Quick preface here: I love cyberpunk as a genre; furthermore, I love Android (as crazily crowded as it is with mechanics); for those of you familiar with the <PERSON> sketch (the only thing a guy wants more than sex is to be a part of a heist), the objective of the game was awesome; lastly, I think Dominion is a more than an alright game. That said, I was naturally stoked when I saw this pop on the radar. I was so excited, in fact, that I left work a little early, popped over to Compleat Strategist (my "LGS," whatever the lingo is for your local gaming store), barely made it in the door, paid SRP with a smile, and dashed home to read the rules before my ladyfriend came home.
Upon opening the box, I was more than happy with the slick-as-can-be production value FFG consistently delivers. The components looked fantastic; it was also nice for a change to open an FFG product not overly rife with components. It was easily discernible that this was going to be a quick game, which I was glad to add to my collection. Good short games are in... well, short supply, as far I am concerned. I sat down and read through the rules, no Herculean feat as they are a mere 12 pages (if you count the cover and back flap, which contains more credits than rules). A testimony to the game's negligible learning curve, as well as nicely written rules (in lieu of many a tragedy in this capacity), the accompanying booklet didn't have so much as a glossary--nor does it need one. So, at a glance, my thumbs were shooting straight up, opinion-wise. Then I played the game...
Please know that I did manage to get 5 games of Infiltration in this weekend (the most players being 4, to be objective). The first game, I was beyond excited. The rules were very easy to teach, and, the players present all were drumming their fingers on the table, ready for the heist to begin. We clambered through the facility, one of us pressing deep into the facility, ignoring the allure of data ripe for the picking; another player decided to butterfly net the goodies said player was leaving in his wake; I, on the other hand, did a little of both, managing to do some interfacing and tech lock picking.
We were lucky in that we rolled very low during the Security step, and, we never triggered a single alarm. I was holding 'Call for Backup,' so my plan was, hang back, and let the fellow who was darting into the guts of the facility get caught. The other player was dropping various obstacles for us. 304
He opted to collect the data on the first floor, as much as he could, and then he just left--which I found quite odd. I pressed a tad deeper, busting up more locks, offing some lab workers, with a decent pull of data; my plan was okay. Then I got wounded, after <PERSON> found not only the <PERSON> file (an alternate way out of the facility) BUT also a way out from the top floor. In the end, we all escaped, but the risky moves of the player who journeyed forth paid off nearly double.
So, sure, this sounds like a hoot. It was a first game, we all got a decent pull of items, we managed to try different strategies; on the whole, not a bad experience. No NPCs were or alarms were triggered. We all felt a bit unrequited, unsure if there was more to be offered. We shuffled up and played a second game, this time with a 4th player in the mix.
The second game wasn't much different. We triggered an alarm from the onset, but this really didn't change much. This time we all were rushing forward into the fray, some better than others. 2 of us had pretty lackluster cards, while the other 2 were gassed with jump packs, sledgehammers, and ways to chain a couple of cards for better efficiency. The game felt a little lopsided. We hit an NPC, but he didn't do much more than snatch up a leftover data file and haul tail out of the facility.
The scoring was much closer this game, but, still, not much excitement here. The variation in items and room effects was not enough to make the game feel different, or, for that matter, "exciting."
The next two games were a bit more like the second game, also with 4 players. We managed to screw each other a few times, but, on the whole: shrug. Each and every single player had basically the same the thing to say: I wanna like this, but there's just not much to it. 528