Review of TIME Stories Revolution: The Hadal Project

Blurb from the publisher: 'Experience adventures through time and multiple realities.

2099 NT: While a terrifying virus is devastating the world's population, a scientific base immersed in an oceanic abyss makes a strange discovery that could decide the future of humanity. Conduct an in-depth investigation and crack the secret of the HADAL project.'

What you get: Your EUR 29,90 or equivalent will buy you TIME Stories Revolution: The Hadal Project, the first mission for the second, 'blue' cycle of the acclaimed TIME Stories game line.

For those not in the know, the original TIME Stories (then known as T.I.M.E Stories) is a hybrid boardgame/RPG/PC adventure made for tabletop gaming that took the gaming world by storm since it was released in 2015. It might not be currently as high as it once was, yet being on the top-150 on BGG is no small fries.

In addition to the 16-page rulebook that can also be found at the publisher's website free of charge, the game contains the following: 32 Azrak Crystals, 110 Story cards, 60 Common cards, 59 Personal cards, and 47 cardboard tokens.

For those who have played the white cycle and wish to see the gist of what has changed: the rules are quite different in the current blue cycle. The scenarios can be played in any order. Finally, there is no base box as a prerequisite. You can buy any mission, and play it as is. The cherry on the cake is that agents can evolve and accumulate experience in-between missions. Keep on reading.

Spoiler warning: each scenario of TIME Stories, just like any RPG adventure, is likely to be played once only. As much as I am not going to describe, let alone detail The Hadal Project's plot, parts of it might be revealed while discussing the game's strong and less strong points. This will not make the scenario unplayable mind you, nor any less enjoyable. Incidentally, the scenario itself is the reiteration of a fan-created mission called Submerged Atlantis, which was created as a print-and-play for the line's initial white cycle.

Gameplay: TIME Stories Revolution is a cooperative deck exploration game with elements of RPG and CRPG point-and-click adventures. The players are time agents, and through their receptacles they try to successfully conclude missions taking place in different locations and eras. Each receptacle has three attributes; in this adventure they are Tech, Dexterity and Strength, with values ranging from 1 to 3. Each receptacle also has a pool of Azrak (everybody gets an 8 here), which represents the power of the link between them and the controlling agent. Receptacles get a two paragraph backstory with potential clues about their mission, as well as a Talent, a special ability of sorts. Receptacles have separate decks when it comes to their Personal cards. These include their starting gear, their Snap Recall card, as well as their Interaction cards. The latter are used when the game prompts the player to do so, in order to provide a more personalized experience depending on who tackles a particular card inside a panorama.

The game begins with a briefing about the situation and what the players are trying to collectively achieve. The Hadal Project starts with the receptacles in 2099, inside an underwater station. The security agent, the pilot, the diver and the reporter are trying to assist a team of scientists to find the cure to a deadly virus in what is a clear sci-fi plot with contemporary undertones. It has four initial starting locations, players however will reveal another five, not to mention a second deck with four new characters and another five differently themed locations to explore. You will soon realize that the adventure is about much more than finding the vaccine.

The game is mostly set up like the initial white cycle, with the players collectively exploring a scene made up from different images. Yet, in contrast to that game, the game is now broken into rounds, which themselves are broken into three phases.

First, the players choose a Time Captain who will change round after round. In the Time Captain phase, he chooses a location on the map, usually after deliberation with the group. This is the location that the receptacles will explore, after spending Azrak to get there. When they are in a location, the Captain reads the first card of the panorama.

In the Discovery phase, the players first do a Recon of the panorama. Each picks a different card and reads its hidden contents. He cannot read it aloud, but can paraphrase what's going on for the benefit of the others. Once everybody is approximately aware of what is going on, players take actions. They can Initiate a test where they are, Explore, or Stand by.

To initiate a test, a receptacle spends Azrak to use the value of the attribute relevant to the test. He can spend additional Azrak to get a boost, while other agents who are standing by can also support him by spending Azrak. Once all bonuses are counted, the player randomly draws one of six Destiny cards. Two are positive (+1, +2), one equals zero, while three are negative (-1, -1, -2); one of the last ones also reshuffles the whole deck. This is the receptacle's final value. Depending on whether it is lower than, equal to, or higher than the test's difficulty level, the receptacle fails, succeeds critically, or merely succeeds. You read that right: critical success comes when the final tally equals the exact difficulty of the test, not when it surpasses it. Depending on what happened players will then be instructed to take item cards, replenish their Azrak, claim tokens etc. Receptacles can also engage in personal or group conflicts. The first must be resolved by the player who is there before doing anything else. Group conflicts force everybody to participate irrespective of where they are in the scene. In the latter case, players play in the order that best suits them.

If a player wishes to Explore, he pays Azrak, returns his panorama card, takes a new panorama card, and follows its instructions. If you play the game with less than four receptacles, at least one free Explore action is handed out.

Standing By means that the player returns his card to the panorama. He is now free to spend Azrak to support an agent passing a test, or give one or more of his items and tokens to other agents.

When the players decided that they had enough with a location, they may first perform a Standard Update, thus resetting the link between their agents and their receptacles. Used Azrak is reclaimed and is equally divided to all receptacles in any way the players wish. Receptacles should never run out of Azrak. If they do, either the Agency helps them with already spent Azrak, or the agent is ejected from the present location. He will rejoin his comrades in the next Between Locations phase. Even though he cannot take any actions as a receptacle, the player is free to communicate with his fellow players. All of this however comes at a cost. In both Standard Updates and Requested Emergnecy Updates from the Agency, Azrak becomes sparser.

