Shoot Again Games was at CT FIG showing off two new games: Looting Atlantis and Conspiracy. Of the two I only had a chance to play a quick game of Looting Atlantis.
The premise of the game is simple. Atlantis is about to be buried in lava, so you and the other players are trying to loot as much advanced technology before escaping to a different, less advanced civilization where you’ll live your life out as a wizard, or some other such person of power.
Each turn you’ll add lava to the board, having it creep slowly to the outer edge. Piles of cards encircle the board at every space. Each color card has its own way of scoring at the end and its own special power. After advancing a line of lava you’ll have to actions you can use to move and take cards. You can also play a card as a free action to use its power. Some cards let you take more actions, some protect you from other cards players might play to hinder you, and some cards are used to score higher points with other cards. When the board is filled with lava and each player has escaped then the points from all the cards are added up.
It’s a simple enough game to play. The real trick is making sure you’re grabbing cards that will score you the most points. Some cards will only net you a large score if you have a lot of them. Some cards are worth a meager amount of points unless you have a card that greatly increases the score for each in your possession. You also need to take into account the special powers of the cards. Sometimes it’s worth using a card and losing it to gain a card or cards that will improve you score even more.
At first glance, the game looks really chaotic with its piles of cards wrapped around the board. Once you get the hang if it, it’s not so bad. Then all you need to worry about is getting the best groups of cards that you can.