Playing Asylum when TIME Stories came out was one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve ever had. Fast forward to Madame, which we just finished tonight, and I am so happy to be done with this game and system. It’s like I’m living through my Game of Thrones disappointments all over again.
Time stories was my #1 game until the last scenario because I kept just having faith that the story would be this amazing overall thing that we would all just be amazed by but obviously that could not be more wrong!
Still made for some of the best playthroughs on the Dice Tower. When Sam couldn't hold his breath and made everyone else laugh and have to stop looking at the icons on the card to remember ... classic DT moment.
Stated recently by the publisher on Revolution: "The first season of TIME Stories, also called the White Cycle, ended with "Madame" scenario. White Cycle games will still being produced to answer the demand, but there will never be a new scenario in this cycle. TIME Stories Revolution is a second season, also called the Blue Cycle, or Revolution Cycle. Every new scenario will be released in this cycle. You can play Blue Cycle scenarios even if you haven't played White Cycle scenarios. The first Revolution scenario will be "TIME Stories Revolution: The Hadal Project", followed by "TIME Stories Revolution: A Midsummer Night" (the theme will be fantasy for this second one). Every Revolution scenario will be a standalone game. The game elements in the box will be adapted to every scenario. There will be a meta-storie between every new scenarios. "TIME Stories Revolution: Experience" is an optional buy. It is not a scenario, it is meant to enhance the Blue Cycle game experience providing a followup in the different missions and of the agent. It will allow players to gain experience points that they will be able to use to gain... things... between missions and in missions. The Revolution Cycle will be more agent-centered than before. Of course, the rules will evolve compared to TIME Stories White Cycle. Because the board dissapered, the "runs" system will be changed to use "AZERAC" (translation note: I have no idea how it will be speled, this is a phonetic translation ). Every agent will have an azerac personnal pool, and the players will also have a common azerac pool to use in the game. There should be less of die-and-retry runs. The author wants the new cycle to be more story-telling and less an optimisation game, even if optimisation will still be present. There will be no more dices! Every three boxes presented (The Hadal Project, A Midsummer Night and Experience) should be released in August 2019. Each box should cost under 30€."
So.. my ranking looks something like this: 8. Under the Mask (switching of receptacles was fun) 7. Estrella Drive (I did enjoy tense atmosphere and In the dark cards) 6. The Marcy Case (in fact I did enjoy this one a lot, I liked in-your-face action and setting) 5. Expedition: Endurance (great atmosphere and twist at the beginning) 4. Lumen Fidei (heavy on tactics, not for everyone) 3. A Prophecy of Dragons (polarizing one / love-or-hate) 2. Brotherhood of the Coast (good story and epic in scale) 1. Asylum Asylum has a huge advantage that is the first one even if lacks complexity of the next scenarios. It has great atmosphere and cool engaging puzzle. I'm still on the fence where should I put Madame. I don't regret playing any of the scenarios. If you have good gaming group it's a great way to have some fun, every time in different setting and theme. I have no problem with some difficulty issues in some expansions where you need to think more about group composition, economy, allies, strategy and so on. I don't expect of game to be easy or trivial. Also I personally like how every scenario has it's own little mechanic / element. I'm rather glad that they were trying new things without recycling old ones. On the other hand, if you've invested time in overarching story you have every right to be disappointed. What they did at the end was totally lazy and unacceptable.
I was hesitant about trying this, because there seems to be a real lack of replayability - something I think is a necessary, fundamental aspect in every one of my board game purchases. And after seeing this, I'm really happy I stuck with my initial decision and didn't get this. I'll invest in other (and better) games. :)
I _used_ to agree with you... but you know what? If I spend £15 on a board game and I play it ONCE, having a great time for three hours with three friends, and then I sell it second hand for £5 because it's a one-shot game... ...then that was £10 for a great afternoon for four people. Better value and probably more fun than a cinema trip. I'm willing to consider that, for the right game. This isn't it, obviously. But I'm now in the market for a game that is.
I watch and re watch the first 3 modules of live plays of TIME stories from the DT guys. Some of the best gaming vids of a live play i have seen. After PoD the game went belly up for me.
First of all, thank you for live testing streams. They're easily one of my favorite segments on the channel. As a viewer, I can see actual game play and this gives me a better idea if the game is for myself or my group. Now, I watched both segments and I was incredibly frustrated just watching your group play through the scenario. Not because of anything you were doing, but because of the scenario itself. I genuinely do not understand how the developers thought this specific module would be any fun to play at all. Let alone watch someone else play through it. The number of 'loops' required for completion was just insane. It took you, what, 4.5 hours and that's including the fast-fowarding you started doing near the end (And I completely understand why). It felt like watching a marathon but every 10 yards that were covered, you guys were pulled backwards 5. And the "To Be Continued" ending ? Are you kidding me ? That's the pay off for people who have played through every scenario ? I own maybe 4-5 of the scenarios, but seeing this and where it's headed... I have no interest in buying any more of these. Total garbage, I really hope they catch major heat for this one. It's completely unacceptable. Side note, it was somewhat difficult to type this without using profanity. Love the channel though. Keep it up.
I loved the original Asylum, and like Zee found it just delightfully dark! Under the Mask, Endurance, Estrella Drive, and Brotherhood of the Coast were all fantastic fun when we played them, the others less so. I thought A Prophecy of Dragons was a step below most, until Lumen Fidei, and then Madame came along and took the crown!
Finally finished the final story and even I have to agree T.I.M.E Stories has missed so many opportunities to improve...or never really cared enough to begin with. My Ranking of all 9 stories and why: *Recommended Top 3* 8) Brotherhood of the Coast 1685 NT - Pro: carribean theme / sandbox freestyle sailing movement / art / lots of content | Con: narrow branch choice dependency 3) Prophecy of Dragons 7553 AT - Pro: quantity of content / art / sandbox style of story discovery | Con: thematically uninteresting 6) Lumen Fidei 1419 NT - Pro: interesting travel mechanism and locations / morality levels / smart puzzles | Con: too much combat / confusing narrative at times *Completionist Middle 3* 1) Asylum 1921 NT - Pro: the novelty of T.I.M.E Stories / variety of mechanics | Con: short / the basic 'run' (and reset) concept of T.I.M.E Stories = kills story enjoyment 2) The Marcy Case 1992 NT - Pro: puzzles / story connections | Con: zombie tropes / excessive combat = stresses the fiddly combat mechanics 4) Under the Mask -1146 NT - Pro: interesting theme / novel receptacle mechanism | Con: boring puzzles and story leads *Avoid at all cost Bottom 3* 7) Estrella Drive 1982 NT - Pro: nice little 'dual time jump' / change of thematic style | Con: initially dull theme / misleading 'mature content' advisory 5) Expedition: Endurance 1914 NT - Pro: initial premise and theme / the 'false start' | Con: 'false start' = so many wasted cards / short story / bland thematic follow-through 9) Madame 1673 NT - Pro: a few novel 'card games' | Con: extremely dull theme / receptacle overload = waste of cards / boring historical narrative / unsatisfying wrap-up to the White Series I'll still be on board for the Blue Series because a) I'm curious to see the changes and b) I do like the concept still. But, yeah, weary of wonky mechanics that I'll end up house ruling anyway and an overall story arc that is disappointing in depth and poorly developed.
Interesting. Me and my girlfriend played through every scenario together over the past 4 years and while some are definitely better than others, we enjoyed all of it. The ending never mattered much to me or her so that could be part of it but for us, it is one of the best and unique board games ever made. Also, madame is her favorite and I also loved it. It’s interesting to see a lot of people hate on it now because I think it is incredible
We finished Madame and the whole series yesterday and have played all scenarios. I agree that the overarching story, or lack thereof, was disappointing. However, I enjoyed every module as did my group and I can honestly say that T.I.M.E. Stories is my no 1 game. Some modules were better then others, but each had something special and new to them and I enjoyed that. For me it was simply the best gaming experience I had so far.
