but wait! walls are in the game also as well there's walls  listen the long and short of it is that this is a   fantastic board game with one extremely cool extra  secret feature that I haven't even written into   the script until this time stamp so that's all for  later but it does have one big flaw which is the   while it is maybe the most aesthetically striking  board game I've seen in years and for that reason   it is a real treasure to place in my collection  this whole design is also like willfully repellent   the big flaw with board games as an art form  is that somebody has to learn them that person   then has to teach them and for as long as the  game lasts you then all have to remember them   and usually the theme of a game and its art  design are the two big ways that designers   and publishers have of helping players to predict  and to retain rules to which Mind MGMT says   yeah I'm actually based on a cool graphic novel of  the same name and you're like oh nice but how does   that help us with what we were talking about to  which the game says mm um we were we were what what   were we talking about sorry I was running around  with chromatically opposite colors so unless you   or your friends happen to be a fan of the comic  Mind MGMT's off the wall art and theme   actively make it harder to learn the game which  is because the person who did the art for this   board game is Matt Kindt the creator and artist  of the comic which is awesome but Matt is not a   board game illustrator which is why this game's  art design is amazing and unusual and of no   help whatsoever the card backs barely help you to  remember what deck that card is from and the art   on the front of the cards all feel like they're  only stopping by your house on a way to another   cooler house that probably isn't having a board  game night how am I supposed to remember that   the ad man's elemental advertising lets them move  orthogonally while the pipe girl's smoke screen   means she of course moves diagonally the fountains  and the pools on the board look really similar as   do the buses and the tuk-tuks for that matter why  are the tuk-tuks down in the reference as thought   careers I've played this game six times and I  still have to work to remember the name of the   recruiter and the rogue agents those are the  two sides in this game honestly I could probably   forgive Mind MGMT seeming as obtuse as a  bag of elbows if it at least had an absolutely   airtight and simple manual but I'm not in love  with the manual either there are loads of examples   of play so you're probably not gonna play Mind MGMT  wrong after reading the manual but   it's not a great reference it's so busy but  listen unless you and your friends already find   teaching board games is a near insurmountable task  this is just me nitpicking on the subject of Mind MGMT's biggest flaw this is not a difficult  game to learn it's just harder to learn than it   had to be and more importantly after you've taken  your first few turns in your very first game   the sheer excitement and drama of this design will  carry you and your friends giggling and shouting   towards comfortable familiarity the rush of  playing as the recruiter has to be felt to be   believed you're at once incredibly powerful and  totally outnumbered and while you're invisible   you also get to be the center of attention at  the table and while this can be perhaps a little   anxiety-inducing if they are tremendously close  to figuring out where you are if they don't have   a strong idea where you are hearing them discuss  where you might be or what you might be thinking   is like honey dripping in your ear ah I can't get  enough of it that is unless you're playing Mind MGMT as the almost totally silent two-player  game at which point the game takes on a level of   unsmiling stress that wouldn't be out of place in  a prison meanwhile the rogue agents are playing   this lovely medium weight deduction game that's  really tense because they're always racing to   stop two separate win conditions which is too many  people being recruited or them just running out   of time but always with the rich satisfaction  of stalking a little bit closer to your prey   every turn there's just something so moorish  about starting with an empty board and then   filling it with clues and then connecting those  clues up you feel like a dog that's hering down   alleyways after someone sent let's imagine it's  the rogue agency you took your first two actions   and the recruiter plays step you see I'm still  remember the name recruiter the recruiter plays   step tokens there and there so you know they've  been to those two spaces but you don't know   which direction they were walking so then you  go to this space and you ask and the recruiter   says oh yeah I was there as my third move but that  means third move second move first move they can't   have been going this way which means they has to  be going this way third move fourth move fifth   move sixth move they've only made seven moves  which means the furthest they could be is here   here here and then quickly bring in all of the  rogue agents wall them off because don't forget   that the recruiter can't move into a space  that has a rogue agent in it right now   all of which makes Mind MGMT a solid  hidden movement game but what makes it a great   one for all of this box's outsized craziness is  simple subtle balance for starters games of Mind MGMT are never too short or too long nor  are they saggy in the middle you start they're   exciting and then you're often done in under an  hour making them so consistently entertaining that   upon finishing a game I often wanted to swap roles  and try again but even more importantly if you are   someone like me Mind MGMT is balanced such  that for all of the crunchy deduction that the   rogue agents have to do the game does not give  you enough time to figure out okay if they were   there then there and they kind of gone there oh  my god they're definitely on this square right   now the game always stops just short of letting  you deduce all the way to where the recruiter is   which means this game is constantly leaving  the solid ground of mathematical deduction   like a cool skateboard is flying off a ramp and  entering the sexy airborne zone of blind guesswork   we know they either went this way or this way  what would you do if you were the recruiter   I think they went this way and that's the key word  I think and in this game being a blend of this   tricky and unique deduction puzzle but also  this emotional game where you can win just by   playing from your gut Mind MGMT is up there  with my other favorite hidden movement game the   significantly simpler and cheaper Shut Up & Sit Down favourite Whitehall Mystery now neither one   of these games are perfect neither fixes the big  floor of hidden movement as a genre which is that   in these games if one side is doing very well the  experience can be monumentally disheartening for   the other side nobody likes hunting for someone  who totally outfoxes them nor is it a great deal   of fun to be a fox who is immediately caught in  a blind alleyway and strung up but what if I told   you that Mind MGMT had one more trick up its  sleeve what if I were to show you something that   takes this game from having the not unreasonable  recommended retail price of 50 pounds dollars to   being a steal at 50 pounds dollars what if I told  you that this game came with a little expansion   and then what if I corrected myself to tell  you that this game comes with 14 of them you're   looking at what the publishers of Mind MGMT call the shift system which even has its own logo   and if the shift system was any less awesome  I might call this branding a little pompous   but it's so clever I'd be happy if I saw the  shift system in basically any game   Shut Up & Sit Down is not gonna spoil what's in any of these secret boxes but we will tell you how it works so   when you finish a game of Mind MGMT the losing side gets to open a box with a   new expansion module that benefits their side  so you get this bomb after getting your ass   kicked in Mind MGMT that you get to open  a pack you can look forward to being even more   powerful next game but everybody around the table  gets to see some new content so you've got by all   the obvious benefit which is that this is exciting  it suits the losing player but also it means Mind MGMT gets more complicated as you get to  grips with it but then how the shift system   works is that each time a side loses a game they  kind of get like more and more modules they're   allowed to play with and as you unlock more and  more of these modules you get a kind of draft   so if I've been losing a bunch of games maybe I'm  playing with three modules that benefits my side   then the good guys might get to choose one  module so as you play Mind MGMT does   get more complicated but players also get more  and more options of what tools they want to slip   into their kind of deduction utility belt before  the game begins so that's Mind MGMT a great   game with a slightly tricky teach but also one  of the most impressive aesthetics I've ever seen   a love letter to the source material and has  this absolute glut of extras I will say that   nothing in this expansion set is going to  change your mind if you don't like the base   game but if you do like the base game ooh it  makes it awfully exciting to play and explore   it's basically a legacy game is what we've got...  going on here... *door slams* is somebody there? *phone ringing* ooh my phone?   hello hi quinns uh is it okay for me to borrow  the copy of Mind MGMT so that someone could do   the review oh I just reviewed Mind MGMT um  that's weird oh well I guess it's done now so it doesn't matter who was supposed to do it hi Ava have you done the review of  my management that I asked you for   it's supposed to be on the site like any  day now oh no that won't be a problem Matt   all the work is done it'll be  on the site before you know it   well so long as somebody did it I don't suppose  it matters you have a great day now Ava bye-bye *evil laughter* uh oh crap

