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Conclusion:
Alien Uprising was a game I had never heard of when I bought it and sat down to play it. What intrigued me was the ability to play cooperatively and/or solo. Boy, was I in for a surprise! What I ended up finding was one of my favorite games I've ever played. I've played this game a lot since acquiring it and have loved every minute of it.
First, this game is hard. It is hard to win and complex to understand. At its core, the game is easy (see below under Flow of the Game). It is all the little rules and a not perfect rule book that gets in the way. Honestly, like Arkham Horror, this is a game you can tweak the rules to in order to get the difficulty just right.
This game is dripping in theme. You can purchase miniatures and really make this game look great, but honestly the tiles are nearly perfect and work very well. I prefer the tiles at this point.
The game can be taught in minutes and you just figure out the smaller rules as the game progresses. While the game is a little complex, it is nothing that can't be taught in one siting. There have been quite a few questions online about the rules, but I found that if I just sat down and used common sense everything made sense.
This isn't a "perfect" Euro experience. Instead, we get a "Castle Panic" sort of game with a lot more rules, nastier alien/dinos, and a fantastic game. The game has interesting mechanics, most of which we have seen before, but puts it all in one very good package that will keep you wanting to play this game.
I like the action die mechanic (think War of the Ring) and the unique characters who all play differently. Each character feels different and must be played to their strength if you want to beat this game. This might leave a feeling of doing the same thing over and over, but the different action dice will leave you with a lot of planning to do as a group.
There is luck in this game as you will roll dice to conquer the aliens and to accomplish things (ex: building shields). Yet, it all seems to balance out.
I highly recommend this game. The biggest flaw might be the time required to play it. It can be a long game. It reminds me a lot of Arkham Horror, Castle Panic, and a good Ameritrash cooperative game.
Keeper.
Components:
The bits are top notch and there are a lot in the box. 386
You get player mats for the characters and each character gets a unique of cards (they are small). All the tokens and chits are made of very thick cardboard. The characters are represented by tiles on the board (minis are included), but I felt the tiles worked great.
I did have some issues with the board. I wish the green lines were brighter and more noticeable. It was hard to see it until I got used to the board. The board did have a nice theme to it and it looked great otherwise.
The aliens were represented by chits which worked as they needed to be two sided. I think a player aid with more information on it would have been helpful (a turn over view, alien powers, etc).
Any complaints I have are nit picking and the components are really top notch. Great job!
Rule Book:
This a fairly complex game. Wait. No, it is not that complex. The game is pretty basic, but it has a few layers on top of it and a lot of moving parts. Think Arkham Horror (although this does not play like Arkham).
The rule could be organized better and perhaps be a little clearer. It helped that I had played Castle Panic (and Dead Panic) before so I was able to sort the game out. The book could be better. I also do not think it is as bad as some are making it out to be. I assume if I can figure the game out, it can't be all that bad. With that said, <PERSON> is not going to pull this off the shelf of Wal Mart and sit down and play this game.
Flow of the Game:
I am only explaining the flow of the game, not all the rules.
The board is made up of 4 sectors (each side of the board) and three levels inside those sectors. So, Sector 1 has A, B, C as does 2,3,4 (sectors). The aliens are trying to move towards the center of the board to get to your ship thus keeping you from leaving (think Castle Panic). You are a team of "space marines" trying to either wait for the rescue ship or to fix your ship so you can leave. 386