Animalcatraz Preview

Animalcatraz has a concept that is really intriguing to me, and plays up to 8 players. It’s not often you get a game that puts animals in prison, or that can be played with so many people. It is almost an instant win in my books based on that alone, but how does it play? With the game coming to Kickstarter soon, I thought I’d give you the low-down on my experience with the game. Let’s check it out!

Animalcatraz is a 2-8 player game where you play as an incarcerated animal looking to either break out of prison, or rule the prison with an iron fist. The first person to achieve either of those feats wins the game. Each player has their own character file, which not only feeds into the theme that all the players are inmates (with files to their names), but it’s also a handy place to track items, abilities, health and more. Usually I would do a deep dive into the components of a game, but as a Kickstarter preview, and knowing that things are going to change, we won’t do that.

How to Play Animalcatraz (A VERY Brief Overview)

The board is broken down into areas, including 4 corner rooms for the cafeteria, storage room, infirmary, and the library. These rooms are connected by cell blocks (A-D), which are themselves connected to an interior courtyard.

Animalcatraz can be won in two different ways. One way is to become the Kingpin of the prison by fighting other inmates and slowly rising to the top of the ranks, after which you’ll need to deal with a prison riot (as other inmates see you as a threat). The other way to win is through the collection of contraband cards, some of which will provide difficult escape routes. Players will need to make consecutive successful roles to escape the prison and be declared the winner.

The game is broken down into two phases, the day phase where inmates can move around the prison (and where guards will move as well), and a night phase where all players will need to return to their cells. A tracker keeps track of each stage of a day, 4 (1-4) during the day and one (5) at night. The movement of the guards during the day shift will result in specific actions not being available at specific times – remember, actions are tied to the various rooms in the prison.

On their turn, players will have the chance to perform various actions around the board, with most actions costing 1 or 2 action points (you have 5 to work with). Some actions do not require action points, like swapping items between your cell and your character. How you choose to spend your action points will depend on what type of victory you might be working towards, which actions are not covered by guards, or even actions that might boost your character for other objectives you are trying to accomplish.

The game runs deeper than just choosing objectives on a board, however. The various guards around the prison are potentially corrupt, and if you bring them their favourite contraband item and successfully sway the guard, you can perform the action of the space they are on, for free! That’s right, no action points required.

There is a ton of small intricate things to think about when playing Animalcatraz, so please treat this as a very brief overview of how to play. After trying it out at different player counts, is it worth backing during the upcoming campaign?

My Thoughts on Animalcatraz

Please be aware that I was previewing a prototype copy of the game. Since receiving and passing along the game, some rules have been changed and updated to streamline and improve the game experience.

It’s fun. It’s unique. It takes the right person to play. Listen, I play a ton of board games each year, and I’m having a tough time pinpointing what game I could compare Animalcatraz too. This is a fairly unique idea, and one that I’ve really enjoyed playing.

Let’s talk about issues. Off the top, I find there is a lot going on to get this game going, and if you don’t have somewhat competent players joining you for a game, I could see a less experienced board game player dragging down the experience for everyone else. There is a lot going on and at times some confusion set in for some players (not myself). Part of this can be attributed to using a prototype version of the rules that received a few minor changes during my time with the game.

That’s the negative. The positive vastly outweighs this. This is such a cool theme. I love games that utilize animals in real-life situations, which is probably why Zootopia is one of my favorite Disney movies in recent memory.

So let’s start with the theme – I think Animalcatraz does such a fantastic job of making this animal-lived society come to life. You believe in what you are doing because they hit you over the head with it again, and again, and again. From the various cards you pull and use, to the character boards themselves, to the great art on the board – you are living in a talking animal weird and there is NOTHING weird about it.

Theme is such an important part of a board game for me, and this game has it in spades.

But I also like the decision making power players are given. How you choose to fulfill your goals – to either escape or be king of the prison – is going to differ game-to-game as you grapple with different situations brought on by what other players are doing and what cards you end up getting. I think there are strategies to develop here, but being able to think on your feet and adapt is going to be a huge asset.

Conclusion

I haven’t played enough of Animalcatraz to put any score on it, so call this a preview. But this is a VERY impressive game that I cannot wait to play more of. I’ll be keeping my eyes out for this once the campaign drops, because I think it is going to do very well.