Channel: Shut Up & Sit Down

Views: 274,479

Keywords: Shut Up and Sit Down, SUSD, SU&SD, Board Game Review, Review, Board Games, Board Gaming, Boardgame, Board Game, Gaming, Tabletop, Fun Games, Quintin Smith, Tom Brewster, Ava Foxfort, Mind MGMT, Off the Page Games, Matt Kindt, The Psychic Espionage Game Matt Lees, Matagot Games

Id: MAOhbIfV8qI

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 02 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/helava]

Worth noting that yeah, the version they showed was the Deluxe version, and it’s quite different than the standard version, which has all the SHIFT packages in individual cardboard tuckboxes, and most of the wood pieces are punchboard. I think it’s totally serviceable, but definitely loses a lot of the dimension that the Deluxe package has.

[u/Cheddarific]

I really appreciate that Shut Up and Sit Down always manage to give the briefest possible rules explanation, the most accurate description of what it feels like to play the game, a thorough characterization of flaws and drawbacks, and all this spread over a toasted piece of entertainment.

[u/limeybastard]

Damn it SUSD, making yet another game I don't actually need sound like an amazing fun time

[u/Sharpsley]

Unfortunate about the rules error. Rogue Agents don't halt Recruiter movement. Doesn't make much of a difference since the game is fantastic, but they use that as an illustration of a possible strategy.

[u/EddyMerkxs]

Space Biffs GOTY by the way

[u/Melodic-Scheme-6281]

This game is soooooo freaking good. Don't love the art, don't really care about the theme. This is abperfect example of gameplay over everything.

[u/CatTaxAuditor]

Given how much I like this game, I'm glad I got a copy before the SUSD/Tabletop effect kicks in.

[u/Kyssek]

Mind MGMT has killed Whitehall for me. It’s so much faster while keeping the tension up and empowering both sides all the way through. Whitehall, by comparison, can be an absolute, hour-long slog if no one picks up Jack’s trail fast enough.

[u/OdysseusX]

Dang it. I’ve been trying to get a copy. Now it’s gonna be even harder!