The LOOP is a quirky co-operative game in which you battle the evil Dr. Faux. Play a Temporal Agent in four different game modes, full of new challenges and replay value. Gather powerful artifacts, defy the Doctor's duplicates, and sabotage his maniacal machine. Make the most of your cards and master the LOOP to use them multiple times in impressive chains — but the Doctor isn't going to make this easy on you!
The evil Dr. Faux has built a terrrrible time machine! With the help of the duplicates of himself that he is creating through the ages, he aims to carry out his Omniscience 2000 project to become master of the universe. But the rifts that he is opening in spacetime will probably destroy quantum space way sooner...
Join the Agency in the shoes of one of its most legendary agents, and co-operate to foil the fiendish schemes of Dr. Faux, using quirky but still powerful artifacts.
—description from the publisher
- one of the best solo-friendly coop experiences
- extremely satisfying looping mechanic when set up with teammates
- high degree of cooperative synergy and planning
- availability can be limited; it’s not always easy to acquire
- some players may find the loop mechanics repetitive over long sessions
- cooperative time travel mission completion with looping card mechanics.
- Time-travel crisis management with Dr. Foe as the antagonist across multiple ages.
- thematic, cinematic co-op with a strong loop mechanic and shared goals.
- Pandemic
- Time-looped co-ops
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- cooperative missions with multiple ages — Players coordinate across seven time periods to complete four missions before losses (vortexes).
- deck-building with looping — Each card shows a symbol; if you have multiple, you can loop and reuse cards using energy cubes.
- energy cubes as loop currency — Energy cubes let you 'buy back' cards with the same symbol to reuse effects.
- solo and multi-character play — Strong solo mode with good support for running multiple characters.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- After five years it's where you can really start to be like, 'Oh, is this game still around? Is this game still good?'
- The turns are slick and easy.
- It's sort of like a deck building game in slow motion where the cards that you're gaining and which ones are in front of you are going to be changing but not completely every single turn.
- You can actually play with all this stuff because it's a short, simple game.
- This looping mechanic is really, really cool and cooperative because you can set each other up.
References (from this video)
- Innovative loop mechanic
- Charming thematic storytelling
- Cooperative but very challenging to win
- Rules explanation can be lengthy
- puzzle-solving under cooperative constraints
- Winter/cozy loop puzzle scenario
- playful, puzzly
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- cooperative puzzle — Players place cubes to solve a looping puzzle as a group.
- progression_lock — Advancement requires coordinating actions to overcome cycles of challenge.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- license to Krill if you need a board game that comes inside of a whale
- Bunny Kingdom is a perfect Springtime game because of bunnies
- it's an area control game
- you got got
- the loop is a co-op game that's impossible to win
- green team wins is a great Springtime game
References (from this video)
- Engaging cooperative tension with a deep engine-building core
- Innovative time-loop mechanic that rewards planning and timing
- Beautiful presentation and thematic cohesion
- Thematic complexity may demand a longer initial learning curve
- Some may find the time-loop mechanic laborious in longer sessions
- Time loop mechanics and time-travel drama
- Time-travel agents battling Dr. Fu across zones
- Cinematic, narrative-driven co-op with time-based objectives
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Cooperative objective-driven play — Players work together toward big goals while dealing with Dr. Fu’s timed disruptions
- Deck-building with icon matching — Cards with symbols enable specific looped actions when drawn in a sequence
- Time zone movement and time loops — Players move across zones in time and can trigger repeated hand effects via looping the same cards
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's the castles of Burgundy. Oh my gosh, this is Euro perfection.
- Everything about Tiny Towns is fantastic. It's phenomenal.
- The Loop is a very pandemic inspired style game.
- This is the greatest cooperative fantasy deck building game of all time.
- The most powerful things we can do in this game is call a meeting between department heads.
- Earth is a masterpiece of positive player interaction. Really fun, tight, constrained tableau building and one of the best engine builders ever.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The two by the way was Kingdoms for Lauren which is actually I think liked by others but I felt that you had to break your teeth on the rules to get to a game that was a whole lot of messiness.
- I really did not love Kingdoms for Lauren but I respect that it's a game that will work for others.
- The highest the highest individual score given out in 2022. So that's the 3.5 is the most common rating given.
References (from this video)
- innovative twist on deck-building
- tight cooperation
- fast resolution of combat
- can be solitary in 2-player mode
- cooperative deck-building with time-loop mechanism
- Space-time continuum; time-travel theme
- thematic, Sci-Fi
- Dimension
- Meadow
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- cooperative objective-based play — Work together to complete missions against Dr. Foe across time sectors.
- deck-building with loop — Draw, exhaust and reset actions using green cubes to loop actions.
- randomized infection-like events — Dr. Foe's agents insert cubes to threaten sectors; randomization via card/tower
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I think this may be my favorite of the three iron rail series games that we've played
- Meadow is designed by Clemens Kalicki
- the loop is basically being able to take the same actions again during your turn
- Dimension this game had a lot a lot more attention to it than what i was expecting
- not innovative in the sense of what you're doing of collecting sets and turning them in but i do think adding in the co-op aspect of it