In this article you will find the review of the Frankenstein, where we are going to show you all the parts of this game piece by piece, as well as photos of the autopsy of its components so you can build an idea of this monstrous filler.
INTRODUCCTION
Frankenstein is a trading game. You will have to create a monster getting the eight parts of its body: brain, head, torso, heart, arms, legs, hands and feet. The components can be obtained by buying them from suppliers of doubtful reputation. Selling them to get some small funds is another alternative. If you want to be more mean, you have the option of putting them up for auction, so that if someone is interested in them they will have to pay you. If this does not seem enough, you can always go to the cemetery to do a little vulture and dig up a few members …
OBJECTIVE
To be the first player to get the eight body parts necessary to create a monster.
GAMEPLAY
Each player starts the game with twelve coins and has his own board on which he puts the body parts (cards) he gets. It also has a screen after which you must hide your board and coins at all times during the game. The cards that represent the body parts all form a single face down deck.
A player in his turn can perform one of the following four actions:
Buy a body part or coffin.
Sell a body part or coffin.
Auction a body part or coffin.
Loot a player’s graveyard.
If it is decided to buy, sell or auction a body part or coffin it is necessary to draw the top card from the body parts deck. Then you choose what to do with it.
Buy: if you decide to buy the body part, you pay the bank (general reserve) as many coins as the number in the upper left corner. The player places the purchased card on his board, behind the screen.
Sell: if you decide to sell the body part, you receive as many coins from the bank as indicated by the lower value number in the lower right corner of the card. The player places the sold card in front of his screen, forming what is called Cemetery. All cards that go to the Cemetery must form a single deck face up. Each player has their own Cemetery.
Auction: if it is decided to auction the body part, the player must put a price on it, which must never exceed the amount of coins he has at that time. The rest of the players will have the option to increase the bid or pass. Once everyone has spoken once the auction is resolved: if the player who started wins, he pays to the bank as many coins as the price set, the body part remains and he places it behind his screen; if it has been won by any other player, the winner must keep the card, placing it behind his screen and pay the final price to the player who started the auction.
Note: the coffins are as joker cards. They replace any body part that does not have a player on its board. They can replace the body part that best suits at all times, that is, on a given occasion it can be a torso and then become legs after getting a torso card.
DATA SHEET:
- Name: Frankenstein
- Date of birth: 2019
- Place of birth: Invedars
- Son of: Yehuda Berlinger (author), David G. Forés (artist)
- Genre : Board game
- Age: 10+
- Players: 2-5
- Time: 30-45 min
Kickstarter info.
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
FREAKISM (Originality, Theme):
It is already known that the current market of talbetop games is quite saturated with titles. This overload causes that it is difficult to find games that we are passionate about showing an innovative mechanics and that contribute something more than what has already been seen in many others. No, Frankenstein is no exception; I do not know if the theme is very exploited or not (as far as I know, it is not), but the mechanics have already lived in other titles such as Lixo? Mull Garbage. In this game a player flipped the first card in the garbage bin. If the bin was blue, for example, the players had to bet, in turns, the amount of blue trash cards from their hands that they wanted and could. The winner of the bet took the bin as positive points, while the rest took the garbage cards bet as negative points. Frankenstein is not clonic to this Lixo? Mull Garbage, although he still reminds me of him. In addition, that the theme is about this well-known monster is also not relevant to the game; It could be a game about collecting fruits instead of acquiring body parts to assemble your own monster.
Freakism score:
HYPE (Excitement, Replayability):
As a trading game that has auction mechanics, it requires interaction with the rest of the players in order to be enjoyed. With two participants forget it and with three play it if you have no more options to play. With four and five players it is when he begins to win fun. In this game, if you buy the body parts, it comes out relatively expensive and if you sell them you get little for them. In the end you will end up auctioning them, assuming the risk that this entails. Do I put a high price so that they do not take it away from me or a low price so as not to spend a lot of money in case I take it but with the high risk of being sent to me? In the end it is also a game that is based on memory, since carrying more or less above the account of the coins that rivals have will help you set the price of the body part that you are going to auction. Likewise, knowing what body parts others have achieved also helps; They are probably not interested in the auction of a member they already own, unless they want to plunder cemeteries in later shifts.
Personally, games that are purely commercial like Frankenstein don’t motivate me much, It would end up seeing relatively little table if I had it. As you have seen, its top mechanic is the auction and you will not taste it if you are not a minimum of four players.
Hype score:
SANITY (Difficulty, Rules):
Frankenstein won’t have problem to learned to play or dominated. The rule book is simple, concise, structured and very well explained. With five or ten minutes of reading you will have enought. I do not put 10 score because it would still need to emphasize something more than the cards that a player wins, have be saved on his own board, behind his screen. In Frankenstein, players should never have cards in their hands, and althought is something that is mentioned at the beginning of the rules, it is not stressed too much. As you know, it is typical in card games to keep them in your hand …
Sanity score:
DELUXE (Components, Design):
The game material is all of good quality. The box is of considerable thickness, as are the boards and screens. The art of the letters are also correct, not remarkable but good. If I have something to complain about is the back image of the screens, the one that the rest of the players see during a game; It seems that it lacks resolution and looks somewhat blurred. I would not know if it is done on purpose that effect or it is a printing failure.
Deluxe score:
GALLEY
All parts of Frankenstein on ourScary board game mat.
CONCLUSIONS
I did not like Frankenstein. I accept games like Princes of Florence¸ which is a eurogame that adds auction mechanics in one of the phases. A purely game about trade like Frankenstein does not fit into my style. I would recommend it if what you are looking for is precisely what it is, a filler about trade with an acceptable level of negotiation between players. It is useful as a gateway to this style of games for its simplicity both to learn it and to play it. Of course, remember that with less than four players completely loses its essence.
Our BGG final score:
The Doctor Frikistein reviews are made without any sponsorship and with games purchased for our property.
[yasr_visitor_votes size=”medium”]
