Brew

There's trouble brewing in the Forest!

We're kicking the year off with a random game, which was solely bought due to the custom colorful dice pictured on the box. The game ended up being quite fun, which is not surprising since it comes from the same publisher who created Dinosaur Island (you can read my review of that game here).

Brew is a game where you are an adventurer exploring a town and its surrounding forests. To win, you must gain control of as many forests as possible and release amazing creatures back to their native habitats. Along the way, you might learn how to brew some exciting potions that can help you on your travels!

Mixing worker placement, resource management, and area control, this game creates a challenging experience for 2-4 players battling to have the coolest creatures and the most varying forest types!

Mash Up Of: Unearth, Pokemon, Seasons

ART: 5/10

This is one of those games where you either love or hate the art style. The creatures are fantastic and reminiscent of Pokemon, which may trigger a bit of nostalgia in some players.

STORYTELLING: 1/10

I often found myself confused about why we were releasing creatures into forests that we actively are burning for our own gain. If this game is telling a dark story of reality, then maybe storytelling gets some more points here. Crafting potions from gathered resources found in the forest makes sense, but not really piecing together the creature, village, and drinking potions aspect.

COMPONENTS: 4/10

Custom engraved dice AND they are colorful. This is definitely a huge draw for dice collectors such as myself. The rest of the components are typical cardboard punch-outs, and the playing cards have varying sizes. Nothing too special here, but giving a couple of points for unique dice you rarely see.

COMPLEXITY: 6/10

I am giving this a slightly higher score due to the number of options you have in the game in order to succeed. Maybe it is just my lack of expertise in area control games, but trying to balance potions, creatures, and controlling forests seems hard to master. There are interesting decisions where you can take two actions before another player, but in reality, going too fast could hurt you, and you may want to let things play out before you make your decisions. Forest control can change with a simple drink of a potion, so a player really needs to think ahead to make the best play possible.

TRAVEL-FRIENDLY: 5/10

I was able to fit all the punch-out resources into a bead container, but there are still dice, a board, and stacks of cards that could be combined. It takes up some space to play, but not enough that you couldn't bring it on a trip. You could fit most of the components in a pouch and bring the board separately, but you could easily fit the box in a carry-on bag as well!

UNIQUENESS: 4/10

From my knowledge of games I have encountered thus far, only a few have custom die faces. This game merges the randomness of die rolling with worker placement/area control so that a random roll doesn't always bite you in the butt. The rest of the game is like many others, obtaining resources and spending those resources to acquire cards that have point value and effects.

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Publisher: Pandasaurus Games

Game(s) Pictured: Brew