I’ve not played Madame, but overall my group has very much enjoyed time stories, but many of the problems tdt discussed I completely agree with. Except for lumen fidei that scenario was amazing
"I did things that I was not proud of." - the unspoken bit: like finish Madame I mean, T.I.M.E. stories needs to be recognized as an accomplishment, I feel, but it definitely failed hard as a story. I hope they have brought on a writer or someone specifically for the story itself for the next one. I think an intriguing story that binds the episodes together will keep people interested. I am always wary of any long-spooled out thing that seems to promise an intricate and fascinating story tying together a lot of weird things. Lost is a perfect example they brought up. So much promise that the writers themselves built up but couldn't/didn't deliver on. It seems like they pulled the ending from "Catching Fire" from the Hunger Games without ANY of the building up, the context, or even investment in characters to make it an engaging cliffhanger inatead of just a "wait...what happened? Why did the paradigm shift completely do suddenly? Who is Mr. Ex Machina, first name Deus, and what is he doing in *MY* story??
My favorite scenario was the one where I jumped into the guy who gets to play really good board games instead of this one.. In fact I liked it so much I never jumped back.
Brilliant episode this one! And super funny. I really loved this game and i still believe it is a great system. However, inevitably it got a bit lacklustre for me from scenario to scenario. I played the following 5 and here are my ratings. Asylum: 9, Marcy: 9.5, Prophecy: 8, Under the Mask: 5, Midsummer dream: 6. Then I stopped because I felt the system was a little worn-out after several plays. I felt it became more of the same and lost interest.
The comparison to Lost is apt - in both cases, writers keep setting things up and raising stakes without having even an inkling about how it’s supposed to go. And on the topic of green cubes - search Bushland Adventures and watch the whole zany thing.
I don't understand what Sam means by he likes the game but not how they handled it. Does he mean that the mechanical framework is a 7 but the individual expressions of that system i.e. the games themselves vary beyond that?
My group played the first three, and quit. We were, to a person, very disappointed. We recently talked about going back to it. If we do, we will just play it scenario by scenario, and enjoy them for what they each are. We also ignore the starting from the beginning each time. We pick it up from your place of loss.
#1 Asylum, #2 Endurance, #3 Prophecy, #4 Marcy, #5 Lumen, #6 Mask. I've only played part of Brotherhood so I'll reserve my judgments. Estrella and Madame are still in their shrink and I'm scared.
The funniest thing about them saying how they wished it was just individual stories and you could play them in any order... we have been playing them in order, but I think we barely noticed the "overarching story" that was supposedly happening; I was just seeing them as individual stories. I definitely have enjoyed it more than the DT gang, it seems. Granted, our group isn't done yet, so we shall see. :-) One thing I can easily say is that the quality of the modules is definitely pretty variable. Some are far better than others.
Heh, the discussion about skipping over time loops in sci fi reminded me of the Endless Eight in Haruhi. They actually spent eight full-length episodes retelling the same story over and over when the characters were stuck in a loop.
Funnily enough, that was a great example of what they told us about. You would go insane if you had to do the boring bits all over again and were helpless to do anything about it. Which is exactly what happened. I loved endless eight.
I just want to remind you that with your review 'A Prophecy of Dragons' you all agreed that the true power of T.I.M.E Stories is the stories you remember months afterward (ua-cam.com/video/xGzAKJ6gSXI/v-deo.html) That's the TRUE power of the game, and perhaps helps soothe the 'wounds' of ending with a 'Lost ending'.
Sounds like T.I.M.E. Stories developers need to add an experienced improviser to the team, so they can enhance the value of reincorporation. Bringing things back is always so satisfying for the audience/fan base.
I’ve only played upto Endurance but have to agree with everything said. I rated Time Stories a 10 (and it was my 2nd favourite game of all time at one point) and enjoyed all my experiences with it... but Chronicles of Crime killed it for me. It literally took everything I liked from time stories, removed what I hated (the multiple runs) and added extra stuff that was awesome. I am interested to see what the second edition will be like... but i won’t be buying it until I see some positive reviews.
We stopped playing after Under the Mask (we have Endurance, but it's still in shrink). I think the major annoyance for us, as Zee brought up, is the way they'd introduce a cool new mechanic one episode, then completely forget about it for the rest of the series. It kind of felt like they kept making some interesting developments of the system, then wiping the slate clean again next time, whether it was using the physical components as part of a puzzle themselves (Marcy) or the multiple paths to the goal (Prophecy). Certainly won't be getting the next one; in fact we'll likely be getting rid of this one as soon as we can bring ourselves to re-sort the cards into their original order.
If I was sitting there playing this, I would hope Tom would come up to me and tell me to give up on the main story. I would be psychotic being led to believe that it would all tie together only to find out that NOTHING tied together. His Lost analogy is spot-on, but it actually didn't go far enough. Not only did they spend all those WordPress fretting about that hatch, but when they finally showed us what was inside IT WAS A PERSON! I stopped watching them and there because the creators proved to me at that point that they weren't interested in answering mysteries. They were only interested in HAVING mysteries. As is, I've bought 1 and 2. I was waiting to start until grabbing more, but I think I'll just play the first 4, we how that one affects me, and then just move on with my life.
My favorite scenario was Lumen Fidei, because it was most involved in what we thought would be the overarching storyline. My least favorite was probably Madame, because it was frustrating to have multiple short runs where you had barely any time to do anything. On top of that, you get yelled at for not accomplishing enough and then punished by being given even less time to do it in. "Missed opportunity" is definitely the best way to describe it. I had fun with TIME Stories, but it could have been so much better. The translating and editing were pretty bad some of the time, and that's a real problem in a game like this where precise wording matters. I'm not sure how licensing laws work internationally, but imagine if they could have done modules with different IPs like Marvel, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, etc.
Loved most of the scenarios with the Egypt one and last one worst. Even last one was probably a 6. However overall story was like a 3. It was strong for most of the modules, then completely died in the last module. The Item 12 card was forgotten or missed. But, that extra story still didnt help. My group only found 3 cubes, so we looked up the end code, and were exceedingly disappointed. Still have not decided if I will play the new ones.
A bit late, but hey, better late than never right? I’m actually to a point in time stories where I dont consider them connected and I only buy the modules that interest me. I love the system but we ended up house ruling a lot of stuff just to get the game running smoother and running faster. I still currently have 3 modules and looking to get expedition and brotherhood ans maybe estrella
It didn't stay as amazing, I think, because other games started to build in more story elements as well. I still think its a pretty good, unique experience, even if the combat resolution was meh.
I liked the idea of Time Stories but the price point was a bit too high for my taste and I also heard that the stories were hit and miss so I stayed away. Luckily I did. How you can finish a 4 year story without a proper ending is beyond me. Do those guys even know that a lot of people die before 8 years have passed?
Dear Dice Tower please make a review of your most favorite battle system in a board game We played Asylum, Endurance, Prophecy and Pirates. Never kept track of the overall story, because it didn't feel intriguing enough. It was just like a good movie we sat down to watch everytime. Battle system and the repetitive gameplay sucked though.
It's cost me HUNDREDS to buy all the Time Stories stuff in Australia. I feel ripped off. Let's compare time stories on cost). The money I wasted on the last four or five weak time stories episodes could have purchased me a new copy of Lord of the Rings or Mansions of Madness (more scenarios, more replay ability) . I am not going to pay for anymore games from space cowboys or time stories, they can't go back and undo this betrayal of their customers. And that's what this is, like a kickstarter who took your money and gave you half of what was promised. I'm done.
