The Others Game Review - Damned. Good?

I review The Others, a board game about the end of the world, with a plethora of tentacled miniatures, designed by Eric Lang, published by Cool Mini or Not.

Links to buy:

Thank you for watching! And thank you for all your comments, I love making videos for you all!

If you're new to Actualol, my name is Jon Purkis. My two passions are writing comedy and playing board games, so I decided to combine the two in this YouTube channel.

I make all my videos on my own, in my flat in London, UK, with the help of a diverse selection of wigs.
_

My favourite videos:

[Lunacorva]

This is honestly my favourite board game and I love the "fifteen year old designer" skit because it is SO TRUE.

But I think the raw silliness of it just adds to the charm for me.

[galaxytrucker]

This is exactly how a game review should be like. Informative and entertaining. Top notch!

[vespera]

Another enjoyable review. I often go through some of these games and when I see things like "Pain Daughter" thrown in "because" I shudder at what parts of my brain are required to shut down in order to play.

[AnnieKwon]

Yay! Another Actualol review! Although I'll never play this game (not my taste), I love your in-between sketches in your reviews. Thanks for making my day a little less dull.

[Otterpawp]

Very fair review and finally someone that can actually address what theme is directly with a game. Thanks!

[MegaMarkusJT]

Love these short reviews with some humour sprinkled in ❤

[SteoanK]

The corruption theme comes through really well in the corruption stories, where each player has a dark past revealed when the reach maximum corruption, as well as certain characters becoming traitor's or just downright committing suicide if they reach that point.

[Blossercubbles]

As usual, a well spoken take on a game, and our views marry beautifully! Keep on keeping on, friend!

[Calmien]

Nice review.... just one thing - 3 hours big box epic? :D are you sure? We have played 16 games of The Others (different stories, sins, etc..) and it never took more like 60 - 90 minutes.

[FlavioMarceloSousa]

Have you posted your review of Raise Your Goblets already? I'm really looking forward to see it, I still haven't decided whether to buy the game or not.

[groovygorgar]

Jesus Christ, I'm so embarrassed. The rulebook, though well covered and easy to understand, is thick indeed, making it easy to miss things. I've been playing the Sin for a while and getting my butt kicked. Reddit was having a laugh that I was having such a difficult time. This review mentioned something I overlooked which changed EVERYTHING. You only get your corruption track bonuses by taking corruption that roll. for the past few weeks, we've been playing in a way where you always had the powers depending on your place on the tracker, making high corruption not a huge deal. Thanks for sorting that out.

I will say I do enjoy the theme. I feel with an excited enough Sins player, this can be very thematic. Giving the devil what he wants for more power seems to be a good use of the corruption idea, and while vampires and werewolves seems weird, I picture this similar to the Heavy Metal world, where that sort of thing wouldn't be a very big deal.

[joelbergvonlinde]

I found it charming that the game doesn't take itself too seriously. More tentacles on stuff in a cartoony future world seem very fitting with the theme. It could easily have been way too 'Lovecraft-y'. Its my favorite 1vs all, since it is actually fun to play as the overlord as well, and much more balanced than fx Descent and IA. I think maybe because it sacrifices some thematic elements and tries more to be 'Pandemic with dice against an opponent', even if that makes the mechanisms more abstract

[Mat]

Good review sir! So what you're saying is we're gonna get a review for Blood Rage soon :)

[Garbage_Golem]

A good critique of a game I'm going to let other people in my group get! I have yet to play any of Lang's designs, but I generally enjoy big box epics, and am particularly interested in the Rising Sun setting of feudal Japan. Did this game's shortcomings affect your hype or enthusiasm for Rising Sun (assuming you had some in the first place)?

[Relive]

you are doing great videos! Keep it up :D

[mostrengo]

Nice video! Could you make a review on Mechs vs. Minions from Riot?

[ShaunHickox]

Ever played Blood Bowl? I'd love to hear your opinion on that.

[spirostsikrikas]

You are becoming the best reviewer ever! Informative and precise!

[SquaredbyX]

I really loved this game when I played it. It was the corruption mechanic that made it for me. The fact that the game is 'balanced' to where you HAVE to use it. Win before you die or are damned. The fact that it is true while learned implicitly instead of explicitly (even as flavor text), means that it is a realization that you come to on your own, and only with a winning attitude. You see that you're going to lose anyway, in the immediacy of an encounter, or in the time it will take you to accomplish an objective (which is pushed to the wall due to the aforementioned). You have to become as much of the monsters to fight them, and it is truly a battle first and foremost with your own corruption. I don't remember how the reinforcement mechanic worked exactly, but I think it was only so many of the team that had to go down before the game was lost. (if you could not reinforce or something)

[TheJamesMReid]

Nice video. Is that a Threadless T-shirt?