I heard a lot of good things about Endeavor: Deep Sea recently, so when stock arrived at Punchboard’s retail partner Kienda (sign up here for 5% off your first £60+ order), I grabbed a copy to see what all the fuss is about.
I’ve played one learning game so far, and that was enough to let me know that I’m going to enjoy this one. It’s smack-bang in the middle of medium-weight, and it’s a clever game of building your own ‘machine’ of specialists to take actions as you expand the seascape around you, conduct research, and carry out conservation activities.
There are a bunch of tracks for you to advance along, and it’s these same tracks where the lion’s share of your scoring will come from. I really like the tracks. Each new section you move into gives you some kind of bonus, whether it’s getting more discs at the start or each round, picking from higher ranks of specialists, or even adding more subs to the ocean. It’s got that lovely tick-tick-tick of slowly giving you more and more stuff, and there are very few actions in the game which don’t give you the feeling of getting cool stuff each time.
I’m looking forward to trying out the different scenarios, as each comes with their own mat with end-of-game scoring conditions, setup rules, and yet another space you can place pieces to get more stuff.
Initially I found it a little confusing, learning from the rulebook, and trying to understand what I was trying to do with each of the actions, and how they contribute towards my strategy, but as soon as you’ve taken a turn or two it’s smooth sailing.
So far, so good, and I’m looking forward to getting a four-player game in as soon as possible to see how the oceans feel with more people competing for what’s on offer.
Have you played Endeavor: Deep Sea, or one of the other Endeavor games? I’d love to know your thoughts.