Board game review of Virtual Revolution

Games based on films are not uncommon. For example, there are tons of games based on big brands like Harry Potter, Star Wars or Jurassic Park. But also films outside the big brands, such as John Carpenter's "The Thing from Another World" or this year's "The Rattlesnake“, games have been given. However, it has never happened before that the director himself designed a game for his own film. Virtual Revolution is set in the setting of the film of the same name by director Guy-Rodger Duvert, who created an area control game in collaboration with Cyril Villalonga, which has now found its way onto the German market through Board Game Box. You can find out how the game performs in the following review.

Neo Paris, 2047. The technological revolution has not developed as we had hoped. Instead of providing more control in reality, it has enabled an escape into the virtual world. It began with simple games, virtual worlds called "verses", in which players could let off steam with their personal avatars in various settings. Now that these worlds can hardly be distinguished from reality, almost everyone is permanently connected to the verses. Meanwhile, multinational corporations are fighting for control of Neo Paris and the verse market. They increase their influence, set up servers, develop new verses and have agents do the dirty work for them. All to become the most influential company in Neo Paris.

Fight for a Futuristic Paris

In Virtual Revolution, we take control of one of the corporations in Neo Paris and try to consolidate our influence. In doing so, we must always keep an eye on the Necros, cyber terrorists who influence events in Neo-Paris. A game is played over five rounds of three turns each, each of which is divided into three phases. At the beginning of our turn, in classic worker placement style, we place a so-called director in any district of the city of Neo-Paris and then optionally exert influence on this.

For your information: The game begins with influence markers from all corporations in each district on the map of Neo-Paris. The city is divided into 7 districts with 3 - 4 districts. The influence markers in each district show how great the current influence of the respective corporation is in the district. The more markers, the greater the influence. Each district can only be controlled by one corporation. If a corporation controls all districts in a district, it controls the entire district and receives its special ability. The corporation keeps this ability until it loses two districts in the district.

If we influence the district where we have placed our director in the second phase, we can either place one of our own influence markers, remove one of our own or our opponent's influence markers, or bring one of our own influence markers from any district into the current district. The first two options allow us to draw so-called corruption cards, which have negative effects for us as soon as we have 5 or more of them at the end of a round.

Reinforceable actions

After we have exerted influence, we choose one of five actions that we want to complete. We can work, recruit agents, build servers, create verses or donate. Where we can perform the action on the game board is usually determined by the position of the director placed in the turn. Each action has a basic action that can be strengthened with certain cards. For example, when we Work five Eurocredits, the currency in the game. With a boost we could increase this action to 7 or more Eurocredits per action.

The action recruiting agents gives us the opportunity to recruit an agent in the city. To do this, the director usually has to be positioned up to one space away. We then pay the cost of 4 Eurocredits and can take the agent. We can have up to three recruited agents in total. These have effects that can be activated once per round. We can also decide to promote an agent at any time. If we promote an agent, we can use his special promotion ability once and he is no longer considered a recruited agent. We then send him into retirement or make him an action boost. If we send him into retirement, he is guaranteed to give us victory points until the end of the game. If we make him an action boost, he is placed under the associated action to strengthen it. However, he remains vulnerable.  

Strengthening our income and influence

A Server & Hosting can we build, if there is no server in the area of ​​the placed director and this belongs to your own company. In addition, there must not be any own server in the entire district. Building servers is expensive, but it gives us more income at the start of a new round, 2 victory points and permanent influence in a district. If our influence markers in the district have been removed and another company takes influence over the district, it belongs to two companies at the same time. This gives us a little more control over what is happening in the entire district.

Also one to create verse is not very cheap. Above the game board there are 5 verse cards. These are one of the main sources of victory points at the end of the game. If we buy a verse, we also increase our income at the beginning of a round and can take one of the cards. These verse cards have a loading... and an online side. If we buy a card, it comes to us with the loading... side. However, the card only generates victory points for the online side at the end of the game. To activate the online side, we must fulfill a certain requirement during the game. In addition to the activation, we usually receive a one-time bonus.

Interpol and Necro are breathing down our necks

For both of the actions just presented, we have to draw a corruption card in addition to the cost. With the donation action, we can get rid of these again so that we don't exceed the activation limit of 5. We can also acquire so-called immunity markers. These are important as soon as the action phase is over for all players and the Interpol raid and the Necro attack occur.

The Interpol raid is activated as soon as you have 5 or more corruption cards. The negative effects of the corruption cards are then dealt with in any order. This usually results in you losing agents, income, boosts, servers, etc. The immunity markers can be used to fend off a card so that it has no effect.

The Necro attack follows the raid. For this, the top Necro card from the corresponding stack is revealed and completed. This has different effects depending on the income level of the company. While the company with the least income receives a bonus and a negative effect, the one with the most income has to contend with two negative effects. The rest only with one. Therefore, when building servers and verse cards, it is important to always be careful not to increase your income too high. These effects can really hurt on the way to victory. Here, too, you can pay immunity markers to ward off the negative effects.

In the fifth and final round, both phases are dealt with again. The Interpol raid also affects those with fewer than 5 corruption cards and the Necro attack is particularly hard. Then comes the final scoring. Here, in addition to controlled districts, agents, built servers, online verse cards and classic resource points, you also receive points for one of two mission cards that you received at the beginning of the game. These specify additional goals that you can fulfill to receive a large amount of additional victory points. The company with the most points at the end wins the game.

Information about Virtual Revolution

Conclusion

At first glance, Virtual Revolution looks great. The game board, the illustrations, everything seems to fit together and adds to the excitement of the game. Despite the rules seeming quite complex at first, you quickly get into the game after the first few moves and fall into a real flow. Virtual Revolution is easy and fun to play, especially thanks to the personal game board, which shows each move point by point with well-designed symbols. In addition, the mix of worker placement, area control and engine building is simply well done. All the mechanics work well together and remain exciting throughout, as there are simply many options for progressing in the game.

However, despite the good game flow, the interesting game world and the well-functioning mechanics, there is a big problem that can arise when playing Virtual Revolution. The person who has the highest income does not necessarily have to be the person who is currently doing best on the board. Nevertheless, this person is punished really hard by the Necro attacks. If Interpol raids are added to the mix, it becomes really hard for the person to pull themselves together again. So it can happen that you have the highest income in the game, but it is of no use to you because you are being destroyed by the game itself round after round. Meanwhile, the other players can continue to build up their already better position and crush the player who is behind even more. The fact that there is such a punishing element at all, which can punish players who are not currently fighting for victory, is simply unnecessary and can greatly reduce the fun of the game.

Overall, Virtual Revolution is definitely not a bad game. It's fun to exert your influence on Neo Paris and improve your company step by step. However, the punishment elements and the possibility of ruining the entire game for your fellow players in the last round if you want to mean that Virtual Revolution leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Nevertheless, anyone who can relate to the dystopian theme and loves area control games should take a look at Virtual Revolution. Because if everything goes well (not every game was heavily influenced by the punishment), the game can be a lot of fun!

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