The players immediately lose the game if they all lose control of their receptacles in the same location. They must restart their mission from the beginning. If that doesn't happen, the players are very likely to resolve the mission. Success however is qualified, and depends on the number of Standard Updates they requested during the mission. The more these are, the less experience they will claim in the end. Experience comes in the form of additional Azrak, to help them in their future adventures.

The strong points: Space Cowboys did it! They improved TIME Stories!

Don't get me wrong; I liked the old CRPG concept behind the 'runs'. The idea was that, like in a CRPG of yore, you never really died. You just figured out what not to do, and proceeded from there. Admittedly however, after nine scenarios the mechanic had become redundant. The game awarded memory and thoroughness to a larger extent than the designers wished. Repeating the same sequence time after time created undue lag, with the players pointlessly rushing through the initial scenes. The dice were adrenaline-kickers, yet they made the experience more random than what many players can stomach, while the players were only differentiated by stats and special abilities. All that is gone now. Unless your group is woefully inexperienced (or outright incompetent), you will probably finish the adventure in your first run. How well you do, of course, will depend on how you managed Azrak, the game's new, more elaborate way of counting time. I liked how this worked, and the subtle changes it brought to the theme. Not unlike time units, you will spend Azrak to boost others, yet the explanation behind it is more refined and makes better thematic sense.

The Destiny cards ensure you have a modicum of control over a test's result. I adore the test resolution mechanism; I have never seen it elsewhere. You don't go for overkill, you aim for a particular number. Yet, if you miscalculate, you will fail the test. Brilliant! If that sounds too stressful (and it is, in the good sense), in certain tests success and critical success provide the exact same benefits. Go for standard success there, no need to risk it. In any event, pay attention to the Destiny cards deck. It's all about basic probabilities, yet the narrative control the mechanism provides is welcome. No matter what I write about this aspect of the game, it is an enormous improvement.

The personal cards are another serious innovation. In one sentence, depending on which receptacle interacts with a certain card inside a location, something different might happen. This didn't exist in the white cycle, and it is outright fantastic as a concept. The game was thematic before, this however takes things to a whole new level, even though thorough players might turn it into a grind.

The blue cycle does not care whether you experienced the white cycle before, be it partially or in its entirety. There are certain recurring arcs, they do not however require any prior knowledge. Marketing-wise I like this approach a lot more. Buy whichever mission you feel like and start playing without investing in a base game whose plot you might have not been interested in.

When it comes to production values and art, The Hadal Project delivers. The receptacles are balanced when it comes to gender and skin colour. Art-wise the mission is cool both in its blue sci-fi as well as its beige/brown non-sci-fi scenes, which borrow from many epochs and places in order to create an alluring pastiche. Is it me or does the pilot look like Till Lindemann of Rammstein fame? The plot is ok, even though many of the twists are partially expected. If you are underwater, you might as well explore Atlantis after all. The balance between puzzles and fighting was good, even though the latter is clearly not in the spotlight. If anything, the game is about thematic exploration.

This cycle is already well supported. We will shortly examine A Midsummer Night (the second mission), Damien (the third), and Experience, an add-on that delves into what happens in-between missions. I am particularly excited about the latter product. Up to now players were tackling the game through their receptacles. Will this transition the game towards a dual-layered affair where an agent is the first layer and the receptacle is the other? I can't wait!

The weak points: The rulebook is improved in comparison to that of the original game. Be however attentive, since some parts could have been clearer. The rulebook provides a direct link to its updated version online, but only if you have a QR reader. Be extra attentive if you already finished the first cycle. Changing from time units to Azrak is easy. Many mechanisms around that however work differently now, something that might lead to confusion. As an example, you don't need to go to a particular card in order to help your fellow player, you only need to stand by. This means paying less Azrak. Also, in the white cycle more than one receptacles could visit a certain card when it first got revealed. This is no longer the case here. Familiarize yourselves with the rules, in order to enjoy the experience to its fullest.

The nature of the game has not changed. This is still a puzzle with limited replayability once you have solved it. Quaintly enough, if you have the memory of a goldfish like I do, you will be able to enjoy the experience at regular intervals, i.e. once every year or couple of years. Don't expect breathtaking action, nor any clearcut logic in relation to what happens when you reveal a card. Many of the cards are about the scenery, about providing options so that players get a breather and Stand By in order to help their comrades.

I don't understand pointless restrictions. Why should I play solo only with two receptacles, and not three or four? Why, if we are two or three players, are we not allowed to operate with four receptacles anyway? It would have required additional bookkeeping, yet we are all big guys here.

There are thematic links to the previous cycle, they are not however those one might have expected. To someone who has never played TIME Stories before, the ending will appear either incomprehensible or it will make you feel that you missed a lot. Well, you didn't. The previous cycle closed with a whimper.

Every single item inside this box is cool except from the tokens. The cardboard is just too thin, while the design comes out as bland. Admittedly, the tokens are mission-specific and are not expected to see that much further use. On the other hand however, they are clearly the odd one out.

I have given up sleeving the line's cards. Seeing how sparsely they are used, it is simply not worth it. Why is that a negative? If you want to sleeve them no matter what, their sizes are rather exotic, rendering the sleeving exercise prohibitively expensive.

Conclusion: Even though I enjoyed the original cycle irrespective of its dreadful closure, I did not expect the second cycle to start with such a strong showing. The Hadal Project is still a niche experience and it might have its flaws plot-wise, it is however a much better game than T.I.M.E Stories ever was. If the blue cycle continues like this while improving its scenarios, we might soon be talking about TIME Stories the way it should have been done in the first place.

For more info on TIME Stories Revolution: The Hadal Project visit Space Cowboys at https://www.spacecowboys.fr.

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