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| Hotshots from Fireside Games |
Indie Boards and Cards brought us Creator Kevin Lanzing's Flash Point: Fire Rescue in 2011, which received several boxed expansions (around six if BGG and my counting abilities are accurate). In Flash Point: Fire Rescue you take on the role of a Firefighter (or Paramedic), who heroically rushes into a burning building to fight the blaze, and rescue as many people (and their pets) as you can before the building collapses, killing all remaining individuals trapped in the inferno. While that may sound 'heavy', which it certainly is, Flash Point presents itself in such an elegant way that it balances it's heavy subject matter by it's soft presentation that you end up experiencing a humble respectful enjoyment during it's hour plus play time. My brother in-law Theo, wrote a wonderful post about this and I highly suggest you check it out if you have the time, which I will link at the bottom of this review. Since my first game of Flashpoint: Fire Rescue, I have not experienced a 'Firefighting' game that matches it's balance between heavy subject matter and fun.
This year Fireside released Hotshots. In Hotshots you will once again be taking on the role of one of those brave individuals who fight perhaps the most destructive of blazes, forest fires! Now follow me through this journey as we discover if this game is as... Hot ... as it sounds... (PUNS!)
Title: Hotshots
Players: 1-4
Time: Around 60mins.
Creator: Justin De Wittu
Artist: Victor Pérez.
Publisher: Fireside Games
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Overview:
During your turn you will be moving through the beautifully illustrated terrain tiles that make up the board. Chucking a satisfying handful of up to six dice to simulate the thrill of fighting those deadly flames. Locking at least one dice on each of your rolls, pushing your luck with every cast of lots. In Hotshots it's all about risk versus reward. By matching more die faces to the symbols shown on the tile you're on you will unlock more powers. Perhaps you'll match three dice, thats a firebreak token, which acts like a wall for the inferno and prevents the spread of those fires with the help from future winds of misfortune. Match four and you will remove a fire token. Five gets you two fire tokens removed and your choice of a firebreak or a powerful one time reward token. Match all of the ever elusive six dice and you will remove three fire tokens and receive both a firebreak and reward token. However, if at any point you find yourself unable to match at least one new die face to the icons represented on the tiles... you will cause a deadly scorch.
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| Scorched Tile |
Scorching is the games way of slapping your hand. Flipping over those gorgeous tiles to their drab black and white depiction of dead trees, not only crushes your resolve, but spreading the flames of your destruction.
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| Don't get burnt! |
Fortunately you will have asymmetrical player powers to assist you and your fellow Hotshots along the way. The crew boss will order one other players character to move to another tile on their turn. The swamper and Sawyer allow you to switch die faces to other die faces, and the ever vigilant scouter will peak into the fire deck and see what the flames have in store for you next turn, so you may better prepare yourself.
Extinguish the flames and you will all go home heroes. Scorch eight tiles or lose your home base, and you will lose your title of Hotshots. Also the forest... that's kind of important too.
Components:
The components are top notch in Hotshots. The gorgeous fire tokens not only dominate the board with their glorious orange glow, but also gives the very real sense of the looming threat they are to portray. I know some will scoff at the cardboard standees but I am totally okay with this due to it's effect on keeping Hotshots at a reasonable in store price of $34.99CA. I can also appreciate the cardboard standees from a design perspective as well. The focus of the game is the fire that you fight. By keeping the fire tokens over produced and the firefighters simple cardboard it forces the player to remain on what their soul purpose is, the fire. The terrain tiles are the perfect width and a wonderful glossed finish. My only negative is the Fire deck. The Fire cards are small, but also feel a tad thin and therefor delicate. That is a minor quibble though. Overall the Components are top notch for the price of admission. 4/5
Presentation:
I strongly believe rules are apart of the presentation of a game. If you have a bad or good rulebook your first experience with it's corresponding game is going to be either be one of frustration or enjoyment. Hotshot's rulebook was well written, easy to read (unlike this review), and gave informative tidbits throughout it's reading (Fun fact the airspeed of a European Swallow is roughly 11 meters/second!).
I touched on this above, but Hotshots simple looks great on the table. With the fire tokens and beautiful artwork of the terrain tiles, it is an eye catcher for those playing it and to anyone walking by. 5/5
Game Play:
I have played all player counts of Hotshots and am delighted by it's scalability. This game plays just as smoothly with one player as it does with four. I must admit however, when playing solo I missed the collaboration among my fellow gamers. The wonderful thing about Hotshots gameplay is the pushing of your luck aspect. When you are playing with more players you get a real sense of tension as the narration grows. "I'm going to try for one more roll" you may say, only to the collected gasps and 'Ooo's of the other players. There were times when I was happy to play it safe but only pushed for that one dice roll more due to the collective cheers of my fellow comrades. One of the things I love about cooperative games is it's ability to force players to unite over a common enemy, the board game, and with Hotshots I felt that unity. Every. Single. Time.
I would consider my sister to be a very casual gamer and as a result it is not often that I get an opportunity to play a game with her. Both her and her husband (Theo) were over and we broke out Hotshots. Having her be the only new player to the game it would have been reasonable and easy for her to perhaps feel ill prepared for what we were about to set out to do. I explained the big points of the game and left out the rest. I can't exactly tell you why I did this, but I placed my faith in the mechanisms and fluidity I have experienced in my previous play throughs of Hotshots, and it was wonderful. The game filled in the blanks all on it's own. Throughout our play each new concept that was introduced she would say 'OH! so this does that', and she was right! You see, Hotshots design is so streamlined and tight, that players can go in only understanding the big concepts of the game and the game itself with fill in the cracks. I have yet to have Hotshots fail me when introducing it to new gamers, casual gamers, or experienced gamers. Yes it's silly fun, but it's that scalability mixed with it's talent to bring all levels of gamer to the table is why I rate it's gameplay so highly. 5/5.
