Tend review - One Stop Co-Op Shop
Transcript
Hey everybody, this is Mike with the One Stop Co-op Shop, and today I'm doing a review of 10, the solo and competitive flip and write. And disclaimer that I got a review copy of this. So, 10 is played over 12 rounds, and in each round you'll pick two out of five tasks to work on your farm, go mining. You'll be earning victory points based on end game scoring requirements, sending goods to your stalls, unlocking metals, lots of stuff. And it's very Stardew Valley-ish in that you can get money from fishing, mining, chopping down trees, planting crops, lots of stuff to try out. get to five things to know about 10. So, my number five point, the least important to know, but still important or I wouldn't mention it, are the neighbor cards. And this is a mix for my taste. So, at any given time, each player will have a neighbor card to the left and right showing a good or selection of goods they can send to their neighbors.
And doing so is very valuable. It'll unlock immediate bonus resources for you. It'll get you victory points at the end of the game. And it is extra interesting when actually playing with other players in competitive play because you actually receive the resources they give you. So, it's going to give you these interesting influxes for your own production. But on the negative side, that is the only player interaction in the entire game. This is very much multiplayer solitaire. And when you're playing solo, you don't get those resources. Now, on the other hand, you do get victory points for every single square you fill, so it's still kind of balanced, but not quite as interesting. And also, there's quite a bit of luck in how these cards come out. Sometimes there'll be things that you have very easy access to with the paths you're going down in your farming and such. And sometimes they won't fit at all. Yes, the game does let you throw them away and draw a new one, but that might not work for you as well. Next at number four are the season cards. This is a full pro. As I mentioned, these are going to give you bonus victory points for achieving different things throughout the game. They're not completely necessary for victory, but usually you want to pay a lot of attention to them. And because there are quite a few for each season, you're going to get a lot of variety in your game. It's going to give you different things to focus on. It also adds a lot of interesting considerations to the timing of the game because you score these not all at the end of the game, but at the different ends of seasons.
So, you need to get your season one stuff in order within the first five rounds, season two in the four rounds after that. So, just a really nice way to vary things up and keep the game interesting. My only one small complaint is that sometimes the season cards go really well together and completing one will give you points for another, which since solo is purely a beat your own score mode, means some solo games might be more or less successful just based on how well these kind of combo together. Next, number three are the task cards. And this one is also a full pro for me. There's a lot of variety here. You have a lot of options for what you can do. And as I mentioned, as the game goes along, more and more of the better cards from the later seasons will get shuffled into this task deck. And each of them not only gives you an action at the top you can take, but also a bonus at the bottom to earn. And these bonuses, like the season cards, give a different feeling to every game because you want to pay attention to what they are, especially the early ones. They're going to come back multiple times. And if you can make your strategy match the requirements, you're going to get double the use out of the cards totally transform your game. Now, like my fourth point, very minor complaint in solo, these can be swingy. Sometimes they'll go with your strategy and sometimes they won't, so it might affect your final score. But besides that, love the variety and great choices from these task cards. My number two point, another full-on pro, are the resources you get in the game and managing them. Because most of the actions you take in the game, mining, fishing, what have you, will give you immediate resources. And you have to deal with them right away.
Like if you get some plants, you can sell them for coins, you can add them to your cargo manifest for end game points, you can use them to check off requirements to eventually upgrade stuff on your farm. And these are tough choices. They mingle together. One thing will let you do something else. You always have multiple uses for anything you get. And you have to carefully manage how many things you put into your cargo manifest, which again is going to actually score you points versus unlocking extra things that'll make your farm more efficient. And all that ties in with the tasks, ties in with the goals. It's great. Again, just one minor complaint though. In the mid to late game when you have a lot of actions and getting one resource can get you another one, can get you another action, can get you another resource. Because everything has to be used immediately and there is nothing in the game to track what you still have pending to resolve, I have sometimes found myself getting confused what I still need to do and what I'm still receiving. Finally, my number one point, the most important know about the game, are the actual things you're doing on your farm and the actions you're taking. And this is another pro, but with a bigger caveat. See, yeah, there is lots to do here. You can plow your fields to put out vegetables that are going to grow over a certain amount of time. You can go fishing, rolling dice to determine what you catch, or you can go mining or cutting down trees where you scratch off boxes and reveal the actual resources you receive. And don't forget animals. If you can build the fencing for them, they'll earn you resources for the rest of the game without any replanting. So, lots of options to go for here, lots of things to try out. In most games, you're going to be doing two or three of them cuz they do tend to interlock and you'll need resources from one to be successful
in another. All that is excellent. The only caveat here, which again might be bigger for some players, is that the randomness is stronger in some of these. Like, especially fishing, you can roll and before you upgrade anything, you might get literally nothing for your action. And the scratch-offs are always going to give you something, but it might not be at all what you're looking for or what you need. It feels a bit of a crapshoot. Minor complaint, though, because all the main actions you're doing are quite fun. So, overall, you might want to check out Tend if you like flip and write games, if you like Stardew Valley, Agricola, games where you're building up your farming empire. And especially if you like Hadrian's Wall, that's probably the closest I can compare it to, although that game's a bit more combo-tastic and this one I think is a little more straightforward and thematic. On the other hand, you might want to avoid this one if you don't like randomness, if you don't like beat your own score solo modes, or if you don't like flip and write or roll and write games, obviously. And if you want to see the game in action, I had a playthrough of it recently on the channel. Thanks for watching, everybody.
Good gaming and I'll see you at the next stop.