Throughout the final couple of months, Devir Video games launched the rock and roll themed board sport Rock Onerous 1977. The sport was designed by Jackie Fox who is aware of a bit about being a rock star within the 70s because the bassist for The Runaways. You and as much as 4 of your pals will tackle the function of varied rock stars making an attempt to make it to the large leagues. Devir Video games was sort sufficient to produce me with a replica of the sport to assessment, however all ideas beneath are my very own.
It is 1977. You are an up-and-coming musician, dreaming of creating it huge together with your band. Over the following few months you may rehearse, play gigs, write songs, and promote your band. With cautious planning and a bit of luck, you may earn probably the most fame and grow to be the perfect new artist of the yr.
After I realized about Rock Onerous 1977, I used to be excited. I’m at all times drawn to video games related to music, particularly rock music so after all I needed to test it out even when I’m extra of a fan of 90s and 00s rock. A few of the consideration to element was very nice. The participant boards are designed to appear to be a combo amplifier with knobs to point stats and the max stat is 11. You begin with a job to make ends meet till you grow to be a large enough deal within the music business. Issues like which are at all times a plus in my e-book.
Gameplay for Rock Onerous 1977 could be very a lot a employee placement sport {that a} buddy identified is much like Lords of Waterdeep. Throughout every spherical (max 9), there are three phases: Day, Night time, and Night. Every part has distinctive places so that you can go to with totally different results corresponding to rising stats, getting a report deal, taking part in gigs, or simply hanging out backstage. There are additionally places open throughout every part. In the course of the Night, your location will decide your flip order for the following spherical. The sport ends after spherical 9 or on the finish of a spherical the place at the least one participant has 50 or extra Fame (victory factors).
Usually, every participant can take one motion throughout a part, however there’s a instrument in Rock Onerous 1977 that helps you in occasions of want: Sweet. Sweet represents all the assorted vices that rock stars are recognized for that provides them a possible increase within the variety of actions you’ll be able to take (as much as two further actions). The catch is that everytime you devour Sweet, your Craving stat will increase and it’s a must to roll a die. If the die roll is the same as or greater than your Craving stat, nothing occurs. If the roll is decrease, then you definately expertise Low Blood Sugar and it’s a must to spend your subsequent Day part within the Get better area which merely lowers your Craving by one.
This provides a stage of threat vs reward that may enable you to catch as much as and even get forward of the opposite rock stars. You additionally should be cautious in planning your flip with Sweet as some areas restrict what Sweet can do. For instance, you can not use Sweet to play a number of Gigs throughout the Night time part. Fortunately these areas do have a transparent icon that Sweet results are restricted indirectly. I truly actually just like the Sweet system and don’t even hate the truth that it’s attainable to waste Sweet by flipping over the Sugar Free card which leads to zero further actions.
Earlier than I proceed speaking about numerous points I like about Rock Onerous 1977, I do need to discuss points I’ve with it. My greatest criticism is one that also baffles me. There may be actually no field insert to arrange the sport elements. You get some small plastic baggies to assist with the smaller elements and paper bands (that simply broke and wanted changing with rubber bands) for issues like cash and playing cards, however it simply comes throughout to me as incomplete and unfinished. I usually discuss in evaluations about how inserts can actually make a distinction for a sport and never having one is an enormous failure for my part.