For those of us with bad eyesight, the thumbnail for this video merges the "F" and "I" in "FINAL" into an "A". The review would probably have been the same either way.
I will be trying at least the first new time stories simply because I'm hoping it's going to be Unlock! with a narrative folded around it. If it sucks, I'm done.
the first case was a 9 or 10 and i think the reason being the system was designed along with it. all the subsequent ones made multiple runs feel like a chore
This is part of the reason I dont buy games that are supposed to be part of a greater story. For story, watch TV, movies, read a book. For gaming, buy games! I have enough amazing stories from playing Bohnanza, 7 Wonders, Power Grid, and my many other favorites
29:24 The first thing that popped into my mind was Bill Cosby. He went from 'beloved icon' to 'I can't be seen with you' overnight for so many people. Is it too strong to call Time Stories the Bill Cosby of board games? Anyone have a better comparison?
@@davidwilliams7935 Hey David. Sorry if I worded it poorly. I'm not trying to compare the actions of Bill Cosby to the Time Stories debacle, but the disorientation and sense of betrayal that both situations created. What do I do with all these pleasant memories from the past? Are they completely tainted, through and through, or is there something redeemable there? In the case of Cosby, am I allowed to watch old, otherwise innocuous clips without disgust or a cloud over my head? The jokes are (were?) funny, but given the broader context of who he turned out to be, should I still find them funny? Personally, I don't know. I don't know much about Cosby so I don't have the same existential crisis to work through as a lot of people who admired him have, but I can understand both the person who is able to separate the man from the material and the one who cannot.
For Time Stories, I can separate the game itself (which is really good) from the disappointment that is the unresolved narrative and deteriorating mechanics of the 9-module whole. And I get those who can no longer look at any part of the game the same again. Again, I'm all ears for better comparisons. Cosby was literally the first thing to come to mind.
My favorites were Endurance, Prophecy and Asylum. Marcy and Mask felt mediocre. Lumen was bad. Then I quit because 50% success isn't worth the price. Real shame they didn't reuse the expedition time jump, the receptacle switching, or multiple pathways through.
so my friend has been busy so we haven't been able to get to the table in a long while. Last one we did was egypt and the boat. I've got all the expansions as they've been coming out, but should we even bother playing through them at this point or just save our time and sell the game and play something else?
It kind of feels like they just gave up and went "Oh, well. Re-do everyone?" But even then - finishing Madam by having "the opposing agency" take over will basically have kept what they did and set up for the whole "the next one is a different thing" bit while feeling less like a slap. I remember feeling the same thing from Agatha Cristi's Orient Express (which is very highly valued for reasons I don't understand) and I wanted to burn that book. NEVER a good feeling, ever, and definitely a detractor from future similar products - especially taking into account that the people who were likely the most excited for the final puzzle are the ones you disappointed most - those interested in the overarching story and desiring a wrap-up.
Well.... we just finished our third module last friday (dragon prophecy) and we are straight done. The gameplay just doesn't interest us at all anymore. We love the artwork, we love exploring and readin the stories, we love searching for clues. But the skillchecks and battles are the most boring, random stuff.... whenever there was a battle i checked out. It wasn't exciting, it was just random and boring to us. And then we have to do it over again. And then we have to do it over again. And then we have to do it over again. You know about the worst part of being stuck in a timeloop? You know about the worst part of being stuck in a timeloop? You know about the worst part of being stuck in a timeloop? By the end of each and every scenario we were just annoyed with the game and skipped over the story bits we already had as fast as we could. And if there is a gauntlet of skill checks at the very end, we just cheated because we couldn't be arsed at all. This is going away, wither selling it, or using it as a new wall deco.
I loved the games & didnt care about any connecting story. My favourites were Brotherhood, Madame, Lumen Fidei & Endurance. The one I hated was the Manson rehash as it was badly translated and in appalling taste!
Maybe it's some kind of French problem. I mean, Ubisoft did about the same with Assassin's Creed: Playing the first or first two parts really got you hooked on the overarching story and then you get the impression that they somehow lost focus - or simply didn't care. Maybe they didn't expect it to be so successful and went: "Well, let's see. We don't know yet how this game's gonna be recieved. If people don't like it, we can just stop and decide if we wanna conclude the story. If they like it - well - let's just see what happens..." And you can see this indecisiveness all along as Tom, Sam and Zee also have mentioned - with the cubes for examples. And I'm torn. Every single expansion: I couldn't wait for them to be released. Sure, there were stronger and weaker ones (for the most part, it's a matter of taste I suppose), but I enjoyed most of them and really loved some (my personal favourites being Asylum and the Prophecy of Dragons (imho this one had the most cool mechanisms and ideas of all by far and the easter eggs and cross references to previous chapters were just amazing). However - I can't sum it up any better than you did: The game itself is near perfection - sure, there were weaknesses you can't deny. But it was a fresh experience and you really could do a lot with that framework. As I said I really liked most scenarios. But you get more and more curious what happens in the frame plot and in the end they just screw you. Such a shame. Even the overall quality is somehow tainted by this... I don't even know how to call it... And the studio shouldn't be rewarded for that impudence. But you know what the worst thing is? I'm gonna buy the next installments of the series anyway because I've had so much fun with the previous ones... I guess you just have to lower the expectations regarding the overarching story and see the episodes the way they are: as standalone experiences hardly having anything to do with each other. In the end I just can agree to Tom or most of you for that matter. The end is ruined and maybe this has a bigger impact than it actually should. But this feeling of being screwed over here is so strong and infuryating that it takes away a very big chunk of the enthusiasm there was for the actual game and the scenarios per se. However the game itself was one of my favourites and looking back it will probably stay one of them because, sure the end was crap, but does it make the rest of the game bad?
I rate Time Stories very high and here is why - Never cared about the main story, stopped playing in the middle of the egyptian scenario, never got back to it again.
I've watched all your reviews of this game. At first, I was hyped to try it, but each further installment just made me more hesitant. Glad I never invested anything into this. Keep up the good work.
I would still recommend it, as long as you're selective about the modules you pick up (or try). If you've watched the reviews (or this video), you probably have a good idea of which ones you'd want to avoid. :) I will continue to proselytize Time Stories and teach it to new players but only with a narrow set of expansions.
I said it already elsewhere, but my experience told me that the number of runs you need to play a scenario has a huge impact on your group liking the scenario or not. One lucky dice roll and you just finish the scenario before running out of time -> you will think the scenario was great. One bad roll, you need to redo the scenario again -> meh, the grounddog day effect is boring after a while. By the way, my group never cared about the overall story, because it was clear from the beginning that they didn't plan anything ahead and were just throwing random stuff to give you a feeling of an overall story (I know the publishers said the opposite, but I don't believe them and I think that was only a poor marketing technic).
