Above and Below - An Introduction

Above and Below - An Introduction

Game Specs

• Advertised Player Count: 2-4
• *Actual* Player Count: I'm honestly not sure yet, as I've only "played" it solo so far. I decided to finally learn the game and at the time, the best way to do it was to read the rules and set up the game with two players and just control them both to understand how the game plays. I suspect the player count is accurate, though.
• Playing Time: 90 minutes (This feels accurate, but until I play with other people, I honestly couldn't say; obviously, the speed of the game is different when I'm controlling both players - it moves a lot faster)
• Age: 13+
• Premise: It's a narrative choice/city building game in which players are building a village above while exploring the caves below (see what they did there? Do you?)

I had known about this game for awhile, but never got around to playing it. Had I ever seen it on sale or on Miniature Market's Dent 'n' Ding shelf, I probably would've picked it up. But as I didn't, I just never gave it much thought. The artwork is cool but doesn't really strike my fancy the way some other artwork really jumps out at me. I didn't look deeply enough into it to learn the premise, so that never sold me either just because I was ignorant. Honestly, what got me interested in this was Sleeping Gods. I saw the pre-order for Sleeping Gods and for whatever reason, I just fell in love with it instantly. I loved the premise of the game and the use of a game atlas was something that really appealed to me. I looked a little deeper into Red Raven Games (producer of Sleeping Gods) and then it stuck for me that these were the same makers of Above and Below. So I gave the game description a read, learned that it was part of a planned trilogy, and now I was actually hooked.

Some of it was that the game sounded cool, but the main reason I bought in, I think, was the notion of this game being part of a larger universe. That's not always a thing that's done well, but based on the reviews of Above and Below as well as Near and Far, it seemed as though Red Raven had done it well.

So I got myself a copy of Above and Below. But I'm a completionist. So I also bought Near and Far. And now I'm just waiting on Now or Never. Anyway! It took me awhile to get Above and Below out on the table because I think the game still doesn't get me *excited* about it. I get excited to play Spirit Island or Eldritch Horror as I'm setting them up. I get excited to play Descent as I'm doing party selection. I wasn't excited to play Above and Below, just sort of looking forward to it. I know that sounds lukewarm, which isn't a ringing endorsement. But I also don't get excited persay to play some other games I thoroughly enjoy, such as Puerto Rico or Power Grid. It's not a reflection of how much I enjoy the game. It's really more just my gut reaction to a game than anything else.

But yeah, I really like this one! The game play is pretty straightforward. There's plenty to do, but there aren't so many options as to be overwhelming each turn. The game has a clock of 7 rounds over which players build our villages as we explore the caves underneath said village. The storybook adds a fun element of presenting players with decision points at which we can play it safe or aim higher and risk failure (ostensibly for better rewards, but we don't know until we've made our choice and either succeeded or failed!). There's just a touch of weirdness to the game, which I really dig! For instance, most of the Villagers you'll add to your Village are people with different skill sets. But there's also the Robot Man (who doesn't require a bed to rest because he carries his own with him) or the Cave Cat (who mostly doesn't like to do what they are told, and so a dice roll determines whether or not it'll listen to you or just, you know, loaf). The weirdness factor is just enough to be interesting while still feeling as though this is set in a world very much like our own. It's quaint, it's nice, it's fun.

Also, it might be a bit of a weird thing to key into, but I appreciate how the game treats resources in the market. Basically, the gamut of goods ranges from very common to rare, and each player decides where to place the goods on their own track. The placement of goods as well as the number of identical goods placed together on the track determine how many victory points a player scores. And the further along on the track a player is, the more income they make. It's a little thing, but I like that kind of design space that rewards planning, but also encourages risk-taking (wait and see if I can't a good on the track that's more advantageous for me in the long run, but risk what'll happen if I don't get that good).

Bottom Line: It's a cool game! I've read that a lot of people prefer Near and Far over Above and Below, but they just seem like very different games to me, so they'll scratch different itches. I am always a fan of strong theme, and one of my favorite parts of boardgames are the stories that they tell. Even when a game doesn't have a narrative, persay, a strong theme allows players to develop a narrative each time we play. But in the case of Above and Below, the narrative is built in to the game and the game play feels as though it fits the narrative set out by game designer and illustrator, Ryan Laukat. Also, it's worth noting that it is nice to have a game on the shorter side that still includes narrative, since the vast majority of games with included narrative are campaign games by design.