Nemesis Retaliation

How has your Nemesis Retaliation game record been?

Out of 9 games, here’s how I did:

3x Full victory
2x Survived, but unfortunately without achieving my personal objective
4x Died, but at least once in a pretty epic way, clearing the path for my crew members.

However, no matter how my adventures in this abandoned base ended, I was determined to keep playing. Why is that? I’ll try to answer that question in the review below.

What’s this all about?

Nemesis Retaliation is the third installment in a trilogy about noaliens who have their sights set on us and our bellies. This time, we find ourselves in an abandoned base where we don’t know the layout of the corridors, and the only way out is hibernation or a total departure.

Since I’ve played the previous installments a dozen or so times, I immediately sensed a change in the gameplay feel. This is no longer a horror game where we fight an uneven battle for survival. Now we shoot first and ask questions later. That’s why in this review I’ll touch a bit on the earlier Nemesis games and see what’s new here.

Ripley’s Delight

You can tell that this installment of Nemesis is heavily action-oriented. Our weapons have an ammo cheat code, grenades fly left and right like in Worms, and mowing down intruders in the corridors reminds me of the intense carnage seen in authentic Asian samurai movies. We’re no longer that helpless mouse who has to hide and sneak around like a slasher movie protagonist who’s about to die. This change has significantly impacted how the game is received, but in my opinion, it’s a positive change. Finally, I feel like I have control over the gameplay, and I’m not afraid to take advantage of the game’s features. After all, I’m the final girl, not some random nobody who’s about to let out a Wilhelm scream.

This change also affected the game’s difficulty level, and that’s another plus. It’s still not easy to win, but now at least I feel like I have a chance. In previous installments, sometimes a bad hand or a random situation would leave us dead just because the game decided so. Now the difficulty level is very well balanced. It’s like I’m playing on something between Normal and Nightmare in digital games. It encourages me to play more, and for every death, I blame myself more than the game.

Another advantage of this version is that we don’t know what awaits us around every corner. This time, we’ll be expanding our own corridors as we explore this “abandoned base.” Exploration cards now guarantee a different room layout with every playthrough, which has greatly enhanced the sense of replayability. Searching for rooms to fulfill our objectives also encourages us to constantly push deeper into the base, just like in a good dungeon crawler. I missed that in previous Nemesis games. The fact that we can still create our own corridors using an engineer or a robot makes the exploration even more interesting.

For me, the biggest plus of Nemesis was playing in semi-co-op. Back then, we never knew who was on our side, and it was hard to sense the intentions of our “friends.” Of course, we get the same thing in Retaliation, and it also makes every move by other players seem highly suspicious. Cutting off someone’s oxygen or suddenly triggering the ship’s self-destruct is always a highlight.

Those who don’t care for such treacherous tactics will also enjoy the purely cooperative mode. Working together against the aliens strengthens friendships, and the death of any crew member causes a slight sense of sadness which we can drown out by throwing a grenade down the corridor.

In Nemesis Retaliation, you can play as 6 characters. Each has their own special abilities and strengths. The Scout moves more stealthily, the Officer shoots more accurately, and the Heavy Weapons Operator packs a heavy firepower. I’ve had the chance to play all the characters, and it would be hard for me to pick a favorite. That’s something that rarely happens in games. On a list of heroes I’m reluctant to play, the Mercenary might make the cut, mainly because his pistol isn’t very effective in corridors. However, once you equip him with something better, it’s a nice upgrade.

A Few Acids

The first annoyance is cramming everything into the box. It mainly involves the base pieces, which you have to arrange at the right angle, stacking them with the player boards like a cardboard sandwich so the box will even close. Even then, the lid sticks out a little. Does anyone here have OCD?

I also don’t like the way the instructions are written. Many of the rules refer from one page to the next. This back-and-forth made it hard to find what we were looking for at first. The first few games definitely had me constantly flipping through the manual.

Every now and then, an edge case would pop up that I had to look up on Board Game Geek. We can also just ignore it and handle it in the worst possible way for the players, following the nightmare rule. Personally, I think that’s fine. After all, it’s better to play than to wait around for the right thread.

Summary

The new Nemesis has been a huge hit in my household. Whether I was playing with friends or on my own, I had a great time. Every game was incredibly exciting, and afterwards, we spent a long time discussing what had happened. Even when I played alone.

The changes introduced in Retaliation shifted the gameplay’s feel toward more action, but they didn’t take away what I value most in Nemesis. Namely, playing in semi-co-op where I can’t trust everyone and I don’t really know if my enemy is a alien or someone close to me. Even in full co-op, Nemesis proves its ability to generate stories worth remembering. Though they’re usually short and don’t have a happy ending.

Additionally, I like that with every playthrough, we generate a different map and different conditions needed to win. It makes you want to keep coming back to this abandoned base, which still hides many secrets.

Final verdict: Nemesis Retaliation proves that gaming writes the best scenarios. It’s a thrilling adventure packed with epic action that always ends with a good time, but not necessarily with a win.

Pros
Shoot first, ask questions later
Epic action
Stories worth remembering
We’re on the same team, right?
Corridor generation
Still difficult, but we have a chance

Cons
The box doesn’t close properly
Edge cases
Shuffling through the rules

[self bought]