Matthew BaileyGame 38 of the “Now & Then Summer Marathon 2024” – “Nemesis” played with Toby(6) and Jack (9). Nemesis was the 36th game I covered with Jack making this the 5th “then” game.
“Nemesis” is probably my favourite board game of all time and is actually the game I’ve played the most, ignoring quick games like “Uno” that you can finish in a few minutes.
My interest in “Nemesis” began when it was first released, largely because it’s essentially a board game version of the film Alien in everything but the license with Aliens being my favourite film. There is an official board game based on Alien, which I’ll get around to reviewing one day, but “Nemesis” is by far the best game based on that film’s premise.
The mechanics of the game are complex but not too complicated. Over the last few years, I’ve played “Nemesis” with everyone from Jack and Toby, to people who aren’t hardcore board gamers, to people deeply embedded in the hobbyist board game scene, and I’ve always found it to be a very approachable game, especially when at least one person is confident in how the game plays. A lot of the complexities come from the individual rooms, which you can learn about on a room-by-room basis. To actually get going and understand what you need to do, it’s really not that difficult.
When I play the game with adults or older students where I work, I usually play the main version, which is semi-cooperative. The idea behind a semi-cooperative game is that while you are working together and do need to cooperate, everyone has secret objectives that may or may not involve other players not surviving, or at the very least, your objectives might not align, meaning you may have to betray one of your crewmates down the line.
However, in this game, because I was playing with Jack and Toby, we played the game fully cooperatively and randomly selected our objective, which was to get the ship back to Earth in one piece and ensure that at least one of us survived.
The game generally works by moving from room to room, exploring, and potentially fighting Intruders (Aliens in all but name) as they appear. I’m not going to go over all the rules, but I want to talk about some of the key mechanics that I think work really well. One of the most interesting mechanics is the concept of Noise. When you move through a corridor, you roll to see where you place a noise token, and if you ever have to place two noise tokens in the same spot, an alien spawns, generated by drawing from a bag. This creates a lot of tension. Alien health is determined by drawing a card, so even when you damage a monster, you’re never 100% sure whether it will die or not. As you travel around, you also need to ensure that there aren’t too many malfunctioning rooms or too much fire, which can spread quickly. As you progress, you might get attacked, leading to contamination. Contamination involves taking special cards that dilute your deck and reduce your chances of drawing the cards you need. These cards might also be infected, which you check using a red scanner. If the word “infected” appears, that’s another problem to deal with.
So, Jack, Toby, and I started the game by waking up and discovering that the ship was overrun by aliens and we needed to ensure it made it back to Earth. Toby, playing as the Engineer, and Jack, playing as the Scout, decided to head together toward the back of the ship to check the engines, while I went alone toward the cockpit to ensure the ship was heading towards Earth. As we progressed through the ship, we encountered quite a few malfunctioning rooms, but luckily, being the Engineer, Toby was able to fix them. We were fortunate not to make too much noise, and I reached the cockpit with relatively few problems, where I discovered that the ship was heading towards Mars but fortunately, I was able to correct the course towards Earth.
Jack and Toby made it to the back of the ship, carefully avoiding making too much noise, and found that two out of the three engines were not functioning. Luckily, Toby was able to fix them quickly, but not before Jack attracted the attention of an Intruder. Toby had no choice but to use his weapon, and with two strong shotgun blasts, he managed to defeat the alien but got contaminated in the process. By this time, Jack had regrouped with Toby and was also contaminated. As I made my way back towards the centre of the ship, where we could enter our hibernation pods, I stumbled across a larger Breeder alien and decided it was best to run. I managed to escape but not before getting contaminated as well.
All three of us found ourselves in the central hub, knowing that while our mission was complete, we needed to ensure our survival. Jack, being the Scout, had the ability to scan his own contamination cards and saw that, luckily, he was not infected. He decided to hold the fort while Toby and I went off in search of a way to check ourselves. We reached the medical room and used the scanner, discovering that both of us were infected. Our only chance of survival was to find the surgery room, which we had not yet located. With time ticking down, we decided to split up to increase our chances of finding the surgery room to remove the embryos growing inside us.
I managed to stumble upon the surgery room, drawing out an alien, which I luckily managed to fight off with a well-timed shot. I successfully removed the egg inside me. Meanwhile, Toby was heading back when the door slammed behind him, and the alien Queen emerged from the shadows. I quickly searched the room next to me, found a fire extinguisher, and rushed to Toby’s aid. I used the extinguisher to scare the Queen back into the vents. However, an event triggered the ship’s self-destruct sequence, which was a major problem because we needed to prevent the ship from self-destructing to successfully complete our mission.
Since Toby was the Engineer and could fix things quickly, he gallantly decided to head off to the opposite end of the ship to deactivate the self-destruct sequence. With a few lucky dice rolls, he managed to deactivate the sequence with only two turns left. This meant that he knew he wouldn’t make it back to the central area in time. On his way back, however, Toby stumbled upon the escape pods that had opened as part of the self-destruct sequence and managed to board one with one turn to spare. With the ship saved and all of us either in hibernation pods or an escape pod, we successfully navigated the ship back to Earth and survived the alien threat.
Now, let’s get back to reality. “Nemesis” is not a game designed for children. The box says 14+, and I would say in most cases that’s about right. I have played this with a group of 11- and 12-year-olds with no problem, and I’ve also played it with my 6 and 9-year-olds but I know having got over 400 different games under their belts they are not the best examples.
The monsters themselves are a bit scary, but generally, the artwork on the cards implies violence rather than depicting it explicitly, and there isn’t anything too disturbing in my opinion. I was perfectly happy for the boys to play, but I know I can be a fairly liberal parent, so please be aware that this is not a game designed for kids, both in terms of content and complexity.
I’ve always said that more complex board games are amazing when used as a storytelling experience with younger children, and this was definitely no exception. Jack, Toby, and I went on an exciting mission to save the spaceship and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I’ve also played the game in dim light with atmospheric music, and it really adds to the experience.
“Nemesis” isn’t cheap—the base game will set you back about £90, and I’ve personally spent well over a thousand pounds on absolutely everything you can get for it, including other alien races, deluxe components, and story expansions. There’s a really cool expansion called “Aftermath,” where after a game of “Nemesis,” you start a secondary game where an investigation ship locks onto the “Nemesis,” and you play as different characters exploring what’s left of the ship you just barely escaped from. There’s also a sequel called “Nemesis: Lockdown,” which is probably a slightly better version mechanics-wise, but I much prefer the setting of the original over the Mars space station setting of the sequel. Additionally, a third game called “Nemesis: Retaliation” is coming out next year, which is set to be the Aliens to this game’s Alien.
I absolutely adore “Nemesis,” and it is my favourite game, and for good reason. Would I suggest you go out and purchase this for your children? Absolutely not. But if you’re a fan of the Alien IP and maybe you’re looking to step up into more complex board games, this is, in my opinion, an outstanding choice. It can be played fully cooperatively or with an element of social deduction, making it one of the most compelling board game experiences you can have.
*Amazing game for older kids