Overall Rating:
14/15
Conclusion:
For me Hotshots is an experience I was entirely not expecting when I purchased it. The shop I purchased it from stated that the only reason it was in his collection still was because of the fire tokens in it (they're so pretty). So I ended up going into my first game of Hotshots with some scepticism. However, that scepticism was quickly replaced by pure enjoyment of the experience it provides. It has quickly rocketed up my list of favourite games and in this reviewers opinion, it is worthy of sharing shelf space by games such Fire Rescue any day.
This game is not going to be for everyone. If you do not like the luck aspect of chucking dice only to turn around and push that luck further, this probably is not going to be a game for you. If you do not enjoy cooperative games, this game will probably not change your mind. If your gaming group has recently been diagnosed with 'Alpha Gamer Syndrome' (AGS for short), your experience with Hotshots may suffer a bit. If you are looking for a crunchy, meaty game you could probably pass this one by. But if you are looking for a lighthearted game where you can tackle the blaze with your fellow gamers, chuck some dice, and collectively cheer and jeer each other on, only to bust or go home all Hotshots, then this may just be what you are looking for, and that is definitely worth rolling the dice on.
Written by: Logan Boyce
Components:
The components are top notch in Hotshots. The gorgeous fire tokens not only dominate the board with their glorious orange glow, but also gives the very real sense of the looming threat they are to portray. I know some will scoff at the cardboard standees but I am totally okay with this due to it's effect on keeping Hotshots at a reasonable in store price of $34.99CA. I can also appreciate the cardboard standees from a design perspective as well. The focus of the game is the fire that you fight. By keeping the fire tokens over produced and the firefighters simple cardboard it forces the player to remain on what their soul purpose is, the fire. The terrain tiles are the perfect width and a wonderful glossed finish. My only negative is the Fire deck. The Fire cards are small, but also feel a tad thin and therefor delicate. That is a minor quibble though. Overall the Components are top notch for the price of admission. 4/5
Presentation:I strongly believe rules are apart of the presentation of a game. If you have a bad or good rulebook your first experience with it's corresponding game is going to be either be one of frustration or enjoyment. Hotshot's rulebook was well written, easy to read (unlike this review), and gave informative tidbits throughout it's reading (Fun fact the airspeed of a European Swallow is roughly 11 meters/second!).
I touched on this above, but Hotshots simple looks great on the table. With the fire tokens and beautiful artwork of the terrain tiles, it is an eye catcher for those playing it and to anyone walking by. 5/5
Game Play:
I have played all player counts of Hotshots and am delighted by it's scalability. This game plays just as smoothly with one player as it does with four. I must admit however, when playing solo I missed the collaboration among my fellow gamers. The wonderful thing about Hotshots gameplay is the pushing of your luck aspect. When you are playing with more players you get a real sense of tension as the narration grows. "I'm going to try for one more roll" you may say, only to the collected gasps and 'Ooo's of the other players. There were times when I was happy to play it safe but only pushed for that one dice roll more due to the collective cheers of my fellow comrades. One of the things I love about cooperative games is it's ability to force players to unite over a common enemy, the board game, and with Hotshots I felt that unity. Every. Single. Time.
I would consider my sister to be a very casual gamer and as a result it is not often that I get an opportunity to play a game with her. Both her and her husband (Theo) were over and we broke out Hotshots. Having her be the only new player to the game it would have been reasonable and easy for her to perhaps feel ill prepared for what we were about to set out to do. I explained the big points of the game and left out the rest. I can't exactly tell you why I did this, but I placed my faith in the mechanisms and fluidity I have experienced in my previous play throughs of Hotshots, and it was wonderful. The game filled in the blanks all on it's own. Throughout our play each new concept that was introduced she would say 'OH! so this does that', and she was right! You see, Hotshots design is so streamlined and tight, that players can go in only understanding the big concepts of the game and the game itself with fill in the cracks. I have yet to have Hotshots fail me when introducing it to new gamers, casual gamers, or experienced gamers. Yes it's silly fun, but it's that scalability mixed with it's talent to bring all levels of gamer to the table is why I rate it's gameplay so highly. 5/5.
Overall Rating:
14/15
Conclusion:
For me Hotshots is an experience I was entirely not expecting when I purchased it. The shop I purchased it from stated that the only reason it was in his collection still was because of the fire tokens in it (they're so pretty). So I ended up going into my first game of Hotshots with some scepticism. However, that scepticism was quickly replaced by pure enjoyment of the experience it provides. It has quickly rocketed up my list of favourite games and in this reviewers opinion, it is worthy of sharing shelf space by games such Fire Rescue any day.
This game is not going to be for everyone. If you do not like the luck aspect of chucking dice only to turn around and push that luck further, this probably is not going to be a game for you. If you do not enjoy cooperative games, this game will probably not change your mind. If your gaming group has recently been diagnosed with 'Alpha Gamer Syndrome' (AGS for short), your experience with Hotshots may suffer a bit. If you are looking for a crunchy, meaty game you could probably pass this one by. But if you are looking for a lighthearted game where you can tackle the blaze with your fellow gamers, chuck some dice, and collectively cheer and jeer each other on, only to bust or go home all Hotshots, then this may just be what you are looking for, and that is definitely worth rolling the dice on.
Written by: Logan Boyce
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