Waste of Parts: Discussion
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Transcript
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Hey everyone, welcome back to Board Games Unlocked and Brandon and I are doing a discussion over the Waste of Parts, which is the newest Sky Kingdom Games. And uh uh well, it is kind of exactly what I thought it was going to be. Cuz I originally did not back this game. I remember I Well, so I was going to, then I was thinking, "Well, I don't know if Sky Kingdom Games is games are for me."
That Well, that's exactly what I did because, you know, we both did I Spherian Guard.
Yep.
And didn't care for it. And then I was getting ready to back this and I'd pull out last second.
Yeah.
Because I was like, "I just can't trust it."
Yeah, exactly. And then I think they were selling the Wastelander edition for a hundred bucks on their website. It was on some sale. So, I was like, "Okay, at the very least it can't be terrible." And to be fair, uh I don't think I Spherian Guard is terrible. Uh there's just I have a lot of issues with it.
Right.
Um and then uh Dungeons of Infinity is not even
Which was a redo.
Yeah, it's not their design.
Yeah.
So, this one I mean, it kind of had me intrigued because I like that idea of that junker mech um almost tower defense style. Uh so, I was like, "Maybe there is something to this." And kind of like I Spherian Guard, I don't think this game is terrible. Oh, no, it's not bad.
But
it's it it's also not good.
No. No.
It it has there there are small moments where it does that element of a tower defense where you kind of see the board, you know, all the new enemies come out and then it's kind of a okay, which one do we want to take out? But really this game is about an hour, I think it took about an hour to play.
Yeah.
Um of going through the motions. There's really no difficult decisions to make through this. Uh I think the best part of it is kind of when you're salvaging for stuff and seeing the room upgrades. But almost every time it's like, oh man, that's really good. Just put that there, put that there. And then you see we have enemies come out and you even if you're really ramping up the noise, it's you oh, let's draw eight cards. Five of them are just the wind cards. So
I think the interesting probably the most interesting thing to me was a lot of the items you get, you scrap them and then it becomes currency to use on other things, which is which is thematically is kind of cool because you're using a medkit and then you can use the scrap from the medkit to do something else, you know. But other than that, I mean, it's very simple. At no point did we feel threatened at all until the very end and that was we knew it was over, so we just kind of ran in and did whatever we were doing, but like our our our mech never took more than six damage have more than six damage on it
Yeah. The entire game and it can take how much?
20. 20. So I mean
Yeah, it feels like I wonder if this is one of those games that just becomes very swingy where if you just cuz the weird part is is like I said, it is a tower defense game. So you have the enemy spawn, which is based off your noise. Um and so you draw that many cards from the enemy deck. Well, as you're advancing cuz you're trying to move the mech at a it'll naturally just move two until you draw into engine cards that allow you but even then I was thinking, oh well, this is swingy so what if you just never draw the engine cards? Well, you can spend scrap to search for a specific room or not [clears throat] search for a specific you to rummage.
Right.
So, you'll eventually get there. But, you'll you'll advance on the distance track. And at milestone 10 and 20 what they did was really odd. So, you have level ones, which are very easy to kill monsters, cuz most of the time everyone's attack is just one. But, then you have level twos and level threes. Most games would have been replaced the decks, especially if the level two deck also has just the wind.
Right.
Which I do like that it's not just a okay, now it's always going to be enemies. But, you shuffle the level twos into the existing enemy deck. So, at one it just becomes annoying, cuz you have this massive ass enemy room, but then it dilutes it.
Right.
So, you're still getting level ones that I mean, I I thematically you'll have more
Yeah, they should have just taken all the one you're like remove that deck, put twos that are a little more tougher.
Tougher the tougher the hit, cuz you still have the just the wind, so there's a chance you're not going to be constantly spawning monsters. And then at the 20 distance you shuffle the level threes in. So, you just have this hodgepodge of enemies that even the level threes are a joke. You they most of them come down into the wasteland, which prevent you from moving. But, then oh cool, we have this five dice gun or the seven dice gun, so we'll just run there and you can do any action you want. So, you just sit on the cannon just do do do do do do do do do do do. All right, all those are gone. It I mean, some people might like that, where you're not restricted on your actions, cuz you know how some games are only one action per per ability, so you can only shoot once.