The final puzzle and the actual ending were incredibly awful. It feels to me as though they said to themselves... "Hey, we screwed this up, these aren't as popular anymore... let's slap a sort of overall ending on the latest one we have ready to go and call it the last one in the series and try again with a new design." I get why they'd want to do it, but this definitely smacks of extremely low effort. It's pretty inexcusable. As far as it souring my enjoyment of the series overall.... it didn't, in large part because I had already checked out of the overall story and I was mentally prepared for a mediocre ending. Had I not been, it would have been a much harder slap. My enjoyment of the series overall was much MORE hurt by the mediocre mechanics. The fact that they didn't view anyone's time as valuable, thinking it would be fun to force you to play the same scenario over and over and over and over again hoping to get randomly luckier or to correct one tiny mistake. Had we been forced to play this by the actual rules, I would have thrown it in the trash by about the 4th one. Instead, we played every single one of the later ones with a "whoops, let's just undo that right now" and "let's skip ahead to where we would have been" mentality. And the random dice rolls? If we could get it based on the averages, we just moved on. Those changes made the series a lot of fun for us to play, and I had a great time with it. I don't normally rate a game positively when it requires massive house rules to be playable, but because these were fairly easy changes and we had a good time spending a few hours on each one playing this way, my overall experience was positive, and I am looking forward to the start of the new series. I sincerely hope they've taken all this feedback into consideration and it will be much better! Hopefully engaging and playable as designed and not requiring tons of house rules and cheating. I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt, at least for the first couple. My overall ranking of the modules would be: 1 - Asylum 2 - Brotherhood 3 - Expedition Endurance 4 - Madame (except for the awful ending) 5 - Marcy 6 - Prophecy 7 - Lumen 8 - Under the Mask 9 - Estrella Drive
Read all of the content in the linked support site www.thetimeagency.net/#/home There are between mission de-briefs and story content about how Bob was having difficulties with his superiors. The over arching story is fleshed out a little more in each de-brief.
Without madame I’d rank the scenarios 1) brotherhood of the coast 2) asylum 3) lumen fidei 4) operation endurance 5) marcy case 6) under the mask 7) prophecy of dragons 8) estella drive I’d say 1-4 are amazing 5-6 and good 7 was meh 8 was bad Madame could be the worst game ever, but I plan to get the next time stories regardless
in the same boat. The setting was very incoherent, the writing was uninspired and the mechanics were lacking meaningful decisions - just trial and error.
but you did not come to the same conclusion as thay did! you disliked asylum and stopped playing, while they both loved it! their disappoinment is with the ending and some of the later scenarios which you've never tried.
My game group had the exact same reaction to the conclusion of Madame...drink more ovaltine?!?! Our favorite scenario was Prophecy of Dragons. My favorite receptacle I played was the dog in Expedition Endurance.
I cant imagine that any one other than the writers of this scenario actually playtested it. Besides the horrible Story conclusion... What the*** was the matter of our Mission. Why did we need to touch the king? Why did they implement all these golden charakter symbols when 80% of them did not even matter. And what if you did not look at the card of bobs grangrandgrandfather? There was no clue to what we were supposed to do!! And then at the last mission failed card we decided: Well we dont know what to do, we already cheated (because nothing of this fading/switching Charakter thing was fun) our way through this boring thing for about 4 hours , lets just return to mike. And then we played the whole thing again like the mike said... JUST KIDDING WE FLIPPED THE TABLE!!!
We stopped playing after Under the Mask. It had become boring and the cards were so poorly written they were hard to read. The first couple of cases were really fun. Not surprised it finished with a thud. I have no interest in playing another version of this game.
Only played Asylum (3 runs) and Marcy Case (2 runs) and they are by far the best board game experiences ever. Ready to play them all and I have ZERO expectation of an over-arching storyline. It just feels like you guys assumed the bigger story... but I've not played them all. So we'll see.
I won't be buying the Revolution cycle. Like Sam said: "Fool me once...". I"m not going to reward the company that ripped me off by buying more of their stuff. Clearly, this project was way bigger than Space Cowboys anticipated - they got overwhelmed with the demands of maintaining a coherent storyline (for all the reasons mentioned in this video) and they were too proud (or greedy) to stop, take the time, and do it right. It has been mentioned in the past that the typos and translation issues alone were rampant throughout this series - that Space Cowboys didn't send the text out to a native speaker of whatever language they were printing the game in and have them proofread it is really hard to understand and is indicative of their lack of care or quality control. HARD PASS on Revolution!
Madame was absolutely horrible in how it was designed. I knew the connecting story thing will never really happen as it didn't have a single visionary leading this, but they just made bad decisions all over the place.
As dar as I know BoB is dead, if I get the epilog right... We Player through all of the scenarios as a couple and did it Not always in the right order, maybe thats why we didnt suffer from the breakdown of the arch that much. Reallöhne linkes discovering the worlds. Estalla Drive we Really liked, also the First half of madame - before we had no clue what to do and always run into something that required another restart. Brotherhood of the Coast we liked - it was nice to have a feel of an Open world. Endurance was also a good experience for US. Not so high on the Marcy case on the other Hand. What we Lobes was the short one: St thomas
This game has too many problems with the whole ‘different designers for each scenario’ thing. It leads to inconsistent gameplay, story telling and game mechanics. It feels like everyone is making a scenario without playing anybody else’s and doing their own thing without any direction or supervision. They run Unlock! the same way and the games are just wildly inconsistent. (If anyone is interested in playing one or the other and wants my advice on which ones to skip, avoid Prophecy of Dragons from TS and The Nautilus Traps from Unlock! like the plague. Absolute waste of money)
So glad I never wasted money on this trash. From the get-go it was a money sink, and pretty much why I LOATHE "disposable" games. Yes this game you don't necessarily rip anything up, however once you play it once, it's done. I was very skeptical right from the get-go, and The Dice Tower, at that time, was very on board with the idea of Legacy-esque games, and I however was not. Glad that era of board gaming is pretty much over, and now we live in the "Everything is Kickstarter!" era...-_- Glad the secondhand market has treated me well.
@@davidwilliams7935 that is not the same as saying "the game is not good". nor was the conclusion of this video "the game is not good" as you've stated. they present a very nuanced evaluation of the game and you're doing a disservice to the original poster by reducing it to "the game is not good"!
Playing Asylum when TIME Stories came out was one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve ever had. Fast forward to Madame, which we just finished tonight, and I am so happy to be done with this game and system. It’s like I’m living through my Game of Thrones disappointments all over again.
Said it before, will say it again.
T.I.M.E. Stories will go down as being one of the biggest missed opportunities in board game history.
You spelled Gloomhaven wrong there ;)
Time stories was my #1 game until the last scenario because I kept just having faith that the story would be this amazing overall thing that we would all just be amazed by but obviously that could not be more wrong!
Still made for some of the best playthroughs on the Dice Tower. When Sam couldn't hold his breath and made everyone else laugh and have to stop looking at the icons on the card to remember ... classic DT moment.
Estrella Drive was actually one of my favourites. We did enjoy the atmosphere and realistic setting very much.
Stated recently by the publisher on Revolution: "The first season of TIME Stories, also called the White Cycle, ended with "Madame" scenario. White Cycle games will still being produced to answer the demand, but there will never be a new scenario in this cycle.
TIME Stories Revolution is a second season, also called the Blue Cycle, or Revolution Cycle. Every new scenario will be released in this cycle.
You can play Blue Cycle scenarios even if you haven't played White Cycle scenarios.
The first Revolution scenario will be "TIME Stories Revolution: The Hadal Project", followed by "TIME Stories Revolution: A Midsummer Night" (the theme will be fantasy for this second one).
Every Revolution scenario will be a standalone game. The game elements in the box will be adapted to every scenario. There will be a meta-storie between every new scenarios.
"TIME Stories Revolution: Experience" is an optional buy. It is not a scenario, it is meant to enhance the Blue Cycle game experience providing a followup in the different missions and of the agent. It will allow players to gain experience points that they will be able to use to gain... things... between missions and in missions.
The Revolution Cycle will be more agent-centered than before.
Of course, the rules will evolve compared to TIME Stories White Cycle. Because the board dissapered, the "runs" system will be changed to use "AZERAC" (translation note: I have no idea how it will be speled, this is a phonetic translation ). Every agent will have an azerac personnal pool, and the players will also have a common azerac pool to use in the game. There should be less of die-and-retry runs. The author wants the new cycle to be more story-telling and less an optimisation game, even if optimisation will still be present. There will be no more dices!