An enormous gameplay challenge that we bumped into whereas taking part in was the imbalance of jobs. There are a complete of 11 totally different jobs. They every point out which part a participant can Go To Work, how a lot cash they make, and any particular skills for the job. Solely two jobs have particular skills that are each actually good. The Truck Driver not solely will get paid $2 (the common quantity of pay) but in addition doesn’t have any threat of being fired for not utilizing Go To Work (different jobs fireplace you in case you miss it thrice). In the meantime, the Sound Engineer additionally will get $2 and in the event that they Report a Demo, they pay $1 much less and don’t miss work. Wow, that’s actually good! Another jobs simply offer you a flat $2, others have you ever roll to see how a lot you get between $1-3, and then you definately get a job that ought to not exist: Wait Individual. Whereas I perceive thematically why it really works the way in which that it does, it’s so terrible. You must roll a die with ⅓ likelihood of getting $2, ⅔ likelihood of getting $3 (the best quantity within the sport), and ⅓ likelihood of shedding $2! The thought is {that a} patron stiffs you, and also you do have a barely greater likelihood of getting $3 than different jobs, however it feels SO BAD while you do roll the six and must pay $2! In case you are behind in any respect, this makes it really feel subsequent to not possible to catch up. Within the mid-late sport, this doesn’t matter as you’ll produce other technique of revenue and may do with out your job, however like many different employee placement/useful resource administration video games, the early sport can have an enormous influence on the ultimate rating. There are a number of alternative ways you might try to repair this one card, however actually it simply comes all the way down to the truth that the roles on the whole want higher balancing and possibly extra with particular skills. I might actually most likely advocate speaking to your group about eradicating the Wait Individual and presumably the Truck Driver and Sound Engineer from the sport earlier than taking part in with how issues at the moment stand.
One other challenge that my teams bumped into is with the Rent Crew areas. In Rock Onerous 1977, coloured icons assist point out issues. If an icon is pink, that’s the price to carry out the motion. Whether it is blue, then it’s a requirement to carry out the motion. Whether it is black, then it’s the reward of taking the motion. This does get a bit of complicated on Rent Crew as a result of there are a number of slots for that area with totally different prices for a similar outcomes. Some members of my teams struggled with the assorted areas and tiers of buying as a result of you should buy as much as three crew members with every one costing extra, however you can even solely purchase one per flip.
Moreover, the character skills really feel inconsistently written. This isn’t an enormous gameplay drawback, however does add to the unpolished really feel. 5 of the characters have particular means tokens that you simply sometimes take away to point that you’ve got used the flexibility. For Eric Fairchild and Doc Sapphire, these tokens make a variety of sense to have. You’ll be able to even make a case for Rafael Santiago. Nonetheless, it’s odd to me that Yolanda Delacroix and Shere Darling use these tokens however different as soon as per spherical skills corresponding to Kimmy Kim or Bebe Rose don’t have these tokens. Both, all as soon as per spherical skills ought to have a token, or they need to not. It additionally bothers me that whereas the results of Yolanda and Shere are extraordinarily related, the syntax is totally different. I want that this was extra uniform and even prolonged to characters like Bebe Rose.
Lastly, the smallest criticism I’ve is that not the entire knobs for the amp boards are created equal. A few of them are extraordinarily tough to show in any respect and we discovered ourselves actively checking them to keep away from them once we begin a sport. That mentioned, some type of grip on all of the knobs would go a protracted approach to make this actually a non-issue. The smoothness actually makes it laborious and it’s one element that I really feel fell flat as most, if not all, amp knobs I’ve ever used do have some stage of grip or a protrusion to function a grip.
Regardless of all these negatives, there are positively good issues about Rock Onerous 1977. I already talked about some consideration to element, however one that basically takes issues excessive for me is the cash. It has a pleasant texture to them and every invoice has totally different marks on them corresponding to espresso stains, drawings, and so on. It is likely to be my favourite element within the sport.
One other optimistic is that the sport is scaled properly for various sized gaming teams. One facet of the board is for 2-3 gamers and the opposite is for 4-5. As well as, there’s an ‘AI’ participant to make use of in 2-player video games. I loved bigger 4-player video games and smaller 2-player video games alike.
As well as, whereas Rock Onerous 1977 does have an unpolished really feel in some ways, the totally different items are high quality. The playing cards and cash really feel sturdy; the tokens, amps, character boards, and sport board all really feel good; and the acrylic standees look good and really feel sturdy.
Is Rock Onerous 1977 an ideal sport? No. Is the gameplay enjoyable? Exterior of some tough edges, sure. In case you like employee placement video games, you’ll most likely take pleasure in Rock Onerous 1977. The artwork is enjoyable, the mechanics are strong, and I’ve loved taking part in it exterior of the sport the place I used to be a Wait Individual (critically, that was such an terrible sport due to that job). I’ll positively be breaking this sport out sooner or later with pals. Sadly, the dearth of an insert, imbalance in jobs, and general unpolished really feel of some points does influence the rating.
