Stats:
No. of players: 1-4
Amount of time to play: 60-90 min
Age requirements: 13+
Set-up time: 5 min

Apocalypse Chaos is a cooperative board game. Can you save your spaceship from being destroyed by the swarming invaders that surround it?

Apocalypse Chaos Rules Description:

Apocalypse Chaos is a tough cooperative game that plays differently depending in the characters you use. Every round more invaders surround your ship and you must figure out a way to eliminate them before they destroy your ship.

After setting up the board and alien decks you are ready to start. Each round you place aliens equal to the number of players at spawn points around the edge of the tiles that make up the board.

Next you roll your five dice. You place the results on your player board in order to change your initiative, move, make a ranged or melee attack, defend or use your character’s unique special action. The more dice you put on specific action the more powerful it is and the different characters are better at different actions. If you don’t roll what you like you can use two matching dice as any one die. You may trade up to two of your dice with other players, but no one may ever have more than seven dice.

You may also place dice on your board to use the function of the room you are in. Each room uses different dice to activate and grants you different bonuses to actions. The board is 3d and some of the rooms are on platforms. The platforms may be destroyed (by enemies), but keep characters on them safe from enemy attacks.

Then heroes and aliens with the lowest initiative act. Heroes win initiative ties and may choose when they want to go when sharing an initiative value with an enemy. Melee attacks hit targets next to the attacker orthogonally. While enemy ranged attacks hit characters one or more tiles away from them in a straight line. Character ranged attacks hit an alien that is not next to their tile orthogonally.

You win if all alien bosses are eliminated. You lose if a player dies and you have not defeated the alien bosses within two rounds. Or all players are eliminated.

The game comes with an introductory scenario and seven other ones. You can also make up your own scenarios if you wish.

Quick Review of Apocalypse Chaos:

Apocalypse Chaos is a fun, cooperative, dice placement puzzle game. Each character plays differently and players need to work together to win. It is a puzzle because you must figure out which enemy is attacking when and from where. Then do your best to disrupt their plans and destroy them.

The components for this game look great. The art is cool the board is 3d and everything looks great on the table. The rulebook, on the other hand, leaves a bit to be desired. I think everything you need to know is in there, but some of it is not entirely clear. I wish there were more detailed examples.

I like the different characters and how each plays differently. The unique abilities and different stats makes you want try them all. When you add in the different scenarios (and the ones you can make) Apocalypse Chaos has a lot of replay value.

Teaming up really matters. Since you combine shield results on a tile, it helps if you stick with a buddy and maximize your defense. Unfortunately there can never be more than two characters on a tile. But two is still usually better than being alone.

Alien bosses come in three levels of difficulty. And you can tweak enemy starting health too. This allows you to make the game as difficult as you like. This can be especially useful when teaching it to new players.

There are a few things to be aware of if you are thinking of buying this game. First it can be a real brain burner. There is a lot going on and the puzzle aspect may not be for everyone. I quite enjoy the puzzle, but it can be overwhelming with up to four new enemies entering the map each round.

Also as usual the dice can be fickle. If you don’t roll what you need you can be in a lot of trouble or even dead. It is nice to be able to use any two matching dice as one result, but each die is precious and you still need a pair to do this. And though it says you can plays this solo, playing with one hero is really tough. You have no one to share dice with and bad rolls are even worse.

If you are a fan of puzzle games (like Neuroshima Hex) give Apocalypse Chaos a try. Your group might really like it. But if you are looking for something that won’t make you think too much, look elsewhere.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6