But, funny enough I think the hardest part of the game was maneuverability. Cuz you only had traditionally three actions. So, it's like, I need to get here. Well, to get from one room all the way to a gunner would be your whole turn. But, when you have four people who can move around this tiny ship, anyone can get anywhere.
Well, they have cards like the climbing equipment that lets you just climb down and not worry about the ladders or any of that stuff or climb up, whatever.
Yeah, it I don't know. This game, again, I wasn't miserable playing it.
Not at all.
Uh but, I I was really just kind of Yeah, this is this is what I was expecting. And then, the other thing that's annoying with the enemies is they have the side enemy board where you put the cards cuz you draw a card and then you take the standee and you pop them on the spot that they that they summon. And then, you take the card and put it on the subsequent room, which in theory sounds good, except if you draw multiple enemies that go in the same room, then you're covering up text. So, it doesn't really work. I think the standees are actually more of a hindrance than anything cuz not only do you have to find the enemy in the multiple bags. Um with how easy they are to kill, you just are constantly just adding them in and moving them. This game would actually been cool to have the the way they did um Faith Forge.
Just a disc with a picture on it.
Just discs.
Yeah, exactly. Just
know they're trying to do the whole cool table presence and stuff, but the discs would have been
Yeah, this if this game was 30 minutes, 30-45 minutes, I actually would have a little bit more of an appreciation. And if it was smaller form, because the Here's the other really This rulebook is I I mean the rule book serves its purpose. It it does teach you the game, but it's organized weird and there's no player aids. And so every room does something. Well, not every room, but you know, it's hey, if you need to know where the after and fore gun are, well, that's these rooms. And again, it's not overwhelming to figure those out, but when you're teaching the game, it's kind of annoying. It would have just been nicer if instead of just having a nothing box here, just put in the room name.
Right.
And what it does. I feel like they kind of went more uh what is it? Form over function? Where they were like, "Hey, here's what the the mech looks like."
Mhm.
Okay.
Yeah.
Can I know what it does instead of having the the one rule book page tell me so or the other players?
This thing was a was not cool, either.
Oh, yeah. The
dials.
Yeah, with the dials cuz it has metal
Yeah.
pegs you put on it and
to be just a just a uh tracker.
Yeah.
With the with dials.
Yeah.
That should have been the easiest thing.
100%. Again, it feels like they got bogged down into well, we got to game founder it. We got to get Yeah, game founder it. So
sitting right here and I can't The numbers are small enough. I can't tell you
Oh, yeah.
just set me here like what it's pointing at unless I get really stood up and got over it, you know.
Yeah, those could have easily just been individual trackers. I actually think this would have been a better game. So you've played Battlestar Galactica. You know how at the top corner it has the hole and the fuel. Do that for the board. This doesn't need a stupid play mat. Like have the actual board
dials, yeah.
with the dials already on it and have it I mean, this would have been a sexier game if this was dual layered and all the rooms were dual layered so that when you pop the upgrades into it, they slot in, and if they tell you what they do. And then yeah, just have chits. You don't The acrylic standees are nice. The upgrades are nice.
cool, too.
The art is cool.
Yeah.
Uh man, I remember when they were announcing this game, and on their Discord, they kept showing the art, and it was I feel like you could feel the temperature drop when they were hinting at stuff, cuz I feel like Guard people Some people really like that game. Um but then they were like, "Waste of parts." It's like, "Oh, it's not It's not a Ice Guard 2.0, where you fix the whole game."
Right.
Um it was just some It almost feels like this game was designed as clearly just a spacer between this and Veil Guard. They needed something to make to stay relevant.
Don't forget today's the big announcement. Whatever's new newest coming out. So.
I'm just waiting to see what what it's going to be.
I am gripping my seat. I just I'm I cannot wait to see what it is. Uh it's Waste of Parts 2.
Oh god.
Waste of time. That's the Waste of Parts, and the subtitle's Waste of Time.
I That's so funny. I
I mean, for a hundred bucks or whatever it was, it wasn't awful. I have zero desire to ever touch this game again.
Yeah.
