Insta-Impressions are a series of raw initial observations about games over on our Instagram account. Not intended to be highly complex or nearly as comprehensive as our standard reviews, these offer up visually fun and timely feedback of games hitting our table that may take months to get reviewed in full, if ever.

Happy Friday! It’s been a while since we’ve been compiling our Insta-Impressions on a regular basis for a variety of reasons. But we’re seeing about fixing that. We’ve amassed our assortment of Instagram-based mini observations of games played over the last month to share with you here. You can see more of these and other photos on Instagram.

Lisboa

Wig shopping in Lisboa! Mind the construction debris… Really, Lisboa is fantastic. After much wrangling to make the necessary couple hours, we finally got in a playthrough this excellent action selection game. There's definitely some setup involved, and the iconography can sometimes be more of a hindrance than a help from afar, but I was impressed with how well it flowed once underway – especially for its weight class. There's a bevy of choice baked into the game, but like most of Vital's titles, there's a certain elegance in the decision-making processes that keeps it from becoming *too* daunting. Lisboa takes a few sessions to develop specific strategies, but with tons to explore, an appropriately thematic veneer, and decent components, don't be surprised if you walk away wanting to play again in short order. I know I do. Yes, somehow @vitallacerda has done it again. – Ryan #InstaImpressions #boardgames #games #bgg #vitallacerda #lisboa #eaglegryphongames

A post shared by Cardboard Republic (@cardboardrepublic) on Aug 1, 2017 at 1:46pm PDT

Mountains of Madness

Day 14. We have entered the city proper. Not quite sure what wonders we will find. My concern grows, however, because my party is starting to act increasingly peculiar… Mountains of Madness has proven to be a rather amusing (and clever) game. It's a fairly lightweight co-op strategy game but possesses a very strong social interaction element as players gain various quirks over the course of the playthrough that affects your efforts to win. It's this aspect of the game – exploring the flavor of your characters descending into madness – that makes it so interesting. Most Lovecraftian games never wholly encapsulate that ethos, but Mountains does with comedic-yet-vexing aplomb. The components are decent and the rules straightforward, making it a pretty accessible light / family game. The timed rounds aspect I personally generally don't like in games, but in this case it totally makes sense and works from both a thematic and gameplay standpoint. To a point where I want to try again to see if we can succeed. Maybe I have gone mad…. -Ryan #InstaImpressions #boardgames #games #iello #mountainsofmadness #lovecraft

A post shared by Cardboard Republic (@cardboardrepublic) on Aug 25, 2017 at 7:28am PDT

Stop Thief!

His name is Tad Magnum, thief catching extraordinaire. It's the revitalized Stop Thief! by @restorationgame. This rebooted edition of the classic 1979 is wonderfully done, with upgraded components and artwork, all while maintaining the game's original accessibility and tone of players trying to rack up the most arrests on a numbered city map (a la Scotland Yard) The most striking and clever modernization though was swapping the game's original electronic device that tracked the thieves' hidden movements with an app instead. It retains the ingenuity of its predecessor while giving the 2017 a sleeker, more minimalistic feel, and, nostalgia aside, is a nice improvement. Bonus: it also drops the price point. Stop Thief! feels like a throwback on the one hand while simultaneously feeling like something that could have originated in today's era. Or, in other words, exactly what the Restoration folks aimed for. It's a decent 30-45 min lightweight game and is a decent addition to the collection. #InstaImpressions #boardgames #games #restorationgames #stopthief #throwback #tadmagnum

A post shared by Cardboard Republic (@cardboardrepublic) on Aug 26, 2017 at 11:53am PDT

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