Steven Metzger
United States
Pullman
Washington
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My favorite part of Christmas is the stocking, and since I still live at home with my mother, I still get a big one. This Christmas was no different, and although I've received board games for the holiday before, I was surprised to find EcoFluxx and another Looney Labs game packaged in my Xmas sock. I generally share some information about games and game design with her, but it's not much, and I wouldn't expect her to buy me a classic eurogame unless I spelled it out for her. I was simply glad that a non-mass market game was one of my gifts, and the theme is relevant to her interests.
So we sat down to play a game of Fluxx...
COMPONENTS:
It's Fluxx...a deck of 84 medium-quality cards in a box. The drawings for keepers are very nice, but it's more-of-the-same for anyone who's played any version before.
GAMEPLAY:
As for the actual gameplay, if you've played Fluxx then you will be familiar with it. If not:
Eco Fluxx is a rule-bending card game (but not a CCG, like Magic: the Gathering). There are four types of cards: Actions, New Rules, Keepers, and Goals. You follow new rules and play actions in order to fulfill goals, which often predicate the ownership of at least one keeper. The game is simple at it's core, and all the relevant rule changes are succinctly explained on each card. The dynamics of a game change dramatically from turn to turn, so you always have a chance to win...or lose.
NEW THINGS:
1. There are a few interesting cards that have been added, most notably "Extinction" (New Rule removing certain types of keepers from the game completely) and "Composting" (Action allowing players to choose to draw from the bottom of the discard pile whenever they draw a card) are in.
2. There are a lot more interesting cards from vanilla Fluxx that have been removed: the New Rule "X = X+1," and the Goals "5 Keepers" and "10 cards in hand." What really stinks is that these were, in my opinion, the most interesting cards of their type in basic Fluxx, so you're losing a lot when you play this instead of the classic version.
3. Many of the goals are "eat" goals, where one player wins if they possess a certain keeper and a certain other keeper is on the board. The keeper "poison" is a player's sole defense against having their keepers "eaten," but it's generally not enough to play it unless you actually get it and there's no other good card to play.
THEME:
The recycling/environmental theme is very nice, with better-than-basic-Fluxx illustrations, and cards that really do exemplify what their title describes.
OPINION:
Fluxx is a nice filler, but has always suffered from its severe lack of strategy. Experienced players know that you can never get your hopes up because you are highly unlikely to play a card that you expected to the turn before. Although your choices affect the game (when you actually HAVE choices), there is often one or zero good plays, turning it into a game of luck at its core. You will just as often see victory delivered to a player by another as you will see a player win on their own turn.
EcoFluxx does this one worse, removing some of the more interesting goals and making them all of a two-flavor, Keepers-only variety. As I stated above, what is MISSING from EcoFluxx is what makes it worse, not better.
EcoFluxx, like every other edition of Fluxx, is a borderline-non-game exercise, with one-dimensional tactics, almost no strategy, and a severe lack of what we call "meaningful choices." For serious gamers, this is a pointless waste of time. For light gamers, non-gamers, and party gamers, this could very well be an intriguing option, as the rule-bending and the "take-that" atmosphere can provide for a lot of fun in the right crowd.
CONCLUSION:
If you don't like Fluxx, you're not going to like Eco Fluxx.
If you like Fluxx, you might not like Eco Fluxx.
If you like games with an environmental theme, Eco Fluxx is a good addition to your collection!
If you bought your son Eco Fluxx for Christmas, you need to play other games now!
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