Ever wanted to be a psychic warrior who can wield powerful thoughts? Of course you have, what kind of silly question is that?! “The Forevergone”, a two to four player card game, puts players in the shoes of such a warrior who are trying to eliminate their competition once and for all. To do that, they’ll be trying to force their opponents’ cards into a discard pile known as, “The Void”. Before I get into specifics, I’d like to thank Game Designer Rob Richmond for reaching out and providing me with a press copy for review purposes. The game will be launching on Kickstarter on July 12th of 2016, however I’m told that my copy was the true and final version which is why I’m opting for a review instead of a preview. The game can actually be purchased now via The Game Crafter, if you like what you see in this article.
The Forevergone: 2-4 Players, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes
Components
The game box includes 108 cards: Instructions (3, no border), Game Cards (100, black border), Collectible Art Cards (4, gold border), Bonus Music Card (1, white border), it also includes info about the best bli medlem games.
Setup & Gameplay
Firstly, players will separate the cards into five separate piles by color. Each color represents a specific discipline. Once that’s done, players will choose two colors…one as their primary and one as their secondary, to form their build. Players use ALL of the cards from their primary discipline, but remove all of the level III cards from their secondary discipline. Once that’s done, each player’s set of cards are shuffled together to form their own individual face-down draw deck known as “The Ether”. Players draw six cards from their deck to form their starting hand.
The game itself is played over turns, with each player completing a series of phases on their turn. These phases are:
1. Opening: Deactivate any tech the player wishes.
2. Draw: On the player’s first turn, they draw one card. On the player’s second turn, they draw two cards. Every turn thereafter, the player draws three. When you’ve drawn the last card from your draw pile, you’ll reshuffle the cards from your positive discard pile known as “The Memory” to form a new draw pile. However, the top two cards from this new pile are placed into a negative discard pile known as, “The Void”.
3. Activation: The player may choose a power or tech to activate. To activate a card, they’ll play it down in front of them and discard a number of cards from their hand equal to the cost shown on the played card (the roman numeral on the top right corner). The discarded cards go the memory. Techs remain face up where it remains persistent until removed.
4. Reactions: Any player may choose to play a reaction to activate in response to the active player’s card. All cards played in this way are stacked on top of each other as they are played.
5. Resolution: All cards played resolve from the top down until all actions are complete. Powers and reactions which resolved go into the owner’s “Memory” pile. All active techs stay face up on the table. Any thoughts/cards that cancel activation go to the owner’s void pile.
6. Additional Activation: The player may return to step three if they have another card they’d like to play this turn.
7. Closing: A player has at least fifteen cards in their void at this point, they are eliminated. If there is no victor, then the activate player discards their hand down to eight cards…any cards discarded go to the void. If this would cause them to reach or exceed their void limit, they are eliminated.
Play continues until only one player is left standing, in which case they become the winner!
Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.
The Review
At first glance, this game seemed very similar to “Magic: The Gathering” (which is not necessarily a bad thing). For example, both games feature five unique colored card types that tend to favor a specific strategy or play style. With that said, “The Forevergone” incorporates a lot of cool, unique mechanics that makes it stand out on its own. The idea of using the second discard pile as a game ending condition, for example, saves me from having to count hit points every time there’s a confrontation.
While “Magic: The Gathering” lets you use as many colors as you want, you’re limited to having to use two colors in “The Forevergone” (sort of like in “Wiz-War”). Taking away the ability to customize your build any way you want to is no doubt a step backward when comparing the two games and fans of “Magic: The Gathering” will probably see it that way. What makes this acceptable to me however is that you have a primary and secondary discipline in which you discard power level III cards from the latter. This forces players to specialize a bit and honestly, I kind of like this approach as it makes the game a bit more streamlined and easy to play.
What’s also nice is that I don’t have to worry about fat packs and buying a new core set every year…everything I need comes straight out of the box, day one. I can’t tell you how much I’ve dropped on “Star Wars: The Card Game”, for example. As such, “The Forevergone” is a money-saver all things considered, despite the $25.00 price tag. Those who know me have come to understand my penny-pinching preferences…I would have pegged this one to be around $15-$20, though $25 (per The Game Crafter as of 5/18/16) doesn’t irk me as much as some of the other price tags that I’ve come across have.
In conclusion, I’d most definitely give this one a pass and then some. The gameplay was satisfying and it was fun trying out different combinations…like how purple/blue was different than blue/purple (those level III cards can sometimes make the difference). If you enjoy “Magic: The Gathering” but also enjoy lighter variants of it, then I can easily recommend this one to you had you asked. Some expansions for the five different colors would indeed be nice to see at some point so that gameplay doesn’t become too predictable.
Final Verdict: 8/10
Purchase: http://www.theforevergone.com/
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Updated Card Art Featured Below