Um they do have uh events you can throw in, which actually, funny enough, I forgot I forgot to include those. Um but they only come in at 10 and 20, where you draw an event. They have a optional boss that once you reach your destination, you fight a boss. The The combat's just not there. Nothing is in it creative about it. It's actually somehow it's worse than like original Summoner Wars where it was at least a 50/50 hit or miss. You actually are more likely to hit
Right.
than anything.
was saying is super easy. Like that we would spawn the board with all these level threes and twos and stuff and by the time it was over most of them were dead.
Yeah.
We just like move around kill kill kill kill done.
You know?
And yeah, it just doesn't
[clears throat]
This feels both like a game that wants to have some depth to it cuz they have a decent amount of characters, too. Which they all have a unique ability. I actually kind of like the fact that they have two abilities and you pick one.
Yeah. Yeah.
But in all the ones I've looked at, it almost felt like one was just the obvious one to get.
Mine was tricky.
Really? Okay.
Because the sharpshooter was once per round you may reroll all dice, which is what I did because I rolled like most of the time. But the other one was really good, too, because it's called identity identify weakness and it says whenever you attack each die result of a five or six does double damage.
Oh, okay.
So I mean, either one of those are really good, you know, cuz they would have been doing two damage and some of those were two, three damage. And then, you know, when you're when you're rolling two dice with that, I mean, you could you could you know. And then this this guy was the one that was I mean, the extinguish it was fine.
Mhm.
But um
Yeah, mine uh maybe it was just the characters I happen to pick cuz it was maintenance use the repair ability in a fully functional room to heal one mech whole point.
Yeah, sorry.
Uh and then reforge once per round as an action you may discard two scrap to put a card from the scrap pile on top of the salvage deck.
Yeah.
Uh but I mean, I felt okay, this is a tower defense game. You really want abilities to heal your hole, which I I did use that twice, I think.
The firefighter's other ability I didn't realize what it meant until after we've played it. It's like when I do an extinguish and there's enemies in there, if you the enemies go to other rooms.
Oh, okay.
So like if I if I would have had that and I did the extinguish then those guys wouldn't have been there to attack, you know? But neither here nor there.
Yeah, and then the scout who ended up being kind of our MVP being able to run around once per round you may move as a free action. And her other one I think is actually worse. Whenever you destroy an enemy you may move as a free action this round. Which kind of ended up working for her, but both of them were based around free actions and I'd rather just have the innate move as a free action. Right. But they do have a good amount. The prepper, you may hold up to three equipment cards instead of two and that's why they have the arrow for that side.
Right.
More more where that came from. Whenever you discard or scrap an equipment card as an action you may rummage for an equipment card and drop it. The brute bloodlust, whenever you destroy an enemy with an unarmed attack heal one health. And counter blow, once per round when you are injured by an attack you may immediately make an unarmed attack. So they have I mean they have a doctor, they have a gambler, they have an the artificial, the shepherd, and the experiment. So I mean again, I like the fact that you just pick one one ability for the whole game. And the game isn't long.
No.
Boy, if this game was like two hours I'd be ripping into the new one, but the time to play does make a huge difference. So Yeah, there's but there's not that many there's not really any difficulty modifiers.
Not really. We play I mean the having the boss at the end may have been the only thing, but it really wasn't bad. It was we went through the deck all ones, twos, and threes and you know.
Again, it it literally should have been okay, level ones go away, level twos come in. Level twos go away, level threes come in.
Yep.
Cuz there's just there's also not enough hindrance. And the enemy effects are interesting if the game was just tighter designed. Having a a mech bird come out that
Just sayin'. your noise. the So that means it's spawning more. That's that's thematically cool, but when it has one hit point, you just walk in and just roll a three, four, five, or six, you just Okay, it's dead. Yeah. Should have had just something else to give it some zhuzh. And I think you said this was it doesn't have the designer on the box. You said first time designer.
Yeah, this is his first time.
It it gives off first time designer.
It's not bad for a first time designer, but knowing what some first time designers have done over the past three or four years. It's you know.
This almost feels like a game that when it came out 10, 15 years ago.
Which seems to be kind of what the company does because well, cuz Dungeon of Infinity was an older game that they re-put out. This you know, and and Ice Planet Guard kind of felt like an older Yeah, style game, too, you know, and stuff.
