We just played it for the first time tonight. I had a lot of bad luck in the beginning with the saleswoman, drunks, and pool. We ended up winning in the end, though! It was hilarious and tense the whole way through. I love the different ways you can help each other with your gear.
Thank you for your excellent thorough review. Sharing the differences, updates, and the improvements between 1 and 2. I think you were spot on about most if not all of it. Great perspective and I can see myself not playing the original with this new version.
Played 1 game of this so far with a buddy who backed it. Only have played 1 game of the first game as well. I honestly think it is better in a way of that the design is a little tighter because Tim learned from and used what he learned to tweak the game to make it tighter. But it is also a smart design to have them both exist in the same space. Also got really unlucky with all of our floor changing tiles (both escalators and monorails) being on the complete opposite side of where our entrances and where our main office was. Another thing I love about the game(s) is how when you are setting up and the game lets you decide how the walls will be set up, it gives you this false sense of calmness thinking you are gonna game the game and make the wall set up easier for you. But the mechanisms come together in the game with the tile abilities and AI system to balance that aspect out.
This review does not mention how many Kickstarter backers are still waiting for their copies to arrive (with no updates from Fowers Games despite repeated requests for them) even though it appears the game is now available to buy through the Fowers Games online store with a 1-2 week delivery estimate. Is my game 1-2 weeks away??? No-one appears to be able to tell me. Also it seems plenty of effort has been made to get copies to the reviewers (I am in the UK and one of our leading reviewers has their copy). So it would seem actually getting games into the country is possible if your incentives are high enough - just a pity that being a lowly Kickstarter backer is not enough incentive vs a retail customer or UA-cam reviewer. We've been very patient and supportive of delays to date but this is now very poor.
To my knowledge, Tim Fowers has discussed exactly half of the BB2 copies being stuck in port with very little control over the situation. I was a lucky backer that got mine, not a review copy. A friend of mine is also a reviewer, hasn’t gotten his copy yet. I have an interview with Tim Fowers coming out soon where he discusses. Not sure what the communication issue is, but he was pretty open with me and did express he was doing everything he could.
I have now received a reply from Fowers Games which stated the following: "our fulfillment center in Germany is waiting for the newly printed A1-A4 cards and new inventory of the playmats before shipping to the remaining backers. Both the mats and cards are currently on their way to Germany and as soon as they get there shipping to backers will resume. No orders made off of our website have been shipped even though it says 1-2 week delivery time. All backers will receive their games and accessories before any preorders or current orders get their games. I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions. My apologies for any inconvenience." This is very helpful to know but it took some pushing to get there and to be clear my criticisms are not that there are issues it's more how things have been handled. Communication has been spotty and while the port issue you mention was well communicated I am pretty sure this is only affecting the US backers - why has this update I have here not been circulated to the non-US backers (I am not the only confused and frustrated non-US backer asking questions on the Kickstarter). I have spent a lot of my career helping companies of all sizes with customer services and the piece of advice I give to all of them is not to shoot for a world where there are no problems but rather for a world in which there will always be problems but where your focus is on how well you respond to them. I understand they are a small outfit but in their shoes I would have held off announcing the games availability on their web store (it sounds like they are only risking creating frustrated retail customers in addition to the Kickstarter backers by doing so if what was sent to me is accurate given the current situation). I would have also asked the reviewers to hold off publishing their reviews until much more of the Kickstarter orders were fulfilled - again if everything is going to be sorted in a couple of weeks I don't think a lot would have been lost by doing this and it would have lessened the negative impression given by the fact that some people appear to have gotten their orders much sooner than others. As I say I am happy now I have some better information (that is all I was asking for) but this has been a troubled production in my view and I do think things could have been better handled. Let's hope everything resolved itself well from here - I still love the first game and am very excited for the follow-up (perhaps that has also heightened my sense of foreboding regarding the signals that have come from the campaign that the quality might not quite live up to my expectations). To be fair to the team I will make sure to post a final comment here to say how things pan out once I do eventually receive the game. I am hoping it will be the case that the frustrations I have felt will be blown away by how good it is!
We just played it for the first time tonight. I had a lot of bad luck in the beginning with the saleswoman, drunks, and pool. We ended up winning in the end, though! It was hilarious and tense the whole way through. I love the different ways you can help each other with your gear.
