Our Evil Corp review, what we have to say about the dystopian empire building and take that board game. You play as one of six colorful CEO characters, each defined by a signature technology and a promise to save the world. Your wealth and power put you above the law. It is just a matter of pressure, money and time. But the other CEOs are racing to launch their plans too. You need to collect opportunity cards and play the right phases, as you invest in businesses and build up your empire, to get you close enough to launch your master plan.
We took a look across fun, replayability, player interaction, quality and art & style to come up with the overall score for our Evil Corp review. See the breakdown by category below.
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– CATEGORY BREAKDOWN –
Fun (8 out of 10)
For the fun section of the Evil Corp review, we award a really good 8 out of 10. Evil Corp has all the best elements of a party game and a strategy game which makes for good fun. This is a empire building game where you make investments in businesses to earn more and more money to buy increasingly expensive phases in your master plan. Everything has the opportunity to be something good for you or bad for someone else, so you have so many different paths to victory.
You have tons of strategy to keep in mind and invest in but at the same time you are constantly taking jabs at other players because of all the take that. There is so much that it never feels overly aggressive, just a bumpy journey that everyone takes together and laughs about. It is more about getting the conversation going than being successful and this game has all the right ingredients to make that happen.
Replayability (6 out of 10)
For the replayability section of the Evil Corp review, we award a good 6 out of 10. The game does a great job of immersing you into its world but once you soak all that in, the experience starts to wear thin. So much of the game is buying into this Mr. Robot technology will end of save the world dynamic. You laugh with your friends about it and enjoy the ride but this is not the game you are going to take to a desert island.
What Evil Corp does have going for it is its incredible modularity. The opportunity cards you draw and cycle through can take you in dramatically different ways so the games are always different. You never feel stuck with anything you have. Everything is several different opportunities and all ones you can explore in different ways over the course of multiple games.
Player Interaction (8 out of 10)
For the player interaction section of the Evil Corp review, we award a great 8 out of 10. So much of this game, and why it is successful, is because of how you need to put a lot of your resources into stopping the other players. You are building up your own empire but you need to weigh that against your opportunities to take on others, you cannot have both. Besides the fight in the present, there is also a race to the end, which will always keep you on the edge of your seat.
There are so many great examples of how the player interaction here is unique and interesting. For example, you need to build phases, in order, in your player color. If you build in other colors, you benefit but then the player whose color it is can perform a hostile takeover and steal it right out from under you. Most interest though, every “opportunity” could be this progressive phase building or it could be “nasty business” which tells you everything you need to know.
Quality (7 out of 10)
For the quality section of the Evil Corp review, we award a solid 7 out of 10. The construction of the game itself is well executed. There is lots of balance needed in how the opportunities interact and how the game progresses to the final end game phase and Evil Corp addresses everything very successfully.
You get lots of opportunities to cycle through cards and things have multiple levels of both short term and long term investments. It would be so easy to fall into a trap of one path to victory being the most powerful and easy but that never feels like the case.
Art & Style (7 out of 10)
For the art & style section of the Evil Corp review, we award a good 7 out of 10. The game has this very interesting dystopian future, meets satirical corporate greed, meets Mr. Robot vibe and it is pretty cool. For a game that ultimately is a streamlined engine building and take that game, there is a sophisticated world and backstory surrounding it that is well done and highly immersive.
There are no circles, all shapes with jagged edges and it is all put together well. It is subtle, but it is a metaphor and a cohesive aesthetic. There are different characters such as the Utopian, the Visionary, the Savant, the Technocrat, the Expansionist and The Oligarch that represent these dynamic world views but take on the roles of cutthroat CEOs. All the little pieces in this game wor well to form a great experience.
– IN CLOSING –
Evil Corp Review | Board Game Halv
Evil Corp has something for all board gamers whether you want something breezy to laugh about with your friends or if you want something strategic that has you maneuvering a master plan and making investments over time. You have lots of opportunities and all those opportunities can double as multiple different ways to take on the game. Set against a very cool theme of the impending doom of the technology giants meets a dystopian reality presented in TV like Mr. Robot. The game is immersive and a fun time. This has been our Evil Corp review, we hope you enjoyed it!
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7.2
See the full explanation of the judging criteria here.
