Forgenesis Review

Next up from the Soda Pop Collection is Forgensis. The theme and gameplay are similar to Hive, but this game offers a couple of neat twists to help it stand apart. Spoiler alert: the Soda Pop Collection is currently 3 for 3 in terms of great games for me so far!

Forgenesis is a 2-player game of abstract strategy in which players are moving and activating Creatures around the board in hopes of landing on their opponent’s Corner Base. To setup for the game, place the board between the players, with a Corner Base pointing towards each player. Players take the 6 Creature tokens in the same color of their Corner Base. One player randomly removes 2 of their Creature tokens from the game, and the other player then removes the same 2 Creature tokens, leaving both players with the same 4 Creatures to use during the game. Both players will then choose an opponent’s Creature and place it into their Summoning space (adjacent to the Corner Base) with the Active side face-up – basically choosing which Creature your opponent will start the game with. The game is now ready to begin. Pictured below is the starting setup.

Players will be taking turns performing 1 Action – either Activate & Summon, or Refresh. If you choose to Activate & Summon, a few things are going to happen. You will first get to Activate any/all of your Active Creatures on the board. To Activate a Creature, you can either move it, or use its special ability. To move, simply move the Creature to an empty orthogonally adjacent space. When moving, you must always move Creatures away from your Corner Base – no back-tracking. If you choose to instead use a Creature’s special ability, move the Creature as described in the rules, and then flip it face-down on its Resting side. Resting Creatures cannot be Activated again until they are Refreshed (more on this later). During this “Activate” part of your turn, you must Activate at least one Creature, but can Activate any and/or all of your Active Creatures if you so wish. After Activating, you will finish your turn with Summon. To Summon, you will select one of the Creatures from your reserve (not yet in play on the board) and place it onto one of your empty Summoning spaces on the board, thus bringing a new Creature into play for you. Summoned Creatures are placed with their Active side up. ready to be used on your next turn. An important note – the Summon step is optional, and you do not have to Summon a Creature when you take the Activate & Summon action.

If you choose to Refresh on your turn, you will flip all of your Creatures who are on their Resting side back to their Active side. They are now ready to Activate on your next turn. You may only choose to Refresh if you have at least one Resting Creature. The game continues as such, with players taking turns Activating/Summoning or Refreshing their Creatures until one of two things happens. If, on your turn, you are unable to Activate any of you Creatures AND you have no Resting Creatures, you immediately lose the game. You’ve basically been ‘cornered’ and have no legal moves to make. If, on your turn, you are able to move one of your Creatures onto your opponent’s Corner Base, you win the game!

For such a small game, it packs in a decent amount of strategy. I mentioned earlier a similarity to Hive, as there is overlap in these two games. Both games center around insects/Creatures with special abilities moving to corner their opponent. Player must always be thinking several turns in advance, trying to deduce what action their opponent might take, in hopes of being able to circumvent their strategy. But Forgenesis brings a new element to the gameplay that elevates the strategy even more – Active vs. Resting Creatures. A Creature can only move or use its ability if it is currently Active. But once its ability has been used, it turns to Resting and cannot be used again until Refreshed. As opposed to Hive, in which all insects are ‘ready’ and can be used at any time, in Forgenesis you have to be more discerning with the Creature abilities. Because once you use it, that Creature is effectively out of play for you until you Refresh. The gameplay becomes a delicate balance of Activating and Refreshing as you try to maximize your Creature abilities without leaving you completely exposed to your opponent.

Another neat thing with Resting Creatures is that although you cannot use a Resting Creature until it has been Refreshed, they can be affected by other Creature abilities. Your Resting Creatures kind of end up as sitting ducks, because a well-timed ability from your opponent could move your Creature elsewhere on or off the board. Take the Snake for example – its ability allows it to swap locations with an orthogonally adjacent Creature. Or take the Beetle, who pushes orthogonally adjacent Creatures one space away from it. It might even push you off the board! And when Creatures are pushed off the board, they are removed from the game entirely – they cannot be re-Summoned later. Your strategy must be adaptable throughout the entire game as you react to how your opponent has managed to manipulate your Resting Creatures. Can you undo what they just did to you? Can you chain together several Creature abilities to overwhelm your opponent? Should you Refresh now or can you survive one more turn with your current Active Creatures? As I said earlier, it’s a delicate balance of strategy in this game.

The components of this game are pretty neat overall. The soda can ‘box’ is cute and effective. Similar to Top Cap, the ‘board’ is really fabric with the design printed on it. Still not sure on the name of the fabric, but it’s that play mat/mouse pad fabric, minus the foam. The Creature Tokens are nice chunky wooden tokens that are thick and sturdy. The artwork on the tokens is unique and almost looks a little mechanical overall. I love the Active and Resting artwork, as it makes it really easy to see the difference between the two sides of the tokens. A+ again to ThunderGryph for the production quality of this game.

The overall idea of Forgenesis is actually similar to that of Top Cap – move your pieces onto your opponent’s corner of the board. But where Top Cap was fairly light, Forgenesis is a bit heavier because it has more elements to keep track of. Different Creatures have different abilities, the play area is relatively small, maximizing your abilities, and knowing the perfect time to Refresh. It all culminates into a decent brain burner with a deceptively simple appearance. I mentioned in my Top Cap review that I would use that game as a gateway game for 2-player games. And I would then use Forgenesis as the next game after that. It takes that simple idea and elevates it with more strategic options, and seems like a logical next-step game in the genre. I also have been comparing Forgenesis to Hive, but they truly are 2 different games, and both of them have a place in my collection. I’m excited to play Forgenesis with Travis and get his thoughts on it, and if he agrees with my rating and review. I know he’s a big fan of Hive, so I’m thinking he will like this one too. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Until then, though, Purple Phoenix Games gives Forgenesis a solid 4 / 6.