Top 10 Solo Games of 2021 - with Mike DiLisio

[Music] hey there everybody it's mike delecio and well it is winter spectacular time and that means it's time for a lot of end of the year lists and i am very happy to be bringing to you my top 10 solo games of 2021 now this is a year that i didn't play probably as many solo games as i have in previous years uh still played quite a number and there were a lot of really good solo games as i think i hope this list will attest to uh but uh maybe not as many as i played in years past and uh let's see how this list shakes out shall we let's get right into it at number 10 is a big sprawling epic of a game sleeping gods now sleeping gods is coming from red raven games and designer and artist and publisher ryan lockett and it is a really a big beautiful sandbox of a game it is a adventure style game and if anything it really kind of evokes the feel of something like zelda breath of the wild in board game version where you have the spiral bound book a very large spiral bound book that's made up of a series of maps that are connected and kind of encompass this large world that you are exploring and you are taking on the role of the crew the captain and the crew of a ship and you are trying to kind of go on adventures and go on quests and solve mysteries and it's all done in this very very sandboxy open world type of way where you can really go in any direction and do really whatever you want to do very very very fascinating game i feel like even though i've played through an entire campaign and more i feel like there is much much more to explore the reason why it's at 10 on my list as opposed to a little bit higher is that in the solo game you really are controlling all of the characters and that could be a little bit uh overwhelming as far as administering them it's not terribly onerous that's why it's still on the list it's such a great game in general but as a solo game it is one that's still very good i probably do prefer it multiplayer but i have played through an entire campaign just solo so it works very well that way that's my number ten sleeping gods all right coming in at number nine is another large game this is dice thrown adventures now this is based off of the dice thrown system which is really in its original iteration kind of a battle almost a battle yahtzee type of a game where you are taking on the role of a particular character you've got some custom dice and cards that are unique to your character and you're battling off against one or two or potentially three other uh of these characters and it's a very head-to-head kind of confrontational game what dice thrown adventures does is it takes that same system and you can use the characters from dice thrown in this system and turns it into a cooperative dungeon crawl which i think is great and with it being fully cooperative you can play it as a solo game and it works very well as a solo game where you can take on the role of one of these characters and again instead of battling against another player you are working together fighting against a a series of larger and more tough enemies and going through a series of campaigns throughout this dungeon uh dystone adventures continues on with the series of having amazing looking components beautiful production very large and lavish and you can even get miniatures for it if you want to to kind of heighten that thematic immersion but i really loved dice throne and i was thrilled to be able to get it in a format that allowed me to play it solo so that's my number nine dice thrown adventures all right coming in at number eight is a much smaller game this is really a small box essentially card game called the dead eye the dead eye is a very unique it feels like a passion project uh very just odd it's odd it doesn't play or look like any other game that i can think of it has kind of a post-apocalyptic theme uh it has a very stylized look that actually is stereoscopic i believe that's the term where you can play the game just as is but it also comes with some 3d glasses that you could use that kind of add to this kind of almost ethereal i don't know if that's the right terminology but but but just it feeds into this unique visual aesthetic that it has it's essentially a card game where you are trying to reach a series of destinations and you're doing that by playing these cards that you have in your hand for one of two outcomes you're either going to get you're going on a particular you know mission or goal and you're either going to be getting a positive or a good outcome depending upon that you are going to be able to progress further and further along on these runs as they call them so it's kind of an iterative game where you try to go further and further uh and you can pause it at any point it has a really nice system for kind of pausing your game and continuing on at a later point it is one that really just plays in the palm of your hand there is a little small board there but that's just for organizational purposes really everything is pretty much contained in the palm of your hand and you play cards out on the table a really unique game it doesn't feel like anything out there and that's why it made my list number eight the dead eye coming in at number seven is the card game version of one of my favorite games of all time this is mobile markets a smartphone inc game now you could kind of consider this as smartphone inc the card game and while that would be you know somewhat accurate it feels very different it's very much its own beast it it has some similarities of course with smartphone inc but it is very much its own game one of the things that i really appreciate about it is that it turns this kind of core experience where it's really an economic game where you are trying to create cell phones that you are selling to a market of customers that's going to be a fluctuating market round by round and you're trying to do so in such a way that you are making the most profit because you're setting the price on your phones you are setting the particular features that your phones are going to have that particular customers may want and you are trying to do so in such a way that you can potentially get access to those customers before other players in the solo game you are playing against an ai opponent called steve jr and this is a nod back to the