Matthew BaileyThe Radiation Game is a quick and simple take-that card game that landed on my doorstep a couple of days ago, and I was immediately interested to try it out. One of the things that caught my attention most was the background of the game. Rather than being made by a traditional design company or even a small indie project, it is actually made by Badtwn Design Co, a graphic design company using it as an example of the sort of things they can do alongside poster design, marketing campaigns and more. As my own background is in design, I found this really interesting and jumped at the chance to look at a preview copy. At the time of writing this review, I do not actually know when or how this will be coming to market, although I expect it will go on Kickstarter. I will definitely come back and update this review when I know more.
The idea of the game is simple. You are trying not to get to ten radiation. You start the game by having a face-down deck of cards in the centre as the draw pile, and each player gets three cards. If you have any number cards in your hand, you immediately play those down in front of you so that you and all other players know exactly how much radiation you have. Again, you are doing your best not to reach ten, because that will eliminate you from winning. Notice I said “winning” — you are not actually out of the game, even though you can no longer win. This is an interesting mechanic. Normally I am not a big fan of these kinds of rules, but here I think it works really well.
There are two other types of cards you can draw: instants and actions. The two main instants are Hotspot, which means you instantly draw another card, and Mutation, which is a constant effect that sits next to you and forces you to draw an extra card whenever you pick one up. This can be tricky to manage as the game goes on.
Action cards are kept in your hand and can be played at a suitable time. Sneeze forces another player to pick up a card. Radiation Go Away allows you to remove a radiation card from in front of you — but instead of discarding it, you put it at the bottom of the deck, meaning it will come back later. Player Hazmat lets you block incoming radiation or negative actions such as Sneeze or Mutation. Finally, the all-important Heal card halves your radiation level, which can be especially effective in the later stages of the game.
The visual design of the cards is simple but, in my opinion, really nice. They are bold, clear, and make it easy to understand what they do as soon as they are revealed. One of the strengths of The Radiation Game is that you can play it very quickly, with an average game taking about five minutes. This makes it a fantastic “while waiting for food to arrive” game. As you have cards laid down in front of you, it needs a little more table space than something like Uno, but you could easily play it in a restaurant. You might struggle in the back of a car, though.
There is a small amount of tactics involved in deciding who to target or when to use your block cards, but there is also a lot of luck. You can sometimes have a bad run — in one of our games, Toby never picked up a positive card and was eliminated after drawing six radiation cards in a row. From a design perspective, that might seem a bit iffy, but because the game is so quick you never feel too bad about it. You just shuffle up and go again.
One key mechanic I have not mentioned yet is what happens when you hit ten radiation and can no longer win. You still take your turn. If you draw a card that helps you, you can use it; if you draw radiation, it passes to the next player clockwise; if you draw an action, you can still play it. This is important because it means you can still influence the game, perhaps getting some payback on whoever helped knock you out. Nobody is ever left sitting there doing nothing.
We do not often play simple card games, but I really liked The Radiation Game. It is simple, effective, and very enjoyable. This was supposed to be a starter game for a longer game night, but in the end we ended up playing about a dozen games in a row because we enjoyed it so much.
I am genuinely quite gutted that, because this is a prototype copy, I have to pass it on so someone else can review it. I fully intend to get the full version when it comes out and will definitely post a follow-up review once it is released.
Disclaimer: We received a prototype copy of The Radiation Game from Badtown Design Co. via the UK Board Game Review Circle for review purposes. This has not affected the content of this review.
