BGA - Winter of Games#1 - REVIEW - 'Oasis: New Hope'

 

Oasis: A New Hope (2023)

Players - 2-4

Game Time - 20-40 Minutes

Easy to learn, better to play online

‘Oasis: A New Hope’ is the first game released in this year’s ‘Winter of Games Advent Calendar’ over on Board Game Arena. As mentioned in another post, I do intend to review each game as it appears on the site and I have played enough to form an opinion. To kick things off, ‘Oasis: A New Hope’ is a strong start to the Winter of Games and One I would recommend checking out.

 

The core premise of ‘Oasis: A New Hope’ is to create a row of descending cards from your starting place of 13, down to card ‘0’, which in the narrative of the game is Eden. The first person play the ‘0’ card wins. Sounds simple? At its core the game is indeed a simple enough concept, and made even simpler by it being on Board Game Arena where the set-up makes it very clear what you can and can’t do at certain stages of the game. After only a few turns, I felt confident in my play due to this but had I been playing the physical version, that first game may have taken some time and a lot of rule book consulting.

 

Each turn players are faced with several choices for actions, which will enable you to play cards in your row or draw cards to manage your deck (max 8 cards) or acquire and play the characters who appear in the game. These characters can have a major impact on gameplay once you get chance to use them effectively, including pillaging opponents, adding extra moves to your turn and enabling you to recycle cards.

 

Although the game is quick, I am finding it 10-20 minutes per 2 player game, each turn requires careful planning and thought, not only what is going on in your own hand, but trying to have an idea of what your opponent is doing. The last thing you want to be doing is discarding something which can aid the opposition.

 

The game works wonderfully at two players, and if that’s all you intend to play it at then its still very much worth your time, but I did manage to get a 4-player game or two in. The games were around double the time of the head to head, and I feel lacked the intensity and pace that I enjoyed about the 2 player game.

 

Overall, if you enjoy card based/deck building and hand-management games that have a simple premise, but a deeper strategic underbelly, then ‘Oasis: A New Hope’ is certainly worth a try. Its easy to pick up and learn, so give it a bash on Board Game Arena and get the Winter of Games started with a bang!

 

I guess the question with a lot of these ‘Winter of Games Advent calendar 2023’ that are appearing on Board Game Arena, is will this be something that is a one-day-play-and-done? My initial impression is that ‘Oasis: A New Hope’ is something I will make an effort to go back to over time (although with 30 more games to hit BGA in December…anything could happen!). Another way to judge, if somebody pulled this out at a games night, I would be very happy to see it!

 

7.5/10

 

Pros – Quick and easy to learn, works well at 2 players, enjoyable strategy elements

Cons – 4 player mode is less intense and fun