Capstone Games: Riftforce, Strategy Board Game, 3 Different Actions to Choose from When Planning Your Strategy, 30 Minute Play Time, Ages 10 and Up

We found this game really fun. There is a little bit of luck as far as what cards you draw, but it seems like there are a lot of opportunities for interesting tactical play. The component quality is fair to good, but we may end up sleeving the cards. The game is simple to play, as all you need to do is play cards, activate cards, or draw cards and score. Four guilds (special powers) at a time seems like it might be a lot, but it really wasn't bad. The only criticism I guess would be that there aren't that many guilds in the box (10 total, and you play with 8 per game), so we may be getting the expansion very soon to give more variety.

The cards are a nice quality and the artwork on them is very nice and visually appealing. The cards also fit into standard sized sleeves perfectly, so if you like to sleeve your cards to protect them that is a viable option. The game rules are not very difficult to understand, and it makes a fun quick game to play with a friend or family member.

Fun, easy, simple game! Worth its price… only thing I don’t like is the packaging… there’s no area to put cards… they will just flop around inside… you gotta use a rubber band

For an $8 strategy game, I'm blown away. It's really light on components and could use some glass beads to track actions and maybe be heavier hp counters, because the cardboard ones it comes with easily shift around during the game. The game itself though is fun, strategic and plays in about half an hour and I can easily recommend adding it to any collection. With 10 base powers, there's a lot of variety in match ups, though it does seem like some factions are more powerful than others. There's an expansion that's available, and at $9, it's probably worth getting too. It's quick, fun, cheap and challenging. All good things.

It's a shame that more gamers don't know about Riftforce. For a small(ish) box game with rules that aren't terribly difficult to teach, there's a lot of fun and strategy. It contains one of my favorite game mechanisms, which is "sacrifice": some of your most important actions require sacrificing a card from your hand so that a card (or cards) on the board can do their cool stuff. Pair that with a lot of combos and card mobility and there's a lot to love here. There is an expansion for the game but, considering that you don't use all of the factions in each game AND the factions that ARE there play very differently depending on which ones are paired together that game and (/me takes a breath) you aren't going to be yearning for more cards after just a few games. ....trying to think of negative things to say... Well, don't play this with someone who gets analysis paralysis. There aren't Obvious Moves and each turn requires a combination of "how will this help me in future turns" and "the board state might be different by then, so let's just go for it". The game does take up a decent amount of table space. Not "Twilight Imperium" amount but you're also not going to play it on an airplane tray or even on a 2-person Wendy's booth. Definitely would fit on a full-sized fast food booth's table, though. Oh, and I always hear the game's name as if it were a hair metal band. "RIFT FORCE!!" (electric guitar riff). Now you will, too. Sorry. The art is excellent and adds to each faction's different feel while also staying consistent enough to be coherent. That's all. Go forth and enjoy Riftforce (guitar riff).