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Utopia Engine Review

Wed, 08/25/2010 - 07:07 — Bryan Fischer

I discovered a one-player game yesterday by the name of Utopia Engine. It was web published this year by Nick Hayes and is free for download here. The theme of the game is mesmerizing. You are an aged Artificier trying to save the world from Doomsday by searching for and activating ancient artifacts. Once you’ve found them, you must do your best to rebuild the legendary Utopia Engine or the world will cease to exist. That will get your heart beating, right?

The game is played by one person on two sheets of paper (or just one if you’re an expert and use the low-ink version), with two six-sided dice and a pencil. That’s it! Through an interesting system of dice rolls, quick thinking, self-loathing and likely cursing the very existence of the game, you’ll discover fun and addictive puzzle unfolding before you. Because it uses dice rolls that you control the placement of, the game play is practically endless and no two game sessions are the same.

This game is a treat, it truly is. I suggest you jump all over this one. Grab a pencil, some dice, and kick everyone else out of the room. Tonight, you’re saving the world and building the Utopia Engine.

– Bryan

You can find this article at our blog: http://nevermoregames.com/blog/2010/08/utopia-engine/
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Comments

Wed, 08/25/2010 - 16:08 — CloudBuster

Seems promising!

I just downloaded all the parts. I'll give it a try soon! Thanks for giving the heads up!

-CB-

Wed, 09/01/2010 - 15:02 — Bryan Fischer

Sure Thing!

Have you tried it yet? What did you think?

Wed, 09/01/2010 - 15:29 — CloudBuster

GAH! Not yet...

I've read the rules (I'm actually on my second reading because there were some things I didn't quite understand on the first run.) I've pretty much got it nailed now, and all I need to do is carve out some time where I can be alone to play. Hopefully my family will leave me alone this evening and I'll be awake enough to play. (When things are quiet, I tend to fall asleep.)

-CB-

Thu, 09/02/2010 - 03:41 — feNix

It is a decent solitaire game

It is a decent solitaire game and I think that anyone who doesn't absolutely loathe dice and/or chance (though really the two go hand in hand) should play it at least once or twice.

Thu, 09/02/2010 - 11:38 — CloudBuster

I played it and I liked it!

Well, I finally got a chance to play last night. It's a pretty good game. Even though you're rolling dice all the time, the mechanics of where to put the numbers you get, plus the different goals (either small numbers for searching or large numbers for activating Artifacts) makes things interesting.

I failed. Doomsday came before I was able to activate the Engine. I DID find 4 artifacts and I was able to link two of 'em. I completely forgot about my toolbelt. My main problem was a very nasty battle with a Terrible Wurm in Glassrock Canyon. He beat the crap out of me, and I dropped unconscious at the same time that I killed him. That little episode kicked 6 days off the Time Tracker. I ended up with a score of 106. I don't know if that's any good or not because I don't have any previous experience with the game to compare my score.

All in all, it's definitely worth the download. Seems to me (and this is just based off ONE time playing) that you might win as often as the average person wins at Solitaire. That's my impression...I could be WAY off.

-CB-

Mon, 08/15/2011 - 20:20 — Legend

link dead

Anyone know where I can find this? The link to download it seems to be dead

Mon, 08/15/2011 - 20:48 — questccg

I searched for them...

The game sounds interesting... I want to try it!

Here are the BGG links to the rule book and Adventure sheets:

http://videogamegeek.com/filepage/57820/utopia-engine-rulebook

http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/57821/utopia-engine-adventure-sheets

You have to solve a Re-Capcha quiz before being able to download each file.

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