Roll the dice on your own. Alone doubting the next move. Win or lose alone. Isn’t that sad?
The fact is that the board game industry has discovered the solo player. On the last pages of the game manual you will find more and more explanations on how to play a multiplayer game on your own. Handy for the game crazy who doesn’t know how to drum up friends for an evening.
Games that you can only play on your own are a logical evolution. Under Falling Skies is a fantastic example of this. This fine dice game borrows plot and game design from Space Invaders: aliens threaten the Earth. A sky-filling mothership keeps launching new invaders that descend to the face of the earth. From an underground base you, solo player, lead the defense of the Earth.
The dice you roll must get a spot in each column of the playing field. A die on a power station generates energy. A die on the excavator will further excavate your base. And so on.
The tricky part is that each placed dice lowers alien invaders in the same column at the same time. Suppose you place the stone with value six on a power station. Six energy sounds attractive. Until you realize that the spaceship in the same column also drops down six squares. And if a spaceship reaches the surface of the earth, your base will be damaged.
Fortunately, there is anti-aircraft fire. But unfortunately: that only works on certain squares and only if you roll the correct values. And even then, firing back feels like pouring water into a leaky boat: you never have enough dice to shoot up all the alien spaceships. And meanwhile, the descending mothership continues to increase the pressure.
Playing dice against yourself turns out to be so surprisingly exciting. Profit or loss are entirely for your own account: after all, you placed all the dice yourself. And how nice actually, that you never have to wait for the doubting fellow players or be surprised by a quick move. The solo player always thinks just long enough about his next move.
No, the solo player is anything but sad. Just like the reader, gamer, series bingeer, crossword puzzler and ball holder are not sad. At most, his solo hobby is less well known. And if more games like Under Falling Skies come out, that will soon be a thing of the past.
Under Falling Skies, 1 player, 40 euros