by Mike Clarke

This review was originally published to BoardGameGeek in January, 2011.

Much has been said about Android and what a confusing game it is. After having played it a few times since purchasing it last week, I can safely say the only thing confusing about Android to me are the criticisms that have nearly killed it and with it the hope of future expansions or additions.

What a shame.

Those who don’t get the game see Android as a collection of confusing mechanics with less than adequate game play. Many of the reviews I’ve read sum up Android with an air of authority based on, in many cases, only one play.

On one hand, they complain about how complex the game is, but are unwilling to invest the time to discover it. Many of those who had a hand in killing it crowed about its unique theme, and original mechanics, but couldn’t be bothered to devote much effort to exploring them.

A lot of people expected one game (mystery deduction) and when they got something else (story driven) they bailed without trying to discover how it fit together and never questioning why designer Kevin Wilson would screw up such an obvious labor of love.

And that’s exactly what Android is — from the place names reflecting locations in sic-fi novels to the well developed stories of its characters and the detailed back stories of their NPC friends —from the beautiful board with its wonderful patina’d finish to the arty rule book, and the silken cards and thick chits.

The game’s bits are reminiscent of a collector’s edition. Hell, Wilson even poured out his soul in the first designer notes he’s ever done for a game, sharing with us his boyhood inspiration only to have us  gleefully rip it apart.

So let’s look at some of the criticism. There’s no real murderer because you’re framing the suspect. Really?

How about detectives are following their hunches and finding evidence that points to the suspect.

This game is a  story. You are not these characters. Your role as player is not to become them but to be part of the game engine creating an intelligent world with consequences that tells their story — rather than some boring Euro where you play against the board until predictably you learn exactly how to beat it. Next! No wonder we own a hundred games.

They’re trying to find evidence that points to their suspect. That’s what detectives do but YOU decide where it goes and whether it does. Yep Wilson’s great sin was in creating a game that lets the players design the adventure themselves rather than tying us down with the traditional “central story” the critics crucified him for leaving out.

And when the murderer turns out to be somebody else (another player’s suspect is found guilty), then your detective turns out to have been wrong all along. That sucks because it’s going to cost him in terms of reputation and self esteem (read victory points).

To this end Wilson gave the characters personal lives that interfere with their work (sound familiar?) There’s some elegant touches too. Some of their twilight cards are color coded to match their plots .

You get a game incentive to play them and in return they provide the color and detail that brings that particular plot to life. You can play other twilight cards but the cards that relate to your particular plot are particularly thematic and valuable. I never heard that little detail mentioned once in all the reviews I’ve read.

The detectives all play differently. They need different things. They want different things. They can’t all be played the same. Raymond for instance is best at figuring out the conspiracy and manages his hand of light cards better than anyone else, but he’s also an alcoholic haunted by his war time memories and the girl that tore his heart apart.

Rachel is a bounty hunter who goes through money like water, but gains significant advantages from her cyber implants and is good at putting hits on people and Android Floyd is Pinnochio searching for his human soul and learning in the process to stand up to his creators.

You have to play them like the people they are and that is contained in their plots and in the highly detailed and story driven twilight card — so you have to play these cards to make these people who they are. No cards played each turn — no unique story driven character. Maybe that was the problem. Bad hand management lol.

This is a game that plays particularly well with your close friends and significant others— with people who like to read books and can read the flavor text like they would a novel; with people who are comfortable enough with each other to do that— with people, in other words, who like each other.

Want to make your book-reading, occasional game-playing wife happy? Play this game with her over a bottle of wine. Take it slow. Introduce it to her like the story it is and have her read out all the flavor text.

This isn’t a game for kids. It’s a game for thinking adults. If you’re the kind of player that wants to race through a game moving cardboard around to put a beat down on his opponents than this game definitely isn’t for you. It’s not that kind of game even though there is lots of “take that.”

But it’s not personal. In life bad stuff happens particularly when you’re down and nearly out as some of these guys are. The dark cards are a game mechanism to intelligently introduce conflict as is the entire twilight theme.

Who better than thinking players to provide the conflict in an intelligent fashion that every good story needs? And guess what? You know your character’s weaknesses. You know your alcoholic investigator shouldn’t be in a nightclub where his inner demons might get the better of him.

But hey, my opponent just moved the lead I need into that bar and the type of bad event (could be a girl, a fight or getting blind drunk) that unleashes its stuff in that location is only on four of about 20 cards. So it’s a gamble like a lot of things in life. (Maybe he’ll be strong enough to ignore that smart remark or not take that drink).

But if he’s got a lot of favors stored up and he’s counting on them for victory…well…better stay away (because he could lose them). That’s not a problem with the game as so many have pretended. That’s a game decision. And going in when you have lots to lose? Well that’s a stupid game decision.

Can’t make sense of the evidence piling up on the suspects? Jimmy the snitch lets you look at all the evidence on one suspect’s card. Want to expose a suspect to get Rachel to put a hit on him? Lily Lockwell, the reporter, will waste an hour of your time interviewing you, but when she publishes the story everyone will see it (one evidence turned permanently over). And she’s a roving reporter. Now you can send her to someone else.

I love the way travel is done in this game btw…with a cardboard caliper featuring a thematic depiction of a hover car that actually curves above the game board to illustrate a vehicle in flight. (I never once heard that little detail mentioned either).

Most people simply ridiculed it as clunky, when in fact, it’s fast, works well and is incredibly, beautifully thematic.

The conspiracy is brilliant. It’s a much needed third option within the game to get you points so your game doesn’t live and die on finding the murderer. Yes that’s right. If you don’t find the murderer, you can still win.

In this game, point generators include: the character’s personal plot, the murder itself, the rival corporations and of course, the conspiracy. And uncovering a conspiracy IS a little like putting a puzzle together. You can link either or both of the two corporations producing androids to the murder, or city hall, or the Human First group that wants to eradicate all androids or any one of several other groups.

You get special game benefits for doing so. Some don’t like the fact that placing the last puzzle piece in a row earns you points, but hey in a conspiracy you make connections and when you make a particular difficult one here, whether it’s a puzzle piece in the final row or a link to the mayor’s office, you are rewarded. What a unique game concept. I’ve never seen it done anywhere else.

The problem isn’t with the game. It’s with a lack of imagination…in the need to have some concrete bit, supply what the mind cannot. A board game lives in the imagination. All the bits in the world won’t replace that. That’s why we own a hundred games. We’re looking for that one that really does it for us. And what do we do when someone creates it? We crucify the designer.

Nor is there anything wrong with the game play. This is a highly competitive, time management game where those who don’t maximize their time will lose then whine about its inadequacy.

At any given moment, you’re only faced with four choices: to pursue the murder investigation, your plot, the conspiracy or take VP’s from the two corporations. Your characters are better at some of these and worse at others. Managing that is what the game is all about. It’s not rocket science.

This game is far from confusing. It’s liberating. You live your character’s life on an open board where you can go anywhere, do anything. The game mechanics aren’t clunky, they’re beautifully interwoven. The game is not at all that complicated to play. There IS a lot going on which is why it takes more than one game to discover its depth and work out its game play.

I’ve seen bastardizations of this game that hack it apart and re-assemble it so that it resembles the Bride of Frankenstein….an ugly convoluted mess. That’s what I call an attempt to turn this game into a deductive murder mystery (which it’s not), by requiring players to convict the innocent in order to find the guilty.

How is that an improvement?!

I can only shudder when I imagine what Kevin Wilson went through as we butchered his baby. The game certainly isn’t for everyone. No game is. But he certainly didn’t deserve to have such a labor of love ripped apart with such glee and condescension.

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