Every three boxes presented (The Hadal Project, A Midsummer Night and Experience) should be released in August 2019. Each box should cost under 30€."
So.. my ranking looks something like this:
8. Under the Mask
(switching of receptacles was fun)
7. Estrella Drive (I did enjoy tense atmosphere and In the dark cards)
6. The Marcy Case (in fact I did enjoy this one a lot, I liked in-your-face action and setting)
5. Expedition: Endurance
(great atmosphere and twist at the beginning)
4. Lumen Fidei (heavy on tactics, not for everyone)
3. A Prophecy of Dragons (polarizing one / love-or-hate)
2. Brotherhood of the Coast
(good story and epic in scale)
1. Asylum
Asylum has a huge advantage that is the first one even if lacks complexity of the next scenarios.
It has great atmosphere and cool engaging puzzle.
I'm still on the fence where should I put Madame.
I don't regret playing any of the scenarios. If you have good gaming group it's a great way to have some fun, every time in different setting and theme.
I have no problem with some difficulty issues in some expansions where you need to think more about group composition, economy, allies, strategy and so on. I don't expect of game to be easy or trivial.
Also I personally like how every scenario has it's own little mechanic / element. I'm rather glad that they were trying new things without recycling old ones.
On the other hand, if you've invested time in overarching story you have every right to be disappointed. What they did at the end was totally lazy and unacceptable.
I was hesitant about trying this, because there seems to be a real lack of replayability - something I think is a necessary, fundamental aspect in every one of my board game purchases.
And after seeing this, I'm really happy I stuck with my initial decision and didn't get this. I'll invest in other (and better) games. :)
I _used_ to agree with you... but you know what? If I spend £15 on a board game and I play it ONCE, having a great time for three hours with three friends, and then I sell it second hand for £5 because it's a one-shot game...
...then that was £10 for a great afternoon for four people. Better value and probably more fun than a cinema trip. I'm willing to consider that, for the right game.
This isn't it, obviously. But I'm now in the market for a game that is.
Kinda disagree. Legacy games have given me some of my best experiences ever. Replayability is kinda low on my list
I watch and re watch the first 3 modules of live plays of TIME stories from the DT guys. Some of the best gaming vids of a live play i have seen. After PoD the game went belly up for me.
First of all, thank you for live testing streams. They're easily one of my favorite segments on the channel. As a viewer, I can see actual game play and this gives me a better idea if the game is for myself or my group.
Now, I watched both segments and I was incredibly frustrated just watching your group play through the scenario. Not because of anything you were doing, but because of the scenario itself.
I genuinely do not understand how the developers thought this specific module would be any fun to play at all. Let alone watch someone else play through it. The number of 'loops' required for completion was just insane. It took you, what, 4.5 hours and that's including the fast-fowarding you started doing near the end (And I completely understand why). It felt like watching a marathon but every 10 yards that were covered, you guys were pulled backwards 5. And the "To Be Continued" ending ? Are you kidding me ? That's the pay off for people who have played through every scenario ?
I own maybe 4-5 of the scenarios, but seeing this and where it's headed... I have no interest in buying any more of these. Total garbage, I really hope they catch major heat for this one. It's completely unacceptable. Side note, it was somewhat difficult to type this without using profanity.
Love the channel though. Keep it up.
I loved the original Asylum, and like Zee found it just delightfully dark! Under the Mask, Endurance, Estrella Drive, and Brotherhood of the Coast were all fantastic fun when we played them, the others less so. I thought A Prophecy of Dragons was a step below most, until Lumen Fidei, and then Madame came along and took the crown!
What kind of "T.I.M.E Stories" book Tom is holding during this review? :O
That is not a question.
Finally finished the final story and even I have to agree T.I.M.E Stories has missed so many opportunities to improve...or never really cared enough to begin with. My Ranking of all 9 stories and why:
*Recommended Top 3*
8) Brotherhood of the Coast 1685 NT - Pro: carribean theme / sandbox freestyle sailing movement / art / lots of content | Con: narrow branch choice dependency
3) Prophecy of Dragons 7553 AT - Pro: quantity of content / art / sandbox style of story discovery | Con: thematically uninteresting
6) Lumen Fidei 1419 NT - Pro: interesting travel mechanism and locations / morality levels / smart puzzles | Con: too much combat / confusing narrative at times
*Completionist Middle 3*
1) Asylum 1921 NT - Pro: the novelty of T.I.M.E Stories / variety of mechanics | Con: short / the basic 'run' (and reset) concept of T.I.M.E Stories = kills story enjoyment
2) The Marcy Case 1992 NT - Pro: puzzles / story connections | Con: zombie tropes / excessive combat = stresses the fiddly combat mechanics
4) Under the Mask -1146 NT - Pro: interesting theme / novel receptacle mechanism | Con: boring puzzles and story leads
*Avoid at all cost Bottom 3*
7) Estrella Drive 1982 NT - Pro: nice little 'dual time jump' / change of thematic style | Con: initially dull theme / misleading 'mature content' advisory
5) Expedition: Endurance 1914 NT - Pro: initial premise and theme / the 'false start' | Con: 'false start' = so many wasted cards / short story / bland thematic follow-through
9) Madame 1673 NT - Pro: a few novel 'card games' | Con: extremely dull theme / receptacle overload = waste of cards / boring historical narrative / unsatisfying wrap-up to the White Series
I'll still be on board for the Blue Series because a) I'm curious to see the changes and b) I do like the concept still. But, yeah, weary of wonky mechanics that I'll end up house ruling anyway and an overall story arc that is disappointing in depth and poorly developed.
Interesting. Me and my girlfriend played through every scenario together over the past 4 years and while some are definitely better than others, we enjoyed all of it. The ending never mattered much to me or her so that could be part of it but for us, it is one of the best and unique board games ever made. Also, madame is her favorite and I also loved it. It’s interesting to see a lot of people hate on it now because I think it is incredible
We finished Madame and the whole series yesterday and have played all scenarios. I agree that the overarching story, or lack thereof, was disappointing. However, I enjoyed every module as did my group and I can honestly say that T.I.M.E. Stories is my no 1 game. Some modules were better then others, but each had something special and new to them and I enjoyed that. For me it was simply the best gaming experience I had so far.
I’ve not played Madame, but overall my group has very much enjoyed time stories, but many of the problems tdt discussed I completely agree with.
Except for lumen fidei that scenario was amazing
"I did things that I was not proud of." - the unspoken bit: like finish Madame
I mean, T.I.M.E. stories needs to be recognized as an accomplishment, I feel, but it definitely failed hard as a story. I hope they have brought on a writer or someone specifically for the story itself for the next one. I think an intriguing story that binds the episodes together will keep people interested.
I am always wary of any long-spooled out thing that seems to promise an intricate and fascinating story tying together a lot of weird things. Lost is a perfect example they brought up. So much promise that the writers themselves built up but couldn't/didn't deliver on.
It seems like they pulled the ending from "Catching Fire" from the Hunger Games without ANY of the building up, the context, or even investment in characters to make it an engaging cliffhanger inatead of just a "wait...what happened? Why did the paradigm shift completely do suddenly? Who is Mr. Ex Machina, first name Deus, and what is he doing in *MY* story??
My favorite scenario was the one where I jumped into the guy who gets to play really good board games instead of this one.. In fact I liked it so much I never jumped back.
We want more miami dice !!!
"Play the second season to discover what the third season is named!" :D
How exciting!
