Hostage Negotiator

Hostage Negotiator is this month’s episode. This is the first purely solo game that we have reviewed. Technically, I don’t need to use we for this one as only I’m reviewing this. Either way, this is a solitaire type game where you act as a hostage negotiator called to the scene to do your best to save hostages from the abductor of your choosing. The game comes with three abductors to choose from.

It’s a pretty quick and easy set up. The instructions walk you through it and the Hostage Negotiator Tableau also points out the locations to put different game pieces. Learning the game is also rather quick but mastering it could take a lifetime. You try to formulate a good hand, gain conversation points, and buy even better cards to send at the abductor. If you’re able to talk them down or save all the hostages, you will win. More likely though, you’ll either lose more than half the hostages (which causes you to lose), or the abductor escapes.

This game is hard for me. I believe I figure out pretty good strategies to win. I set myself up pretty well to execute the plan, then I roll blank after blank on the die. Each of the conversation cards have different effects depending on your roll. The only way to get successes is to roll a 5 or 6. A 4 can be upgraded but it’s at the cost of discarding two of your other conversation cards. If you are regularly unlucky with die rolls, this game is almost impossible. If you roll well, it’ll be fun and still challenging with trying to figure out what the best cards are and when to add them to your hand.

The game has a bunch of expansions in case you get bored of the starting abductors. It’s quick to set up, easy to learn, and has plenty of variables to keep it interesting to play again and again. The cost is okay at $25. The cards and board are high quality, so you do get a good product for the price.