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Voltage is a 2-player card game by Brian Yu, published by Mattel as part of their brand new designer game line.
Players: 2
Time: 15-20 minutes
Difficulty: 2 (of 10)
The Components
Voltage comes with:
- 1 game board
- 4 terminal tokens
- 2 score markers
- 56 cards
- 1 rulebook
Game Board: A small linen-textured two-panel gameboard which mainly designates where the four sets of cards go during play. Each of the four terminals is marked in a specific color (purple, blue, green, or orange), and has space for a plastic terminal token in the middle. There are also spaces for score tracks for each player to the sides.
The board features nice artwork showing simple electrical systems which set the stage for the (light) theming of the game.
Plastic Bits: There are four clear plastic "terminal" markers in the four colors (purple, blue, orange, and green), which each show a big "+" on one side and a big "-" on the other. There are also two smaller plastic cubes which are used by each player to mark their current score. They're all easy to use, and the clear plastic sort of fits the industrial look of this design.
Cards: 56 cards, all medium weight and linen-textured. 48 of the cards have value "1", "2", or "3" in one of the colors. They're all very plain. The remaining two are "bypass" and "blown fuse" cards, which have some more attractive (multicolored) art, and also include icons reminding you what they do.
Some of the cards have a unique "transformer" card back, to mark a special power when you draw the card, which is a great idea, but you can miss it if you're not paying attention when you pick up a card. Replicating the info on the card front too would have helped.
Rulebook: A full-color 4-page rulebook. It has a few examples and a few illustrations, and was pretty easy to learn from.
Overall, Voltage has good quality components that are generally attractive and easy to use. I've given it a "4" out of "5" for Style.
The Gameplay
The object of Voltage is to win 4 "sets" each of which is fought over one of the 4 terminals on the board.
Setup: The gameboard is laid in the middle of the table. One terminal marker is placed on each of the four terminals (columns) depicted on the board, half of them set to "+", half of them to "-". Each player is dealt a set of 4 cards to start.
The Terminals. Each of the terminals is either set positive "+", which means whoever has the highest total of cards on their side wins or negative "-", which means whoever has the lowest total of cards on their side wins.
Order of Play: On his turn a player may: draw twice; play twice; or play then draw.
Draw Cards: Cards are drawn from a face-down draw deck, but there's a catch. About a third of the cards depict a "transformer" on the back. When you draw a transformer you immediately flip the polarity of one of the terminal tokens (from "+" to "-" or vice-versa). That affects whether you play high or low to win the set.
Play Cards: When you play cards you play each card to one of the four terminals. (If you choose the play-two action, you must play your two cards to two different terminals.) Cards can be played to either side of a terminal: for a "+" terminal you might play high cards to your side or low cards to your opponent's side, for example.
There are also two special cards: bypass and blown fuse.
Bypass. You must play bypasses to your opponent's side of the terminal. You then remove one of the cards from their side and place it on yours. The bypass stays in place and is a "0".
Blown Fuse. You must play blown fuses to your opponent's side of the terminal. You then remove one of the cards from their side and discard it. The blown fuse stays in place and is a "0".
Winning a Set: A set ends when five cards have been played to the terminal. For a "+" terminal, the player with the higher sum of cards on his side wins, for a "-" terminal the player with the lower sum wins. In the case of a tie, the player who played the last card loses.
Afterward the terminal is cleared of cards and can be played on again.
Winning the Game: The game ends when a player wins four sets, winning the game.
Relationships to Other Games
Voltage is a 2-player card game in a somewhat common style: two players play cards competitively on opposite sides of some central strip in order to try and achieve victory. Reiner Knizia has used the mechanic a few different times, with examples including Battleline and Knights of Charlemagne. However this game reminds me the most of another game, Balloon Cup.
They're very similar designs. Some people have said Voltage is a simpler game, and it might be (because in Balloon Cup there's a lot more specificity about what can be played to each column, and there's differences among the card distribution of difference colors), but I also think Voltage is a better polished game, because it better incorporates ideas like being able to play to opposite sides of a terminal so that they're actually meaningful decisions.
The Game Design
Overall Voltage is a light game with some element of randomness to it. I was actually afraid that the randomness would be utterly overpowering, primarily due to the transformers, but it's not. The way that the card draws are set up, you always have a chance to respond to a polarity change, because card drawing is always the last action. Further the transformer cards actually become an interesting resource, as you must decide about whether to take the chance of a transformer card coming up when you choose whether you draw cards or not.
The biggest random element turned out to be the bypass cards, because they can close out a set while making a big change at the same time. It's the one thing you can't respond to. I didn't entirely like that, but it's fine for a more casual type of play.
Overall the card management is pretty simple, but allows for some meaningful strategy, as you get started on sets that you think you can win, but there's ultimately the vagaries of chance and your opponent to deal with it.
Beyond that the game had a few design elements that I admired:
First, the card draw is set up so that you always end the hand with an even number of cards. This is neat because it ensures that you can never forget if you've taken your second action or not (which might otherwise be an issue when you scored a set).
Second, the use of the two sides of the terminal was well integrated into the game. In particular you might not want to play the bypass & blown fuses on a negative terminal, because of their zero value. Further, playing lower cards to your opponent's side on a positive terminal can be dangerous: sure it gives him low values, but it also increases his ultimate total, and since the five cards can be split between the two sides of the terminal in any way, that can be a bit dangerous.
Overall, Voltage isn't a very deep game, but it's a great entrant for Mattel's line of casual designer games. This one is easy to play, and yet begins to show the possibilities of the genre. I've given it a high "3" out of "5": a bit above average.
Conclusion
Voltage is a new 2-player card game in the same genre as Balloon Cup. It's not super deep, but it's well-designed and plays quickly and enjoyably, thus making it a great entrant in Mattel's new designer game series.
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