original smartphone inc smartphone inc which had an ai opponent called steve now i always felt that smartphone inc the base game was not the best as a solo game it's probably my favorite five player game of all time but it didn't work as well solo the expansion came out for that game and made it a better solo game but i feel like mobile markets is the best iteration of smartphone inc to play as a solo game and so for that reason it's number seven on my list mobile markets all right coming in at number six is shalia great houses now this is actually an expansion to shalia warring states which was one of my favorite games from last year and what this expansion does is a couple of things it's a modular expansion it adds some new elements to the shaolia base game but it also adds a full solitaire mode with you know a potential for a campaign in there if you wanted to do so so uh great houses is something that will set you up in a way that you are playing head-to-head against a virtual opponent really the way chalia plays is kind of head-to-head battling where you've got your own kind of compound and you are playing cards from a market you're purchasing cards drafting cards and you are building up kind of your tableau in front of you that have offensive abilities defensive abilities you can win in a multi multitude of ways you can win just by knocking out your opponent's fortress you can win by gaining a cultural victory some of your cards are cultural cards and the way this works is that cards have dice triggers and so you're rolling dice to trigger the abilities of the cards that you're getting out in front of you and so the great houses expansion allows you to play against a pretty tough virtual opponent and it feels very much like you are playing the game of shaolia and it's not difficult to administer the ai something that i appreciate in solo games and so whenever i can get a game that i really really like that was never able to be played solo before that now has a viable and robust solo mode it always gets my attention and that's why shalia great houses is my number six all right coming in at number five is let's make a bus route the dice game let's make a bus route was a game from a few years ago from sashi and sashi a japanese publisher that was one of my favorite flip and write games this was a multiplayer only game where you were trying to create a bus route on a dry erase board representing a japanese city i believe tokyo but i could be wrong there and you are doing so by trying to pick up passengers and take them particular places now let's make a bus route the dice game takes that same central conceit this the very similar feeling mechanics but it turns it into a one or two player only game and it has a very nice solitaire mode where you are really essentially trying to do the same thing but optimize this is really kind of an optimization uh efficiency type of a puzzle puzzle and i tend to like those games quite a bit where you are still doing the same core mechanic now and let's make a bus route the dice game it is more focused on dice rolling as you might expect by the name than by card flips but it still has that same feel the same charm of let's make a bus route and just in a package that is designed for one or two players only really solid solo game is let's make a bus route the dice game coming in at number four is merchants cove this is a big grandiose asymmetric game and the idea in merchants cove is that you are playing as surprise surprise a merchant and you are trying to create goods that you are then going to be selling to customers who are coming into merchants cove on boats and the asymmetric nature of it is that every character is going to be creating those goods differently so you might be playing as the alchemist which has a little bit of a potion explosion marble type of a mini game you might be playing as the blacksmith which has a bit of a dice placement dice manipulation type of a game or as the oracle which has a kind of a roll and right type of a mechanic so you are all doing things you're doing the same things you're making goods and getting them for sale but you're doing them in a different way so you would think that this would not lend itself well to a solo experience however the solo variant of merchant's cove is fantastic because you're playing against an ai opponent called the peddler who allows you to play any of these other asymmetrical characters and it works really well it's still going to be competing for you with these customers it's going to be competing for with with you for market sponsorships and it is a very tough opponent and is something that allows you again to explore all of these different asymmetric characters it does so with a very clever card driven ai automa style system that works really well merchants cove is a game that i have been very fond of this last year and one of the reasons why i've been so excited about it is that i've been able to play it solo as well as multiplayer and i've really enjoyed all of my plays of merchants cove all right coming in at number three is my new favorite verb and verb game what do i mean by that well you've got rolling rights you've got flippin rights you've got all of these different types of things but basically it's the idea of you're going to have either a sheet or two sheets in front of you and you are marking things off based upon either flips of a card or rolls of a dice this game is hadrian's wall and hadrian's wall is coming from garfield games which is a publisher that has produced a number of games that i've been very fond of hadrian's wall is a heavy flip and right game heavy in the sense that you've got a whole lot of options ahead of you well heavy in every sense i think it's fair to say there's a lot to consider in hadrian's wall there are a lot of interconnecting mechanisms basically what you're doing is you are flipping over a card that's going to tell you a number and type of workers that you have available to you that particular round and you're going to be also choosing as you play the game end of game scoring goals that you are working towards and so it's really nice because as the game progresses you are constantly trying to have this kind of push and pull of using cards in such a way that they're giving you the resources that you need to be successful but also using cards to