T.I.M.E Stories: Madame

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 2 out of 10

   princeoftheair

   Madame is the conclusion of the White Series of Time Stories games that's had nine installments since its release in 2015. Overall, the idea was wildly ambitious: create a base game that works with various decks of cards in a story-driven adventure game for four players. Already you are going to limit the audience a lot, most people aren't going to go for a game that requires four people and can only be played once, but with the rise of escape rooms and legacy games, it's become more of a viable option. Throughout the series, I wondered if this was building to a conclusion, or if they would just run the series out until it was no longer marketable before ending abruptly. But they did get to an ending, and it's Madame. The new mechanics in the game are really cool, and you have some clever puzzles sprinkled throughout the game that keep you guessing, but this is a real letdown after four years of devoted play. I was on board the moment I heard about Time Stories, and rushed out to get every expansion as it came out. There were highs and lows, as to be expected, but I was always entertained enough to get excited when the next part was announced. The stories teased out a larger narrative on occasion (a few expansions had no connection to the larger story arc, but were still fun), hinting at small decisions having large consequences somewhere down the road. Madame was supposed to close all the loose ends up, show us what we've been working toward every time we played and answer all the questions we had. I am talking more about the series as a whole rather than this particular expansion. Having finished, it's hard not to look back on all the time and money spent playing each chapter in anticipation of a grand finale. Sadly, Madame felt like a lot of aimless busywork. From the get-go we had no idea what we were supposed to be doing, and after solving the initial quest, there was no clear direction for the rest of the game. It's one of the longer playthroughs (for my group) in the series, but it was boring. By the end of it we were modifying the rules so we could finish it faster, which is not what I want to be doing when I play a game. At this point I really don't know if I want to start the Blue Series that's coming out later this year (maybe, who knows?). I'll probably hold off for a few months until reviews start coming in. There were a number of delays with every release, my advice: wait a little longer next time and give us a satisfying game.

2. 8 out of 10

   Luds

   ([url=http://www.philibertnet.com]Philibert[/url], 2019-01-16) By far the longest of the scenarios, this one uses very short runs with a mechanic previously seen in under the mask to change characters while pushing it to the next level. Also continues the meta-story, this was a very enjoyable ending to the first branch of time stories (white boxes).

3. 2 out of 10

   LeGon

   Just too confusing - the starting conditions are a first setback, the whole thing is too fiddly, push-your-luck situations pop up far too often and the side quests (with easy, uninteresting EXIT-style puzzles) are all similar in the solution, not moving the plot forward. Instead, you get a complete summary of French history. Not quite expected in this context.