Brilliant episode this one! And super funny. I really loved this game and i still believe it is a great system. However, inevitably it got a bit lacklustre for me from scenario to scenario. I played the following 5 and here are my ratings. Asylum: 9, Marcy: 9.5, Prophecy: 8, Under the Mask: 5, Midsummer dream: 6. Then I stopped because I felt the system was a little worn-out after several plays. I felt it became more of the same and lost interest.
The comparison to Lost is apt - in both cases, writers keep setting things up and raising stakes without having even an inkling about how it’s supposed to go.
And on the topic of green cubes - search Bushland Adventures and watch the whole zany thing.
The new Star Wars trilogy of board gaming.
Tom has a great point at 33:05. The first one has a super clever way of using knowledge to "skip" hurdles.
I've actually enjoyed my experience with TIME Stories. May do some of the fan-made scenarios after I do Madame. We shall see.
I don't understand what Sam means by he likes the game but not how they handled it. Does he mean that the mechanical framework is a 7 but the individual expressions of that system i.e. the games themselves vary beyond that?
Schwarzeskreuz that’s how I took it
My group played the first three, and quit. We were, to a person, very disappointed. We recently talked about going back to it. If we do, we will just play it scenario by scenario, and enjoy them for what they each are. We also ignore the starting from the beginning each time. We pick it up from your place of loss.
#1 Asylum, #2 Endurance, #3 Prophecy, #4 Marcy, #5 Lumen, #6 Mask.
I've only played part of Brotherhood so I'll reserve my judgments.
Estrella and Madame are still in their shrink and I'm scared.
The funniest thing about them saying how they wished it was just individual stories and you could play them in any order... we have been playing them in order, but I think we barely noticed the "overarching story" that was supposedly happening; I was just seeing them as individual stories. I definitely have enjoyed it more than the DT gang, it seems. Granted, our group isn't done yet, so we shall see. :-) One thing I can easily say is that the quality of the modules is definitely pretty variable. Some are far better than others.
Heh, the discussion about skipping over time loops in sci fi reminded me of the Endless Eight in Haruhi. They actually spent eight full-length episodes retelling the same story over and over when the characters were stuck in a loop.
Funnily enough, that was a great example of what they told us about. You would go insane if you had to do the boring bits all over again and were helpless to do anything about it. Which is exactly what happened.
I loved endless eight.
I just want to remind you that with your review 'A Prophecy of Dragons' you all agreed that the true power of T.I.M.E Stories is the stories you remember months afterward (ua-cam.com/video/xGzAKJ6gSXI/v-deo.html) That's the TRUE power of the game, and perhaps helps soothe the 'wounds' of ending with a 'Lost ending'.
Sounds like T.I.M.E. Stories developers need to add an experienced improviser to the team, so they can enhance the value of reincorporation. Bringing things back is always so satisfying for the audience/fan base.
I’ve only played upto Endurance but have to agree with everything said. I rated Time Stories a 10 (and it was my 2nd favourite game of all time at one point) and enjoyed all my experiences with it... but Chronicles of Crime killed it for me. It literally took everything I liked from time stories, removed what I hated (the multiple runs) and added extra stuff that was awesome.
I am interested to see what the second edition will be like... but i won’t be buying it until I see some positive reviews.
We stopped playing after Under the Mask (we have Endurance, but it's still in shrink). I think the major annoyance for us, as Zee brought up, is the way they'd introduce a cool new mechanic one episode, then completely forget about it for the rest of the series. It kind of felt like they kept making some interesting developments of the system, then wiping the slate clean again next time, whether it was using the physical components as part of a puzzle themselves (Marcy) or the multiple paths to the goal (Prophecy). Certainly won't be getting the next one; in fact we'll likely be getting rid of this one as soon as we can bring ourselves to re-sort the cards into their original order.
If I was sitting there playing this, I would hope Tom would come up to me and tell me to give up on the main story. I would be psychotic being led to believe that it would all tie together only to find out that NOTHING tied together. His Lost analogy is spot-on, but it actually didn't go far enough. Not only did they spend all those WordPress fretting about that hatch, but when they finally showed us what was inside IT WAS A PERSON! I stopped watching them and there because the creators proved to me at that point that they weren't interested in answering mysteries. They were only interested in HAVING mysteries.
As is, I've bought 1 and 2. I was waiting to start until grabbing more, but I think I'll just play the first 4, we how that one affects me, and then just move on with my life.
I would have liked to play a FFG version of Time Stories
Where can I get Tom's journal?
What a missed opportunity. So sad. I totally agree with Zee that if they had marketed them as not connected, it would've been a better series.
My favorite scenario was Lumen Fidei, because it was most involved in what we thought would be the overarching storyline. My least favorite was probably Madame, because it was frustrating to have multiple short runs where you had barely any time to do anything. On top of that, you get yelled at for not accomplishing enough and then punished by being given even less time to do it in.
"Missed opportunity" is definitely the best way to describe it. I had fun with TIME Stories, but it could have been so much better. The translating and editing were pretty bad some of the time, and that's a real problem in a game like this where precise wording matters. I'm not sure how licensing laws work internationally, but imagine if they could have done modules with different IPs like Marvel, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, etc.
Loved most of the scenarios with the Egypt one and last one worst. Even last one was probably a 6. However overall story was like a 3. It was strong for most of the modules, then completely died in the last module. The Item 12 card was forgotten or missed. But, that extra story still didnt help. My group only found 3 cubes, so we looked up the end code, and were exceedingly disappointed. Still have not decided if I will play the new ones.
A bit late, but hey, better late than never right? I’m actually to a point in time stories where I dont consider them connected and I only buy the modules that interest me. I love the system but we ended up house ruling a lot of stuff just to get the game running smoother and running faster. I still currently have 3 modules and looking to get expedition and brotherhood ans maybe estrella
So it is like Game of Thrones? Good things ruined by a bad ending and weak last outings?
About to write just that
Game of Thrones should not have surprised you. the entire series was filled with disappointments.
@@Steve-L I was gonna say the same about TIME Stories.
It didn't stay as amazing, I think, because other games started to build in more story elements as well. I still think its a pretty good, unique experience, even if the combat resolution was meh.
I dont understand the disppointment for some features they never used again. I would say its something positiv that every scenario is unique.
I liked the idea of Time Stories but the price point was a bit too high for my taste and I also heard that the stories were hit and miss so I stayed away. Luckily I did. How you can finish a 4 year story without a proper ending is beyond me. Do those guys even know that a lot of people die before 8 years have passed?
Dear Dice Tower please make a review of your most favorite battle system in a board game
We played Asylum, Endurance, Prophecy and Pirates. Never kept track of the overall story, because it didn't feel intriguing enough. It was just like a good movie we sat down to watch everytime. Battle system and the repetitive gameplay sucked though.
It's cost me HUNDREDS to buy all the Time Stories stuff in Australia. I feel ripped off.
Let's compare time stories on cost). The money I wasted on the last four or five weak time stories episodes could have purchased me a new copy of Lord of the Rings or Mansions of Madness (more scenarios, more replay ability) . I am not going to pay for anymore games from space cowboys or time stories, they can't go back and undo this betrayal of their customers. And that's what this is, like a kickstarter who took your money and gave you half of what was promised. I'm done.
yeah, you really shouldn't. There are simply better games out there for your money. No need to waste it on those guys.
I can't believe you spent hundreds on a story telling game 🤯. Wow, you must be making bank!
What's that book that Tom's holding?
Best episode ever.
I wonder if there is a hidden story within all the noise like the real story is a big puzzle?
For those of us with bad eyesight, the thumbnail for this video merges the "F" and "I" in "FINAL" into an "A". The review would probably have been the same either way.
I will be trying at least the first new time stories simply because I'm hoping it's going to be Unlock! with a narrative folded around it. If it sucks, I'm done.