Thank you for your excellent thorough review. Sharing the differences, updates, and the improvements between 1 and 2. I think you were spot on about most if not all of it. Great perspective and I can see myself not playing the original with this new version.
Thanks for the review Jason!😀 I wish I didn’t have Burgle Bros. I would get the second one. I just can’t justify buying another one again. 🙁
Played 1 game of this so far with a buddy who backed it. Only have played 1 game of the first game as well.
I honestly think it is better in a way of that the design is a little tighter because Tim learned from and used what he learned to tweak the game to make it tighter. But it is also a smart design to have them both exist in the same space.
Also got really unlucky with all of our floor changing tiles (both escalators and monorails) being on the complete opposite side of where our entrances and where our main office was.
Another thing I love about the game(s) is how when you are setting up and the game lets you decide how the walls will be set up, it gives you this false sense of calmness thinking you are gonna game the game and make the wall set up easier for you. But the mechanisms come together in the game with the tile abilities and AI system to balance that aspect out.
Did your copy have the problem where the yellow plastic trays that hold the poles are not glued properly onto the cardboard box?
Yep. You can ask the publisher to replace it.
This review does not mention how many Kickstarter backers are still waiting for their copies to arrive (with no updates from Fowers Games despite repeated requests for them) even though it appears the game is now available to buy through the Fowers Games online store with a 1-2 week delivery estimate. Is my game 1-2 weeks away??? No-one appears to be able to tell me. Also it seems plenty of effort has been made to get copies to the reviewers (I am in the UK and one of our leading reviewers has their copy). So it would seem actually getting games into the country is possible if your incentives are high enough - just a pity that being a lowly Kickstarter backer is not enough incentive vs a retail customer or UA-cam reviewer. We've been very patient and supportive of delays to date but this is now very poor.
To my knowledge, Tim Fowers has discussed exactly half of the BB2 copies being stuck in port with very little control over the situation. I was a lucky backer that got mine, not a review copy. A friend of mine is also a reviewer, hasn’t gotten his copy yet. I have an interview with Tim Fowers coming out soon where he discusses. Not sure what the communication issue is, but he was pretty open with me and did express he was doing everything he could.
I have now received a reply from Fowers Games which stated the following: "our fulfillment center in Germany is waiting for the newly printed A1-A4 cards and new inventory of the playmats before shipping to the remaining backers. Both the mats and cards are currently on their way to Germany and as soon as they get there shipping to backers will resume. No orders made off of our website have been shipped even though it says 1-2 week delivery time. All backers will receive their games and accessories before any preorders or current orders get their games. I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions. My apologies for any inconvenience."
This is very helpful to know but it took some pushing to get there and to be clear my criticisms are not that there are issues it's more how things have been handled. Communication has been spotty and while the port issue you mention was well communicated I am pretty sure this is only affecting the US backers - why has this update I have here not been circulated to the non-US backers (I am not the only confused and frustrated non-US backer asking questions on the Kickstarter). I have spent a lot of my career helping companies of all sizes with customer services and the piece of advice I give to all of them is not to shoot for a world where there are no problems but rather for a world in which there will always be problems but where your focus is on how well you respond to them. I understand they are a small outfit but in their shoes I would have held off announcing the games availability on their web store (it sounds like they are only risking creating frustrated retail customers in addition to the Kickstarter backers by doing so if what was sent to me is accurate given the current situation). I would have also asked the reviewers to hold off publishing their reviews until much more of the Kickstarter orders were fulfilled - again if everything is going to be sorted in a couple of weeks I don't think a lot would have been lost by doing this and it would have lessened the negative impression given by the fact that some people appear to have gotten their orders much sooner than others.
As I say I am happy now I have some better information (that is all I was asking for) but this has been a troubled production in my view and I do think things could have been better handled. Let's hope everything resolved itself well from here - I still love the first game and am very excited for the follow-up (perhaps that has also heightened my sense of foreboding regarding the signals that have come from the campaign that the quality might not quite live up to my expectations).
To be fair to the team I will make sure to post a final comment here to say how things pan out once I do eventually receive the game. I am hoping it will be the case that the frustrations I have felt will be blown away by how good it is!
@@rholford1982 Ich hab mein Spiel schon vor einem Monat bekommen 🤷♀️