Stats:
No. of players: 2-6
Amount of time to play: 60-120 min
Age requirements: 14+
Set-up time: 10 min

Level 7 Omega Protocol is a tactical, miniatures board game. One player plays the aliens the others represent government operatives trying to suppress their existence.

Level 7 Omega Protocol Rules Description:

Level 7 Escape is a sci-fi, horror-themed survival game. You play as a captured test subject escaping a subterranean lab. Level 7 Omega Protocol picks up right there. Now that some subjects have escaped to the surface secret operatives are called in to cover up the evidence of this government conspiracy.

This is an asymmetrical board game. The aliens play differently than the operatives. And each operative is unique too. To start the alien player (called the overseer) lays out the scenario tiles to form the map.

The map is made up of tiles that create rooms separated by doors. Rooms have a stack of cards in them that are revealed when a commando attempts to open one of the room’s doors. The stack of cards can include aliens, objectives or traps. And the doors may be jammed, locked or short circuited and slow down or injure the commandos.

Each play chooses their operative. An operative comes with a kit so you can customize your commando. The kits include different weapons, med packs and other special abilities.

To begin each round the timer is moved forward one space. Some missions have events that trigger when the timer reaches a space.

Next you must select your commando’s stance. Each commando has three stances and your stance determines your speed, ranged defense, melee defense and maximum adrenaline. The commandos have ranks and the highest ranked commando assigns the initiative order the all commandos. On your turn you may move, open doors, investigate, heal or attack at will. The catch is all these actions cost one or two adrenaline and you cannot spend more than your maximum adrenaline that was determined by your stance.

To attack a unit you must be facing it. To make a ranged attack you must have line of sight and be within your gun’s range. When you attack a unit, you roll the dice shown on the weapon you are using. Red die are slightly more potent than black ones and you must meet or beat the defender’s defense. Aliens that attack a commando that used their maximum adrenaline that turn gain a red die. If your attack is successful the defender gains a wound. If an alien’s wounds equal their vitality they are removed from the board. A commando with wounds equal to their vitality is considered down. They gain the down stance and can only move. Their friends can revive them for two adrenaline and they can reset their stance during the next commando phase. They also remove one wound token from their commando.

After all the commandos have their turn the overseer takes their turn. After the first round as part of the commando phase the overseer gets all the adrenaline tokens the commandos spent the last turn. There is a minimum number of adrenaline tokens the overseer must have at the beginning of their turn determined by the mission. The overseer has a dashboard of abilities where they spend adrenaline. Each of the abilities has a ready cost and a refresh rate and some have a committed cost. To start their turn the overseer removes previously spent adrenaline tokens based on that ability’s refresh rate. If an ability still has tokens on it you cannot use it unless you pay the committed cost. An ability without tokens costs the ready rate to use. The dashboard lets the overseer spawn aliens, force the commandos to re-roll attacks, cause cave-ins and more.

The aliens may also move and attack. This costs different amount adrenaline depending on the type of alien. After the overseer is done you start the next round and play proceeds until the commandos meet their objective or all commandos are down.

Quick Review of Level 7 Omega Protocol:

Level 7 Omega Protocol is a fun, semi-cooperative tactical miniatures game. There is a lot of replay value with the nine missions and five different commandos with customizable, unique kits.

There area bunch of components in this game. The art is great and the rules are well laid out with lots of examples. The figures are pretty good but you may need to straighten some of them out. I wish the box was more useful and that baggies were included too. As I have said for the other games in this series, I really wish it came with player aids.

I really like the theme in this game and how it picks up right after Level 7 Escape. The commandos especially feel immersed in the story as they try to fight their way through the mission.

The way the adrenaline tokens flow throughout the game and are used is great. The more commandos do the more the overseer can do, but you can sit and be idle as there is a minimum number of adrenaline tokens the overseer gets. This give and take creates interesting decisions around your resources and actions you perform.

The kits are another really cool thing about Omega Protocol. You can take a base commando and tweak them with better weapons, re-roll abilities or abilities that will help your teammates. There are kit thats can only be used by specific commandos and some that can be used by anyone in the group.

Level 7 Omega Protocol has some really fun elements and a story that really immerses players in the experience. I am not always wild about board games with a pseudo-gamemaster, but this game is fun for the commandos and the overseer. If you enjoy miniatures games or you should pick this up. If this game looks like something you’ll enjoy you should try it out. For a video tutorial with an even more detailed rules overview click here.

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