CO₂: Second Chance

EvEvanstar4,6

I'm a person who is regularly crushed by anxiety over things I can't do much about. Global warming is one of those things. I recycle, turn off the lights when I leave a room, try to be energy efficient, but the reality is that a single corporation has a drastically more significant ability to effect the amount of carbon that make it into the air. A big reason I'm drawn to the theme of this game is to roleplay someone who can actually do something about the problem. I had played first edition a few times, and while there were elements of gameplay I really enjoyed at the time, the semi-cooperative game elements never seemed to provide players with enough incentive to work together to actually save the world. In second edition, the primary gameplay mode is fully-co-op so I was excited to give it a try. The look of the game is beautiful, although the publisher made some component errors including printing icons on tokens off center and printing card backs upside down. Generally the game works like this. There are different continents on the map, and each round those locations, if not provided with a power plant tile, will provide their own. Tiles you build for them represent green energy, and won't increase the temperature chart marker. Tiles they build for themselves will push the marker between 2 to 4 spaces (times the round number) depending on what flips. It takes three actions to build a single power-plant. One action to propose the idea, which generates you a reward from the space in the region you place the proposal tile. One action to place your "infrastructure" token on the proposal tile, generating the reward on the tile. Then one action to actually build the power plant generating victory points, and importantly preventing that continent from building their own plant that round. Actions are incredibly tight, as each player gets a very limited number of actions each round, dictated by the number of players. Each step of this process additionally costs different combinations of purple discs, money, and white cubes, all of which are needed for extra side goals such as the secret win requirement cards each player is given, public goal cards that need to be achieved to win, and these progress tokens that sit at the side of the board leeching points from you each round unless you fulfill them. Deciding which plants to build and where to get what rewards is crucial, but ultimately round to round the key decision point is often the income phase. Between rounds you gain income equal to how far you've progressed on the charts representing the different power plant types. You can take this income in either money or victory points, but you do this before you know which polluting power plants will flip. Victory points are really just another currency in the game. If you go below 0 you lose, but generally you can spend VP to stop the temperature from rising, as you also lose if the temperature marker hits the end of it's track. Ultimately what this means is that in this rather long game, each round you are making a guess as to if you will lose or not. Since the plants have a variance of 2-4(x round#), you can average at 3, and take the points you hope you'll need to survive the power plant phase, but if you take too much in points you'll be money poor to buy new plants. It's a bit of a messy math bookkeeping step at the end of the round that I'm not totally thrilled with. This is a true Vital game in that there are probably one too many mechanisms for the rules of the game to sit comfortably in my brain, yet the core aspects of the game are enjoyable enough for me to stick with it despite that it's likely this will be tough to play in the future. Generally my habit with games of this complexity level is that I struggle to understand the how and why with my initial play, then shelf it for a few months, then try to return to it having forgotten everything, suffer again, then shelf it and never play it again despite having a memory of generally liking it. Maybe not, who knows, perhaps the fact that this is fully co-op and offers a usable solo mode will keep me active in it. :star: Art, Iconography and components functional :star: Clever or interesting mechanisms :star: Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players :nostar: Multiple plays stay interesting :star: Low or mitigatable luck elements :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: Raw enjoyment

GaGarfieldstar10,0

2.2 The theme is very strong in this one. [c] Theme: :star::star::star::star::star: <!-- size 7]Wow --> Gameplay: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Not that many choices --> Interaction: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Make plans with others --> Artwork: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]My taste of style --> Luck: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Almost none --> Strategy: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Very strategic --> Components: :star::star::star::star::star: <!-- size 7]Awesome --> Play duration: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]A little bit too long --> Easy to teach: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Still ok --> Rules quality: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Very good --> Setup time: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Can take 10min --> No downtime: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Ok --> Replay value: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]It's very dynamic --> [/c]

BWBWizardstar8,6

[c] (15x) GAMING EXPERIENCE: :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::nostar: (5x) DEPTH / WEIGHT: :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::nostar: (5x) LUCK: :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: (10x) REPLAYABILITY: :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::nostar: (6x) MECHANICS: :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::nostar::nostar: (6x) PLAYER INTERACTION: :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star: (3x) SCALABILITY (PLAYER COUNT): :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::nostar::nostar: (2x) LENGTH: :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: (2x) CLARITY OF RULES: :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::nostar::nostar: (6x) COMPONENT QUALITY: :star::star::star::star::star::star::star::star::nostar::nostar: [/c] KS edition with metal coins. :thumbsup: With translated, edited, printed rulebook. :thumbsup: Language independent. :thumbsdown: Unusable insert.