Camp Grizzly: Second Edition review - One Stop Co-Op Shop

0:00 Hey everybody, this is Mike with the One-Stop Co-op Shop, and today I'm reviewing Camp Grizzly second edition. And disclaimer that I got a review copy of this. In Camp Grizzly, one to six players are basically trapped in a Friday the 13th movie. A killer Otis is chasing after them trying to cut them down, while they are trying to run around the map, find objective tokens, and eventually earn enough to trigger a finale and potentially escape from Otis before they all get killed. So, let's discuss five key things to know about Camp Grizzly second edition. So, starting at number five, the least important point to know, but still important and I wouldn't mention it, are the varied characters in the game as well as the equipment and items they can gain. And this is overall a pro because you have just so many characters since this is a second edition with all these expansions combined in. And they have different stats, different powers, different abilities that are both fun thematically, but also do change up the game in pretty interesting ways. And then on top of that, you can rescue counselors, get items and weapons, gain special traits, all of which give the characters you're controlling a lot of personality and variety play to play.

0:58 Now, the only negative here that pushes it back to my number five is that some of these powers are very niche and will only come up at very specific points during the game. So, you'll sometimes have plays where a character's ability doesn't matter at all. And that goes right into my number four, which is the luck factor and swinginess in the game, and this is a mix. A lot of stuff in the game is dependent on die rolls. When you get attacked by Otis, you have to roll dice and try to fend him off. If you're stuck in the woods, you got to roll a die to see what happens to you. You got to roll another die to see where you show up on the board. And that's not even mentioning the card draw luck cuz sometimes you'll get some really good cards. Sometimes you'll get the best weapon right away. Sometimes you'll get attacked by Otis multiple times in a row. And this all means the game is pretty swingy as sometimes I've had a play that only lasted about 20 minutes before we won. And on the other hand, I've had games that have taken an hour or more. And on the one hand, this is part of the fun of the game. You're going to have different experiences, crazy stories to tell. But on the other hand, if you're looking for strategy, if you're looking for consistency, this is not the game for that. Well, let's stick to these cabin cards for my number three and swing back to a full pro because the sheer variety of cards you can draw in here, weapons, items, plot twist, attacks, random cameo characters showing up and having their own agenda is just such a great and exciting part of the game. And then in the second edition they have all these expansions you can choose to include or not. And in a choice that I just adore, each of the expansions has some text on a card in front that tells you how it's going to affect the game and when you might want to include it, which again gives the game even more variety and fun factor.

2:22 But a couple small complaints with that, if you want to take expansion content out or add it back in, it can take a little while to find the icons on the cards and reorganize things. And also getting back to that swinginess, you can see the base cabin card deck is quite large. So when you add 10 or 15 cards from an expansion, you might never actually draw them in a given play. Moving on to my number two point, this one is what you actually do on your turn and this is a mix. Because you don't actually do very much. On your turn you can move maybe two spaces, maybe three. When you're injured you might only be able to move a single space, so good luck getting much done. And mostly where you're moving is pretty obvious. You want to get away from Otis and you want to move towards the objective token that might help you win the game. There is a little bit of variety here with character powers, with nature trails you can take a chance to move across, but usually it's very straightforward and then you draw a cabin card and that's your turn. So on the positive side it's incredibly quick even when playing the game with five or six people, things will move at a nice clip. But again this is not a highly strategic game, your turns are not full of interesting tactical decisions. You just move and draw a card. But if you're like me any concerns fall by the wayside because of my number one point, the most important to know, and that is the emergent story and just the vibe of the game. Full on pro for me. Now I am to be fair a big horror movie fan. I've seen a lot of the horror movies, uh not just Friday the 13th but others that these cards and things are referencing. So if you never watch horror movies, don't have any knowledge of them, don't like them, you might not enjoy some aspects of this and also it is a pretty gory game and some of the illustrations so you might not enjoy that aspect either. But the crazy things that can happen with character powers, with the cabin cards you're

3:52 drawing, other characters that are showing up, the super fun and varied finales that happen at the end of the game when you try to win or lose are so much fun and so thematic. It's as simple as this. I've never played this game and failed to have a very thematic and fun story to tell afterwards. So, overall, you might want to check out Camp Grizzly if you like horror movies, if you like games with strong emergent storytelling, or if you just want a silly goofy time with a few friends. On the other hand, you might want to avoid this one if you don't like gore, if you don't like horror movies, if you want a lot of strategy in your game, if you don't like randomness. It's definitely not going to be for everyone. And if you want to see the game in action, you can check out my preview play. It's basically identical to the final game. Thanks for watching, everybody. Good gaming, and I'll see you at the next stop.