Unboxed With Aditya Bristol Board Game Review
Bristol is a game that catches your eye upon first glance as the box is shaped like a book!! The game design does not disappoint.
The set-up includes a roadmap to escape Bristol in the year 1350 on really cute Apple carts! Don't let my excitement fool you, as the reason for escaping Bristol is also to escape the bubonic plague or maybe spread it to your opponents if you catch it on your way out.
The theme is well blended with the gameplay, in which you can choose to reroll the dice that decides your cart's fate, draw a helpful remedy card, perform your character-specific special action or choose to backstab your cartmates by getting ahead of them or even kicking them to the back of the carts. If you manage to escape Bristol without you or your cart-mates catching the plague, you win! If you catch the plague along the route, your objective is to ensure that no one leaves Bristol without spreading it to them.
The game functions with unique mechanics, which made me want to play the game the second time. It gets very cut throat towards the end, and elicited a lot of emotions, especially wanting to throw a chair at my "friend".
However, I did feel like the game had its flaws. There is an unusually high scope of lying about whether you caught the plague without a mechanic developed to ensure otherwise. While the rulebook does have a couple of suggestions, they did not feel adequate, as my competitive self can't trust the players I play with. Another issue my "friend" and I faced was that the game ended too soon, which we easily fixed with a house rule. So overall, a good game to play with friends who enjoy backstabbing and deceit.