TIME Stories can now be used as an excellent example of why the principle of Caveat Emptor (“buyer beware”) is so important.
the first case was a 9 or 10 and i think the reason being the system was designed along with it. all the subsequent ones made multiple runs feel like a chore
I'm pretty sure the new TIME Stories game is not a 2nd edition but a whole new story with different gameplay mechanics.
This is part of the reason I dont buy games that are supposed to be part of a greater story. For story, watch TV, movies, read a book. For gaming, buy games! I have enough amazing stories from playing Bohnanza, 7 Wonders, Power Grid, and my many other favorites
The Mass Effect of boardgames.
29:24 The first thing that popped into my mind was Bill Cosby. He went from 'beloved icon' to 'I can't be seen with you' overnight for so many people.
Is it too strong to call Time Stories the Bill Cosby of board games?
Anyone have a better comparison?
@@davidwilliams7935 Hey David. Sorry if I worded it poorly. I'm not trying to compare the actions of Bill Cosby to the Time Stories debacle, but the disorientation and sense of betrayal that both situations created.
What do I do with all these pleasant memories from the past? Are they completely tainted, through and through, or is there something redeemable there? In the case of Cosby, am I allowed to watch old, otherwise innocuous clips without disgust or a cloud over my head? The jokes are (were?) funny, but given the broader context of who he turned out to be, should I still find them funny? Personally, I don't know. I don't know much about Cosby so I don't have the same existential crisis to work through as a lot of people who admired him have, but I can understand both the person who is able to separate the man from the material and the one who cannot.
For Time Stories, I can separate the game itself (which is really good) from the disappointment that is the unresolved narrative and deteriorating mechanics of the 9-module whole. And I get those who can no longer look at any part of the game the same again.
Again, I'm all ears for better comparisons. Cosby was literally the first thing to come to mind.
Yeesh tough crowd.
My favorites were Endurance, Prophecy and Asylum. Marcy and Mask felt mediocre. Lumen was bad. Then I quit because 50% success isn't worth the price.
Real shame they didn't reuse the expedition time jump, the receptacle switching, or multiple pathways through.
so my friend has been busy so we haven't been able to get to the table in a long while. Last one we did was egypt and the boat.
I've got all the expansions as they've been coming out, but should we even bother playing through them at this point or just save our time and sell the game and play something else?
It kind of feels like they just gave up and went "Oh, well. Re-do everyone?" But even then - finishing Madam by having "the opposing agency" take over will basically have kept what they did and set up for the whole "the next one is a different thing" bit while feeling less like a slap. I remember feeling the same thing from Agatha Cristi's Orient Express (which is very highly valued for reasons I don't understand) and I wanted to burn that book. NEVER a good feeling, ever, and definitely a detractor from future similar products - especially taking into account that the people who were likely the most excited for the final puzzle are the ones you disappointed most - those interested in the overarching story and desiring a wrap-up.
what the hell with the vampire story arc -- lumen fidei?
Well.... we just finished our third module last friday (dragon prophecy) and we are straight done. The gameplay just doesn't interest us at all anymore. We love the artwork, we love exploring and readin the stories, we love searching for clues. But the skillchecks and battles are the most boring, random stuff.... whenever there was a battle i checked out. It wasn't exciting, it was just random and boring to us.
And then we have to do it over again.
And then we have to do it over again.
And then we have to do it over again.
You know about the worst part of being stuck in a timeloop?
You know about the worst part of being stuck in a timeloop?
You know about the worst part of being stuck in a timeloop?
By the end of each and every scenario we were just annoyed with the game and skipped over the story bits we already had as fast as we could. And if there is a gauntlet of skill checks at the very end, we just cheated because we couldn't be arsed at all.
This is going away, wither selling it, or using it as a new wall deco.
I think Rian Johnson designed the middle games... OOOooooo
Are you saying the end of Rise of Skywalker is going to be an announcement for the next trilogy?
Richard Short GOSH I hope not! LOL
I loved the games & didnt care about any connecting story. My favourites were Brotherhood, Madame, Lumen Fidei & Endurance. The one I hated was the Manson rehash as it was badly translated and in appalling taste!
Maybe it's some kind of French problem. I mean, Ubisoft did about the same with Assassin's Creed: Playing the first or first two parts really got you hooked on the overarching story and then you get the impression that they somehow lost focus - or simply didn't care. Maybe they didn't expect it to be so successful and went: "Well, let's see. We don't know yet how this game's gonna be recieved. If people don't like it, we can just stop and decide if we wanna conclude the story. If they like it - well - let's just see what happens..." And you can see this indecisiveness all along as Tom, Sam and Zee also have mentioned - with the cubes for examples.
And I'm torn.
Every single expansion: I couldn't wait for them to be released. Sure, there were stronger and weaker ones (for the most part, it's a matter of taste I suppose), but I enjoyed most of them and really loved some (my personal favourites being Asylum and the Prophecy of Dragons (imho this one had the most cool mechanisms and ideas of all by far and the easter eggs and cross references to previous chapters were just amazing). However - I can't sum it up any better than you did: The game itself is near perfection - sure, there were weaknesses you can't deny. But it was a fresh experience and you really could do a lot with that framework. As I said I really liked most scenarios. But you get more and more curious what happens in the frame plot and in the end they just screw you. Such a shame. Even the overall quality is somehow tainted by this... I don't even know how to call it...
And the studio shouldn't be rewarded for that impudence.
But you know what the worst thing is? I'm gonna buy the next installments of the series anyway because I've had so much fun with the previous ones... I guess you just have to lower the expectations regarding the overarching story and see the episodes the way they are: as standalone experiences hardly having anything to do with each other.
In the end I just can agree to Tom or most of you for that matter. The end is ruined and maybe this has a bigger impact than it actually should. But this feeling of being screwed over here is so strong and infuryating that it takes away a very big chunk of the enthusiasm there was for the actual game and the scenarios per se. However the game itself was one of my favourites and looking back it will probably stay one of them because, sure the end was crap, but does it make the rest of the game bad?
I rate Time Stories very high and here is why - Never cared about the main story, stopped playing in the middle of the egyptian scenario, never got back to it again.
So your reasoning for rating the game high is that you stopped playing in the middle of a scenario and never played again?
*cowbell Shame *cowbell Shame.. We stopped after the second one and we own the third but after this... Life is too short.
Revolution? Unknown. I'll let you know when/if we finish the initial offerings.
I've watched all your reviews of this game. At first, I was hyped to try it, but each further installment just made me more hesitant. Glad I never invested anything into this. Keep up the good work.
I would still recommend it, as long as you're selective about the modules you pick up (or try). If you've watched the reviews (or this video), you probably have a good idea of which ones you'd want to avoid. :)
I will continue to proselytize Time Stories and teach it to new players but only with a narrow set of expansions.
I said it already elsewhere, but my experience told me that the number of runs you need to play a scenario has a huge impact on your group liking the scenario or not. One lucky dice roll and you just finish the scenario before running out of time -> you will think the scenario was great. One bad roll, you need to redo the scenario again -> meh, the grounddog day effect is boring after a while.
By the way, my group never cared about the overall story, because it was clear from the beginning that they didn't plan anything ahead and were just throwing random stuff to give you a feeling of an overall story (I know the publishers said the opposite, but I don't believe them and I think that was only a poor marketing technic).
I will never buy another Stories product ever, no matter what. WTH was that, Space Cowboys?
Which one are you talking about exactly?
The final puzzle and the actual ending were incredibly awful. It feels to me as though they said to themselves... "Hey, we screwed this up, these aren't as popular anymore... let's slap a sort of overall ending on the latest one we have ready to go and call it the last one in the series and try again with a new design." I get why they'd want to do it, but this definitely smacks of extremely low effort. It's pretty inexcusable.
