Are you the crafter, the warrior, the inventor? Does your tribe have representation across skills? You will draw your group members and work together as a tribe to search out resources, take on ferocious beasts, and make your way through dangers that Paleolithic life presents.
Spider: Well, I thought Paleo was really good. Really, I loved it. It’s an excellent co-op game because it really encouraged communication and working together with the other players. The game didn’t play well when we didn’t communicate enough with each other. For example, if I played through my cards without really checking in, I just had to wait. I couldn’t play until you made it through. This also meant I wasn’t able to help because I was asleep. Interestingly, there really is no down time unless you’re not working with each other. The helping actions on the cards enabled that communication inherently. I feel like I didn’t get that at the beginning, and I’ve never really seen that in a game yet. The required cooperation was incentive to take your time and communicate to get the most out of the play through and reach the objectives of the modules.
Cat: I absolutely loved the necessity to communicate. I really felt that it made the game so unique. In order to be successful we really had to work together. The game designers really channeled that with the adversarial events and random draw of the people cards. Not only did the design of the game set up the requirement to actually work together, it enabled the role play mentality. That really appealed to me.
Spider: As for the mechanics of the game I liked that you could choose from the top three cards in your deck on what to do next. I thought it was interesting how you could manage based on the picture on the back of the card. There was no guarantee, though, because the faces were variable and the cards could had negative consequences. Even the “nice” looking cards could be negative. This prevented card predictions.
With the role play mentality you talked about Cat, I thought that varying events on the faces (good or bad) seemed true to what the experience could have been. In the moment it was frustrating at times, but if you thought it through that’s actually probably what it would be like. I’ll go to the mountains to get rock, but in actuality there’s a rockslide and there might be a penalty or difficult choice to make.
Cat: I agree. Sometimes, the events came off as kind of dry during the game, but if you just step back from the frustration of possibly losing, it makes sense. Here’s an example: the crafter, the hunter, and the gatherer went to the forest to get wood. There’s an unanticipated predator! In reality, there are going to be hazards and perils that you will just have to deal with to survive… Or not. So, I thought that was actually cool as we progressed through the modules.
Spider: The way the game flowed made sense. If you actually thought about it in real life terms, it seemed realistic. Like if you have to figure out the inventions, gather the resources to make them, and then choose to use the precious resources to make the inventions or contribute to the goals of the modules. In the beginning you’re very weak and vulnerable. No inventions, no resources, no tools, limited food. You haven’t faced hazards. You don’t know what to expect. The more you place yourself there, the better the game is. If you’re not engaged in the game it’s dry.
Cat: I loved that aspect of the game. The teamwork, the helping each other overcome adversity or working together to collect the needed resources. It took time to develop the dynamic, but as we progressed through the modules it really clicked and I feel we made great stories with our characters.
Spider: I thought the components were made of average materials, but the art was very good. I loved the design. The cave people were cool. The workbench was cool. It was fun to set up, and although I thought it would bug me to have to set it up again every time. It didn’t. The anticipation of the game and the unexpected turns of events made it fun to set up.
Cat: I really liked the materials. I think one of my favorite components were the meeples for the resources. The little sticks, stones, and meat got me. I think I just love meeples. Of ALL kinds. The workbench was fun to set up. I thought it made the game dimensional in viewing all of the components. We weren’t just looking at flat cards, meeples, and dice. The workbench added some dynamism to the setup that was fun.
Spider: If you’re a person that hates to lose, you will not like this game. Cat and I had to figure things out. There was an ever present tension. We had to manage resources, skulls, cave painting pieces. At any point you could potentially lose. It made it so much more fun to role play. Like, if you had two guardians. They’re just big dumb men that are damage sponges with no talent. Sometimes that felt like a raw deal if those were the members you got. This made me think that maybe a drafting mechanism for the characters was built in, but in the end it made it more of a challenge. You had to work with the random people in the groups with random abilities and skills. How do these random ass people work together to navigate the elements?
Cat: That’s true. One thing I’ll bring up, the rule book was terribly ineffective. I had to read that thing multiple times to figure it out. We ended up watching some Youtube videos to get more perspectives, but seriously that’s the biggest problem with this game. It may have been a translation issue or that the people that built the game (who knew the ins and outs) forgot what is was like to be completely new to the game. I’m not sure, but hopefully they will fix that in future editions. Overall, we both felt this game is ripe for expansions. It’s modular so you’ll be able to expand, try new combinations.
Pros:
teamwork
unanticipated events
facilitated communication
meeples
Cons:
THE INSTRUCTION BOOKLET!
Ratings:
Spider: Four Spiders
Cat: Four Cats
Rating Scale
Would not buy or play again
Would not buy but would play again
Would buy and play again, but only occasionally
Would buy and play again in normal rotation
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