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And again!
Loch Ness
Tourists taking pictures of Nessie!
Nessie and the Loch Ness lake are deeply rooted in the common imaginary of everyone. The monster of Lake Loch Ness is probably one of the stars in the dinosaurs series, competing with Godzilla and the T-Rex for the top. Anyway is a bit curious that two games about Loch Ness lake, with the same name “Loch Ness” and a really close interpretation of the theme were published in the same year after years of silence around the monster of the lake.
Loch Ness by Walter Obert, published by Red Glove, is aimed at 2-5 players or, better children, from ages 4 and up. Is it mainly a kid game, with really nice art and easy but not trivial mechanics. It is easy to learn and easy to play but it offers enough choice to be really challenging for kids and not bad for adults too: the kind of game a gamer like to play with his 4-6 years old kids and actually it is the Essen best hit for my 4 year old son. In every game he discovers more possibilities and opportunities.
The map board shows the Loch Ness with an island and viewing areas, each of them displaying one symbol. The lake areas also display one or more symbols. The art is really nice but it can result in some confusion at first glance because the same symbols are used to mark areas at different sides of the lake. I must admit that it is not a problem at all for kids who are able to quickly recognize symbols and areas without making overlaps or mistakes but of course it would have been better to use different symbols and colors. The photographers are nice plastic figurines and Nessie is really a top star: a colored, nicely sculptured miniature divided into three parts, head, body and tail.
Players place two or three (in a 2-player game) photographer pawns around the lake in areas marked by colored symbols. Nessie moves on paths inside the lake in the direction of the active player's choice based on the roll of a special 12-sided die. The monster is made of 3 pieces: head, body and tail are each occupying one box. The visual effect is really amazing, it looks as if a sea monster really is moving in the water: partly on the surface, partly submerged. When the monster lands in one or more spaces close to the symbol where a player has a photographer, that player can take a picture of the monster.
Every viewing area can host just only one photographer so it is important to be quick occupying the area close to Nessie where it probably will move in the next round. In the lake there are islands and many crossroads. The monster can move in many directions but it has to move always in the direction where it’s head points: that means that it can move in any area connected to the one where the head lies apart for the ones occupied by the body and the tail. Actually the right way to move Nessie is just to move the head and then place the body and the tail in the two adjacent areas back along the way the head came: a thing kids learn easily and quickly.
After the movement all the photographers can take pictures. Every area in the lake displays one or more symbols; every photographer on a viewing area close to the monster displaying the same symbol can take pictures: one for each area. So it could be that a photographer catches one, two or three pictures in a round.
For each picture the player can draw from the bag a pictures tile: the tiles range from 1 (bad pictures) to 5 (great picture) and the photographer chooses which one (just one!) to keep.
Every viewing area usually covers 4-5 lake areas so it is necessary to move photographers during the game. Instead of rolling the dice and moving Nessie a player can move a photographer to any empty viewing area in the board. Of course that means leaving the “inertia” to other players and since the map has many crossroads Nessie will easily move away from your photographers in the next round.
The special 12-side die displays numbers ranging from 2 to 6 and also two special “water” results. If you roll the water symbol, Nessie dives beneath the surface. The player can place the monster anywhere on the map board: a thing kids really like!
The game lasts until all the pictures tiles are taken; so no picture tiles are left in the bag. Then the player who took the most valuable pictures wins the game.
I think Loch Ness is a really good game for kids age 4-6: throw the die to move Nessie or just move a photographer to a better viewing area? How to best move Nessie to be able to take as many pictures as possible? Many challenging decisions that really keep kids involved in the game. It also offers parents the possibility to “play badly” and loose without making it too obvious, a feature that I think most of kids games has to include.
With the advanced rules the game gets challenging also for older kids and adults. You can discard a picture already taken to slow down or speed up Nessie – which usually means losing one or two points to be able to take more pictures actually hoping to get a 4 or 5. You can also rule that the water result of the die roll means no pictures are taken this round. Finally you can draw from the bag one picture at a time, deciding to keep or to discard it: this puts a bit of hazard into the game (Do I preserve a 3 or do I go on looking for a 4 or 5) and a bit of maths (how many 4s or 5s have already been taken?).
I really suggest Loch Ness to players looking for an easy game to play with kids, featuring nice graphics, components and art: not the best choice for adults looking for a game to play with friends.
Andrea Ligabue
Spieler : 2-4
Alter : ab 5 Jahren
Dauer : ca. 30 min
Autor : Walter Obert
Grafik : Piotr Socha
Titel englisch : -
Preis : ca.
Verlag : Red Glove 2010
Genre : Dice and movement game
Zielgruppe : For Families
Mechanismen : Move Nessie, take pictures, keep one
Kommentar:
Nice graphics and art
Good component
Easy rules
Good game for children and families
Vergleichbar:
Loch Ness, Hans im Glück
Atmosphäre: 5
Andrea Ligabue:
A good game for families or children, not the ideal choice for a game among friends wishing for some tactics and decision taking.
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