Yeah, just not not innovative enough. And it is a it is a shame because I I I think that this theme and this style game could work really well, but just not as it is. But I got nothing else really to talk about. So on a scale of Well, I guess I don't know if we really mentioned it, but I thought I did think that the items and the room effects were cool.
Yeah, yeah.
So whenever you did pop them, and and they're all useful. I do appreciate the fact that when you scavenge one, you have to either Oh, that is actually a good a good point that I just thought of. Good go me. This game has a lot of just dead turns.
Oh, yeah.
Like so many of
sit there and be like, I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to scavenge over there.
Yeah, you have to be in the this the salvage room to at the end of the round draw from the salvage deck. That should not exist. Cuz your scout
or engineer, one of the two that was setting up at the back the a lot of the first time.
until she got a gun.
And then I and then I had my guy up at the and the cockpit and we just both sat there for
You literally just just sit there and okay, I'm not doing anything cuz you what it it literally what it should have been is all the rooms needed to have actions. So I had to go to the South German spend an action to search for cards. Not sit there and wait till the end of the round and then oh, okay, I'm going to draw three cards.
Yeah.
Um And again thematically cuz you you haven't played this war of mine. So this war of mine has a similar idea of you're upgrading the house and it's actions and blueprints you have to find cuz it doesn't make any thematic sense of how how the hell did we find more efficient engines or a medical bay in the salvage deck. The room location should have been this whole other blueprint thing that we build we meticulously try and build.
Right.
Um and all the equipment and guns would have been perfect for a salvage but those should have been actions to take uh in the specific room to draw so that it actually gives you some decision-making. Okay, do we want to try and find some weapons? So do I want to run to the room and stay there or but yeah. Other than that it it does make the the upgrades are cool in and of themselves but you just waste half the game just sitting there.
Yeah.
And we played it two-handed which made it at least okay, this person is not doing anything but at least this one does.
Yeah.
Imagine if you were playing with four people and that one person
turn cuz it's done.
whole role is just I guess I'll sit there.
Yeah.
It's it's not a well-designed game unfortunately but I think this might just be one of those very simple cheaper games.
Yeah.
Even though I would not really say 100 bucks is cheap.
Right.
Uh I honestly I I'd say forego if you if you can get the waste not the Wastelander edition, you don't need the playmat at all. Um
Yeah, I was going to ask what it added. Was it like the metal stuff?
I think it's the metal stuff. I think it's the acrylic tokens.
They're just standees.
I think they're just regular standees, which they're standees anyway, but you don't need them to be acrylic at all. In fact, I would if you do buy the game as the base edition, I would highly suggest grouping them because they're not organized. It'd be nice to at least do level ones in one bag, level twos in another. Um and don't you don't even need to pop them on the stands. Just put them flat face down cuz they come in and out so quick.
Yep.
Um yeah, on a scale of 1 to 10, Brad, what are you going to give Waste of Parts?
I think I'm just going to go like right smack on the average. I'm just going to go five.
Give it a five. I mean, cuz it's not horrible. No.
There's a lot of things that could be better. There's a lot of things that could have done been worse
Yeah.
by being longer or being stuff like that.
Being longer. They could have done it where it's just wickedly unbalanced where you're just constantly swarmed with these so you never move, which then would draw out the game.
Yes, I I'm I'm probably just going to sit right at a five. I'm not going to I'm not going to play anymore. But I mean like it's just like right in it's just it's a game.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it that always make cuz it's like I don't really like it, but I don't hate it. I feel nothing. I feel nothing about it and that's what I'm going to give it a five as well. If this was from a not a first-time designer, I'd probably rip into it more. Uh but yeah, I think you nailed it right on the head. This could be it could be easily worse, but there's other things that could be better and that kind of maybe boils down to more personal preference. I think this would have been a really cool game if it was essentially This War of Mine but with a moving
a moving thing uh without the story element. right So yeah it's I I don't know anyone who's talking about this one.
Yeah it's just it's weird cuz there's like nothing on B and D no files or anything usually people are making player aids yeah and stuff like that and there's like nothing.
This game needs one again but it's not a hard game to learn it's actually very simple but I think if you are looking for stuff it's weirdly formatted. So Waste of Parts kind of what I expected going to be a five. You got anything else?
Nope.
All right well that's our thoughts on Waste of Parts let us know what you think of the game in the comments below like comment share and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time of day this is for you.