T.I.M.E Stories: Under the Mask

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 5.5 out of 10

   BigMoneyNichols

   What promises to be an exciting trek through ancient Egypt quickly devolves into an overwrought fetch quest, the only reward for all your running around being permanent locations so that you have SLIGHTLY less running around to do. Intentionally gives you too little time to create supposed "challenge". The most exciting, unique moments don't show up until the finale. A surefire let down.

2. 5 out of 10

   Arantor

   As much as I loved the theme and the setting - and the artwork is as ever gorgeous - this one relies on a combination of mechanics that don't feel fun. Specifically, the mechanic where you meet people and can choose to have them replace a member of the party, combined with the all-too-frequent 'now roll dice to see if you beat this', against a clock that never feels enough. The aim is clear - to encourage more careful planning to avoid having another round of time loop, but here it just feels like you are at the mercy of far too much luck, and far too many choices whose outcome is utterly unknowable ahead of time, where it really doesn't flow.

3. 8.5 out of 10

   Benfromflorida

   7/2/2017 This was another welcomed installment to my favorite designer game. Alex, Malinda, and I enjoyed playing, but I was, as usual, the most impressed with this module of T.I.M.E. Stories. I thought Under the Mask was very linear compared to the two earliest modules. I did not get the same sense of exploration, but perhaps this is due to luck and my group's developed skill for this game, but I have my doubts. I did enjoy the puzzle in this game, though I wish there were more puzzles in this installment. The ITD mechanic introduced in this scenario was very well done in my opinion. I thought it made gameplay more thematic, and added decision making to this linear story. SPOILERS AHEAD!!! The reason I say the story seems linear is because my group was able to correctly solve this case in only two runs. We thought it seemed too easy because we just followed one lead after the other. On our first run, we tried to cycle through characters as frequently as possible using the ITD while attempting to retain characters we felt had not been utilized yet. One lead seemed to follow another sequentially, and one at a time. There were very few instances when I felt we had more than one lead to follow. It seemed that following one lead led us to one more lead, which led to one more lead. There appeared to be some red herring style dead ends, but we sniffed them out with ease. We did fall for two small red herrings, but they did not cost many TU. (Kitchen Key and Pita Bread). I agree with Zee Garcia's comments about the poor use of the Egyptian theme and also the theme of racing/competing with another time traveling agency. The other agency hardly showed up if at all, and the scariest things were water and snakes. I was really hoping for a hieroglyphics puzzle and some scary mummy/horror style enemies. There were none to encounter because, we intuitively put the mask on the mummy. Bob told us at the beginning, "Put the mask on the mummy." Thus, when my team and I entered the mummy's tomb, one of us looked at the other two and said, "Remember, put the mask... on the mummy..." So we did, and it was too easy. I'm hoping for more confusion, drama, piecing together the puzzle randomly, and action from the next installment. I'm in this thing for the long haul, and T.I.M.E. Stories is still my favorite designer game!