Dave Reviews: Gadgets? No. Widgets? No. Uh...

Gizmos

Whirlygigs? Don't tell me...

I said don't tell—goddamnit.

Gizmos is a two to four player, engine building game about... building engines, really. You start with a board listing the types of cards and one starting card that lets you draw an energy sphere blindly out of the thingamajig they all go in. From there you can file away cards from the board (only one, unless upgrades improve this capacity) or build cards that give you more and better abilities if you take the action associated with them on your turn. Those abilities are File, Pick, Build, or Research.

File and Build are obvious; Pick is choosing one of the energy spheres in the thingamajig chute; and Research is drawing cards equal to your research level from one deck, choosing one, then either filing it or building it right away. What's important about these, especially as the game goes on, is not so much the abilities but the chance to trigger all the gizmo cards underneath the ability you used that turn. The right engine with the right energy can take two black and build them into a card that takes four yellow to make, all on one turn.

The balancing point is that the game ends when someone has sixteen cards in their play area. Is it better to balance your cards in each category, so you get a decent benefit no matter what ability you use? Or should you pile them in one or two abilities and find a way to lean heavily on those all game? This depends on what's available, especially at the start, and understanding how to build an efficient engine early. Whatever that engine can build, you run with to the greatest extent possible, and hopefully that's enough to carry the game.

What all of that means, to the engine-building veterans out there, is that the game becomes substantially easier once you know what's available or likely to be available for you to build. Watching a bunch of people try to figure out what they're looking at and how it fits together on the fly is almost painful next to that one person who knows exactly what cards they're looking for and how to best fit everything together. The game is fine when everyone knows what they're doing or no one knows what they're doing, but a mixed group is going to create a pretty imbalanced experience.

One thing I still haven't figured out is the reason for building the thingamajig for the energy spheres. Did they see Potion Explosion and decide it was a fun concept to swipe? There isn't much reason to limit the energy that can be taken with the Pick action. It's not uncommon for it to be loaded up with two colors. Although it doesn't happen often, someone's engine can get throttled by not having access to the energy colors they need. Did it need this element of randomness to keep the game from playing the same way all the time? Gizmos is pretty good, it doesn't seem like it should need that. It mostly seems like they felt the need to put something "cool" in the box.

Short version: If you like engine building games and you're willing to play a couple of rounds to learn what's available, you'll have a good time with Gizmos. You might even like the thingamajig more than I do.

Score: Thirteen barrels of energy out of sixteen.