determine what your endgame score uh score gor goals or scoring goals are and and i really like that i also like that this is a game that gives you that kind of comboing feel that you tend to look or i tend to look for in these rolling right flip and right type games but with much more involved you've got two different sheets that you're working on and you have to be thinking about so many different things you're looking at these sheets and it looks a little bit overwhelming and it is a little overwhelming the first few times you play it but as you get more comfortable with the system and how it works it really all starts to come together it feels like this clockwork and you can focus on many different paths to victory that's another thing that i like about it is i have really approached this game in a number of different ways and i have enjoyed it that is hadrian's wall coming in at number two is a very ambitious i would say deck building game called imperium classics or imperium legends they are basically two versions of the same game with different civilizations within and so this is a deck building game based upon civilizations ancient civilizations or legendary civilizations as the the corresponding titles would uh indicate and so it is a heavy game it's a game that had a pretty steep learning curve for me but it really has paid off that learning curve that investment of time and energy that i spent into learning how this system works paid off tremendously in in droves with what a satisfying experience it is as a solo game as a matter of fact this is a game that is a multiplayer game that i prefer to play solo it really is one that allows me to take my time to really strategize to work through these decks because each civilization plays very differently than every other they have different strengths and weaknesses they've got different sometimes winning conditions and so it is a game that is complex there are a lot of different card interactions combos triggers bonuses that you have to be aware of and account for and the ai system is one that is based off of kind of a series of flow charts and each civilization has its own individual priority flow chart that you consult and so that could be again a little bit of a a challenge at the beginning it can feel a little bit overwhelming but again if you're willing to put in the time to learn this system it pays off it is such a rich experience i feel like i could be playing this game for many many years down the road they've already released those two core boxes that each contain a large number of civilizations and i feel like they continue to add new civilizations and i'll still be interested in checking them out that is imperium classics or legends all right finally my number one solo game of 2021 and i say finally that's a little nod to this game it is final girl final girl is a game that is really brand new at the time of this recording and it shot up to the top of this list and you might say well look if it's this new how can you already say that it's your number one game of the year there's a couple of reasons why number one is that final girl is a an iteration a a kind of an evolution of a previously released game called hostage negotiator that i have played a ton i played a lot of hostage negotiator over the years which is a solo only kind of a a it's not a deck building game for say but you are using cards and dice that are going to trigger the cards are going to you know basically uh be the actions that you're going to take and the dice are going to they're going to determine whether you're successful or not successful or how successful you are on these actions that you're taking final girl takes that core system and it changes the theme and it adds a completely different kind of way you're interacting with that system in final girl you are playing in a kind of a slasher film those old school like friday the 13th or halloween those old school slasher i guess they still make them horror movies you are the final girl you're the last one alive you're trying to be the last one alive that's going to definitely defeat that bad killer who who is at a particular location and this is a modular system so you can play with the core box you have to of course have the core box and then you've got all of these different modular boxes where you can play as different final girls that have different abilities you can play in different locations that all have different setups and different kind of twists to the system and you face off against different killers that all have different uh strengths and weaknesses and little tweaks again to the system so it's a very modular open-ended system that's built around the same core of card driven actions with dice to determine your success or failure on that it's a very tough game it's very difficult to win but it is very satisfying and the theme is fantastic everything that final girl has added to what i was familiar with in hostage negotiator is a positive i everything that they've added to something i'm like yep that's better yup that's better this is what's got me reinvigorated i had kind of gotten a little burned out on hosta negotiator this has taken that system and reinvigorated it and got me tremendously excited about where this continues to go because it already has a large number of different ways you can play it and i cannot wait to see what they do i can i can already kind of tell that there's a lot of neat little tweaks that you can make to the system to keep it compelling to keep you coming back for more it is a solo only game which is again something that is also really nice to see that that a uh publisher and designers are putting this much effort into a really tremendous looking and feeling product that is really just for solo gamers so that's why final girl is my number one solo game of 2021 alright well been a great year hopefully you solo gamers have found a lot of things that you have enjoyed playing let me know in the comments below what you think about your favorite solo games of 2021 and this is mike delecio signing off from dice tower headquarters [Music]

Channel: The Dice Tower

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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: m-ZbckG5AbU

Length: 20min 18sec (1218 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 01 2022