As far as it souring my enjoyment of the series overall.... it didn't, in large part because I had already checked out of the overall story and I was mentally prepared for a mediocre ending. Had I not been, it would have been a much harder slap.
My enjoyment of the series overall was much MORE hurt by the mediocre mechanics. The fact that they didn't view anyone's time as valuable, thinking it would be fun to force you to play the same scenario over and over and over and over again hoping to get randomly luckier or to correct one tiny mistake. Had we been forced to play this by the actual rules, I would have thrown it in the trash by about the 4th one. Instead, we played every single one of the later ones with a "whoops, let's just undo that right now" and "let's skip ahead to where we would have been" mentality. And the random dice rolls? If we could get it based on the averages, we just moved on. Those changes made the series a lot of fun for us to play, and I had a great time with it.
I don't normally rate a game positively when it requires massive house rules to be playable, but because these were fairly easy changes and we had a good time spending a few hours on each one playing this way, my overall experience was positive, and I am looking forward to the start of the new series. I sincerely hope they've taken all this feedback into consideration and it will be much better! Hopefully engaging and playable as designed and not requiring tons of house rules and cheating. I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt, at least for the first couple.
My overall ranking of the modules would be:
1 - Asylum
2 - Brotherhood
3 - Expedition Endurance
4 - Madame (except for the awful ending)
5 - Marcy
6 - Prophecy
7 - Lumen
8 - Under the Mask
9 - Estrella Drive
Read all of the content in the linked support site www.thetimeagency.net/#/home
There are between mission de-briefs and story content about how Bob was having difficulties with his superiors. The over arching story is fleshed out a little more in each de-brief.
They've burned the bridge as far as I am concerned. Will not be playing season 2.
Without madame I’d rank the scenarios
1) brotherhood of the coast
2) asylum
3) lumen fidei
4) operation endurance
5) marcy case
6) under the mask
7) prophecy of dragons
8) estella drive
I’d say 1-4 are amazing
5-6 and good
7 was meh
8 was bad
Madame could be the worst game ever, but I plan to get the next time stories regardless
Update
9-12) playing any number of other games
13) Madame
Wow what a horrible expansion
It sounds like Zee and Tom came to the same conclusion I did. It took me 2/3 of the first game to realize it though. ;)
in the same boat. The setting was very incoherent, the writing was uninspired and the mechanics were lacking meaningful decisions - just trial and error.
but you did not come to the same conclusion as thay did! you disliked asylum and stopped playing, while they both loved it! their disappoinment is with the ending and some of the later scenarios which you've never tried.
I hope they give the second edition more consistency. Thats what I'm hearing was the main issue.
Hedgehogking5 also: a cohesive vision.
TIME Stories is Lucy and paying off the story is the football. Sam is Charlie Brown. Don't fall for it again, man!
My game group had the exact same reaction to the conclusion of Madame...drink more ovaltine?!?! Our favorite scenario was Prophecy of Dragons. My favorite receptacle I played was the dog in Expedition Endurance.
I cant imagine that any one other than the writers of this scenario actually playtested it. Besides the horrible Story conclusion... What the*** was the matter of our Mission. Why did we need to touch the king? Why did they implement all these golden charakter symbols when 80% of them did not even matter. And what if you did not look at the card of bobs grangrandgrandfather? There was no clue to what we were supposed to do!! And then at the last mission failed card we decided: Well we dont know what to do, we already cheated (because nothing of this fading/switching Charakter thing was fun) our way through this boring thing for about 4 hours , lets just return to mike. And then we played the whole thing again like the mike said... JUST KIDDING WE FLIPPED THE TABLE!!!
You didn’t even talk about the cards like you have found this goo don’t tell anyone, or the website that tried to add more story
Mentioned at 12:13
But is it a worst ending than Game of Thrones? 🤔
We stopped playing after Under the Mask. It had become boring and the cards were so poorly written they were hard to read. The first couple of cases were really fun. Not surprised it finished with a thud. I have no interest in playing another version of this game.
Only played Asylum (3 runs) and Marcy Case (2 runs) and they are by far the best board game experiences ever. Ready to play them all and I have ZERO expectation of an over-arching storyline. It just feels like you guys assumed the bigger story... but I've not played them all. So we'll see.
My group really enjoyed the 3rd one and 5th, but just skip the Egyptian one. That game-play just isn't fun.
I won't be buying the Revolution cycle. Like Sam said: "Fool me once...". I"m not going to reward the company that ripped me off by buying more of their stuff. Clearly, this project was way bigger than Space Cowboys anticipated - they got overwhelmed with the demands of maintaining a coherent storyline (for all the reasons mentioned in this video) and they were too proud (or greedy) to stop, take the time, and do it right. It has been mentioned in the past that the typos and translation issues alone were rampant throughout this series - that Space Cowboys didn't send the text out to a native speaker of whatever language they were printing the game in and have them proofread it is really hard to understand and is indicative of their lack of care or quality control. HARD PASS on Revolution!
Madame was absolutely horrible in how it was designed. I knew the connecting story thing will never really happen as it didn't have a single visionary leading this, but they just made bad decisions all over the place.
As dar as I know BoB is dead, if I get the epilog right...
We Player through all of the scenarios as a couple and did it Not always in the right order, maybe thats why we didnt suffer from the breakdown of the arch that much.
Reallöhne linkes discovering the worlds.
Estalla Drive we Really liked, also the First half of madame - before we had no clue what to do and always run into something that required another restart. Brotherhood of the Coast we liked - it was nice to have a feel of an Open world. Endurance was also a good experience for US. Not so high on the Marcy case on the other Hand.
What we Lobes was the short one: St thomas
Won't touch season 2 at all. Stopped season 1 after Prophecy of Dragons.
LarkinVB Same here. I hated that one!
I knew I was right to stay away from this game. And to use the Ovaltine scam on their fans as well, unacceptable.
This game has too many problems with the whole ‘different designers for each scenario’ thing. It leads to inconsistent gameplay, story telling and game mechanics. It feels like everyone is making a scenario without playing anybody else’s and doing their own thing without any direction or supervision. They run Unlock! the same way and the games are just wildly inconsistent. (If anyone is interested in playing one or the other and wants my advice on which ones to skip, avoid Prophecy of Dragons from TS and The Nautilus Traps from Unlock! like the plague. Absolute waste of money)
I hated the first one that came with the game and never played it again. What a waste of money.
So glad I never wasted money on this trash. From the get-go it was a money sink, and pretty much why I LOATHE "disposable" games. Yes this game you don't necessarily rip anything up, however once you play it once, it's done. I was very skeptical right from the get-go, and The Dice Tower, at that time, was very on board with the idea of Legacy-esque games, and I however was not. Glad that era of board gaming is pretty much over, and now we live in the "Everything is Kickstarter!" era...-_- Glad the secondhand market has treated me well.
Madame was a giant let down. So disappointed
Glad I quit after the first 4 scenarios!
Me too
Is this a review of T.I.M.E Stories or Game of Thrones? lol
Game of Thrones should not have surprised you. the entire series had many disappointments.
This game was trash right from the beginning.Good thing that it eventually got the review it deserved from you.
Never again
Why are these 3 guys talking so much about the storyline in an obviously themeless game?
Well... I skipped this video. I just wanted to know if this game is any good
@@davidwilliams7935 you didn't watch the video, did you?
@@davidwilliams7935 that is not the same as saying "the game is not good". nor was the conclusion of this video "the game is not good" as you've stated. they present a very nuanced evaluation of the game and you're doing a disservice to the original poster by reducing it to "the game is not good"!