Abducktion Review

Congratulations! After months of searching, you’ve finally landed a new job! Well, technically an unpaid internship, but still, it counts! You can’t really remember how you even heard about Abducktion Labs Intergalactic, but they were eager enough to bring you on board – literally. Your job as an intern? Collect Duck specimens from Deep Space in specific formations to bring back to headquarters for research purposes. Sounds easy enough, but it’s a bit trickier than you’d think!

Abducktion is an abstract game of pattern building and hand management in which 1-4 players are attempting to complete Formations to earn end-game Victory Points. To setup for the game, fill the UFO with all the Ducks in the box. Each player receives a Quantum Pond Board, and fills all 10 of their Ponds with random Ducks drawn from the UFO. Shuffle the Formation cards and draw 12 to be used in this game, the others can be returned to the box. Shuffle the 12 Formation cards, place them in a face-down stack, and then reveal the top 3 Formation cards – these are the Active Formations. Shuffle the deck of Action cards and deal 3 cards to each player. Choose a starting player, and the game is ready to begin! Pictured below is the setup for a 3-player game.

Throughout the game, players will be taking turns playing Action cards in attempts to complete Formations. The Formation cards will show a grid with Ducks in a specific shape and orientation. Players are trying to manipulate the Ducks on their Pond Boards to match these Formations exactly. How you do that is by playing Action cards on your turn. You always have 3 Action cards in hand, and on your turn you can play any and/or all Action cards. To play an Action card, place it face-up in a discard pile and perform the Action listed – most often swapping adjacent Ducks, rotating sets of Ducks, or sometimes even trading/taking Ducks from an opponent.

If, on your turn, you are able to match a Formation card with the Ducks on your Pond Board, you may choose to collect that Formation card and abduct the corresponding Ducks back into the UFO. Any time Ducks are abducted, you shift the remaining Ducks on your Pond Board down the ‘stream’ as far as they can go. You then draw new Ducks from the UFO, one at a time, filling in the spaces in order. Completed Formation cards are kept off to the side and will count towards end-game scoring. Your turn ends when you have either played all 3 Action cards, have collected a Formation card, or choose to pass. Before play moves to the next player, reveal a new Formation card (if you just completed one), replenish Ducks on your Pond Board (if you haven’t already done so), and draw Action cards until you have 3 in hand. The next player will now take their turn, and the game continues as such until all 12 Formation cards have been collected. Everyone now counts up the points listed on their completed Formation cards, and the player with the highest score wins!

For such a silly theme, the gameplay is pretty solid. You have to have an adaptable strategy in order to be successful, because the game can shift in an instant. The Formation you were so carefully creating over a series of turns could be snatched up by another player! So how do you bounce back from that and maximize your next turn to re-adjust and reorient your Ducks? You’re always thinking ahead, and also need to keep an eye on your opponents’ boards as well. Another neat element is that your Ducks have to match the exact shape and orientation of the Formation cards. The patterns cannot be flipped, rotated, or inverted. It ups the difficulty a little bit because everything has to line up just perfectly.

Admittedly, I have had a couple of games where the luck of the draw is just not in my favor. My Action cards are essentially useless or I’m drawing all the wrong color Ducks and cannot complete a Formation to save my life. That can be a bit frustrating, but one small way to combat that is that if you are unhappy with the Ducks on your Pond Board, you can discard 3 Action cards to abduct all of your Ducks and replace them with new ones from the UFO. This is a way you can potentially give yourself a fresh start, not only with Ducks, but with Action cards too. Just a little rule to keep in mind that can help you in a pinch!

When it comes to components, Very Special Games hits it out of the park. The player boards are nice and thick, and the cards are sturdy. I did back the ‘deluxe’ edition on Kickstarter, so my Formation cards have metallic/reflective elements that make them really pop. The artwork on the Action cards is cute and quirky too. The Ducks themselves are these great little plastic Ducks that are so dang cute, and the silicone UFO is a great component to replace just a standard draw-bag. Very well-produced, and it makes the game feel that much more special.

When I originally backed this game, I thought it would just be a cute little gimmicky game that might have ok gameplay. What I really got surprised me. Yes, it’s cute. Yes, it’s gimmicky. But the gameplay keeps me coming back for more. It’s blissfully simple, yet much more complicated than meets the eye. I’m never bored during my plays, and I’m always thinking ahead, watching my opponents’ turns, trying to figure out what move to make next. Abducktion has made quite an impression on us, and we have no choice but to give this on a stellar 12 / 12. I highly recommend giving this one a shot, it might surprise you!