ROVE the Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer
It’s time to explore new planets and, well crash onto one. But that’s okay, we’re ROVE the results-oriented versatile explorer. So when things get tough, we know how to repair ourselves. But to do that we need to get everything into the right order to get our basic functions back. ROVE is a solo game where you try and get modules into the correct configuration, which is sometimes harder than it sounds because you only have so much energy to work with.
How To Play ROVE
ROVE is a solo only game where you are trying to complete seven missions. In each mission you need to configure the placement of various modules from the ROVE lander that has broken. To do this, you spend energy. One energy allows you to activate a card. So let’s talk about how it works with the modules.
Each module has a specific way that it can move and a special power. The special powers, however, are only a single use per game. And you need to complete seven missions. So you plan carefully when you use those powers. Otherwise the modules move in different ways. One needs to cross over another module but it can move in any direction. A couple others can just cross over modules but might move only diagonally, for example.
Once you complete one mission you flip out a new mission card and you refresh your energy cards so that you have five, on normal, or fewer, four or three for hard and impossible settings. You do this until you have seven cards into play for missions and you either have run out of energy trying to complete a mission or you complete them all. If you do, you win.
What Doesn’t Work
This game takes up a bit of space. As you move all of the cards around things are going to shift a fair amount. So for a solo game that is just 18 cards, and six of them really in play that take up so mush space, it’s a bit of a table hog. Now that said, it’s really not that much space. But let’s say it’s not a game that you could easily play on a TV tray or something like that, it needs more space.
What Works
I like the different levels that you can play the game at. I played twice and the second game, on hard, I felt like it was actually a bit more challenging. When you get energy cards and you have two three energies available, you never really feel the crunch of movement. But with four cards and you just have twos and ones, well there is more intensity there. I think that hard is probably where I’ll play the game most, though I’m sure I’ll dabble with impossible and lose quickly.
The game is also fast. I was worried when I pulled the game off the shelf and learned the rules that with seven missions it’d be a very slow game. But it’s definitely not a slow game. I got through two plays in about half an hour. And that’s a great amount of time for a game like this. Each mission is it’s own puzzle, but you quickly figure out how to solve them as you go and you come up with a plan before you start moving cards around.
Finally, it’s a silly little thing, but I like how the cards create a picture, or panorama as you go. And you get to see what the silly little robot is doing, that’s a great fun element to the game. It takes what’s really a very mechanical puzzle of a game and gives you a goofy little element to it to inject the theme. It’s something that works well, and is just that nice little bit of flavor.
Who Is ROVE For?
This is going to be for that person who loves solo games. Sometimes a solo game could maybe be a two player game if you want to just work together and talk through ideas. But ROVE is really focused down on figuring out that challenge as to where you place everything. And because of that it’s a bit of a quieter game. Obviously I talked through it all on my video, but off camera, I think I’d just play it as a quieter time, so it’s truly a solo puzzle of a game.
My Final Thoughts on ROVE
I enjoyed ROVE quite well. The theme is fun and it is really bolstered by the little artwork in the game. Without that, the game really focuses on functional cards, which isn’t a bad thing, more just a statement of how the cards are in the game.
I want to know what the expansions add to the game. Because, I didn’t mention this as a negative, because the game balances for it, I feel like the game is a bit easy on the normal mode. Hard feels like a normal mode to me and I think that impossible could even be a good challenge from time to time, though I do expect that to be near impossible. But if the expansions add a little bit of complexity to the game, where it feels like the challenge would be harder, than I think my grade on the game would go even higher.
My Grade: B
Strategy: A
Luck: D
Just a reminder, that I changed up the scales so that you can know how lucky or strategic a game is. ROVE is very strategic in nature. Not maybe for super long term planning, but when it comes down to have everything works. And there is some luck in what is flipped, but it’s very minimal for the game. It’s more that you need to be good at having reactive strategy.
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