From the publisher: Android is a board game of murder and conspiracy set in a dystopian future. Detectives travel between the city of New Angeles and moon colony Heinlein chasing down leads, calling in favors, and uncovering the sinister conspiracy beneath it all. The detectives must balance their pursuit of the murderer against their personal lives and their inner demons. Android’s innovative mechanics ensure that no two detectives play alike. Will you play as Louis Blaine, the crooked cop tormented by guilt and loss? Or will you take the role of Caprice Nisei, the psychic clone who struggles to retain her sanity while proving that she’s as human as anyone else? Whoever you choose to play, you’ve got just two weeks to solve the murder, uncover the conspiracy, and face your personal demons.
During a round, the players get action points to spend on various actions, like moving their detectives, following leads that appear on locations, solving their personal demons, or doing a location-specific action. In this way, the detectives try to advance on three different sectors: solving the murder, uncovering the conspiracy behind the murder, and finding their inner peace. To solve the murder, the detectives follow leads that appear on New Angeles and Heinlein, and find evidence that they plant on the suspect of their choice. The conspiracy puzzle is also solved by following leads, and may alter the way victory points are distributed at the end of the game. Finally, each detective has his/her own personal plots that are resolved gradually throughout the game. If the detective invests enough time in the plot, he/she will be awarded victory points; otherwise, he will suffer penalties.
The game ends when two in-game weeks (12 rounds) have passed. At that point, victory points are awarded based on the aforementioned sectors. The player with the most victory points is the winner.
- most ambitious board game ever sold retail
- fascinating characters
- character study as board game
- experimental design
- arty and navel-gazing
- character-driven mystery
- android universe crime investigation
- narrative_character_study
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- character study — character-focused narrative
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is my list the video says the top 100 board games of all time but it really is just my top 100 board games of all time
- three minute board games is an independent channel we dont take money from publishers and we do not do any form of paid content
- Mosaic has the ambitious goal of being a civilization game that can be played in two to three hours and it very much succeeds at this goal
- a game that does not need to be played with a traitor because the inherent selfish goals in this game created enough internal conflict
- I love space racing games and space corp is the game that is most racy as far as space racers go
- the term I use instead of gateway game is foundation game
- Sentinels could easily be a forever game the kind of game you just play over and over and over and over again endlessly
- Modern Art is a simple and brilliant and beautiful game and easily the best pure auction game Ive ever played
- Black Orchestra models some very clever things about how conspiracy is run
- when I asked the question hey what game should I play with my non-gamer friend who's interested in gaming but hasn't done much gaming I almost always answer Sentient Golem Edition
- Arkham Horror is the game that really made board gaming my number one hobby
- there are a few things more fun and rewarding in board gaming than organizing a fight in the arena
- Twilight Struggle is one of the best head-to-head games out there
- Santorini is the definition of an elegant design
- Arkham Horror the card game absolutely should be for you it's a hundred percent for me and it is my number one game of 2023
References (from this video)
- Proper cyberpunk murder mystery
- Grand conspiracy
- Personal drama
- Beautiful classic
- Hasn't made it off the shelf this year
- Murder mystery with conspiracy
- Cyberpunk future
- Noir cyberpunk drama
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- deduction — Murder mystery investigation
- Storytelling — Personal drama overlaid on conspiracy
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Do not adjust your set
- This list is quite different to last year's and I think that mostly reflects what an absolute 2020 has been
- My subjective opinion is biased skewed irrational and probably wrong
- It is very political all war games are political
- So say we all
- What am I doing with my life
- Squishy squishy squish squish squish
References (from this video)
- romanticized cyberpunk setting
- rich mechanistic interplay
- older design can feel chunky by modern standards
- personal stakes and societal pressures
- Cyberpunk/near-future corporate intrigue
- story-forward with dense rules
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- deck-building / hand management — players manage a deck to perform actions and advance their arc.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the shortest review available on BoardGameGeek was 28 minutes long
- I'm tired of long reviews I'm going to make them ten minutes or less scripted
- no games for everyone
- the secret is that I have boxes for each section
- I'm an outsider and I'm actually okay with that
- we always give some negatives on every game
- bear cave
References (from this video)
- Near-future cyberpunk with narrative and story elements
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- so apparently you're not a real board gamer until you own one of these things
- I am officially a white dude standing in front of a calyx
- across the top shelf a lot of these games will feature in my top 100 unsurprisingly
- this is a shelf hog it's a really good game and everything but it's kind of overkill in the end
- I can't afford to buy every single game out there I've got a lot on the shelves as you can see but I can't get everything
- a whole bunch of really cool little games in here and some of my particular favorites