After playing a couple of games, I wanted to quickly share my first thoughts. Keep in mind, these are just my initial impressions based on a few plays, and my opinion might change as I play more.

First, let’s talk about the characters. I have to admit, I wasn’t very excited to play any of them. Aside from Nikola Tesla, I didn’t recognize any of the others. Annie Christmas? Dr. Jill Trent? The Golden Bat? I had no idea who they were.

One thing I usually love about the Unmatched series is the connection to the characters and how their cards represent their skills. Since I didn’t know these heroes, when I played Dr. Trent and Yasmin The Golden Bat, I felt a bit disconnected from them during the game.

The good news is that you can use any characters from the Unmatched series in this game. I am really looking forward to trying that out in the future.

We played two games against the Mothman. According to the rules, he is the easier villain compared to the Martian Invader. The villain can have Minions join them depending on the player count, which adds more variety to the game. In our matches, we played against the Tarantula and the Skunk Ape.

The first game was over very quickly. The Mothman and his friends defeated us in no time! In the next game, we almost won. We were one turn away from victory, but the Mothman destroyed the last bridge, and we lost again.

This showed us that we were still learning. In the first game, we didn’t know what our characters could do (we usually play blind without reading all the cards beforehand), and we only had a vague idea of what the villain and minions could do.

We also had to consider the board layout. In that first game, we were constantly separated. The Mothman held the center of the board, the Tarantula kept Yasmin away by leaving webs everywhere, and the Skunk Ape pushed me into an area I couldn’t escape. Ending a turn next to the Skunk Ape causes damage, and I couldn’t move fast enough to get away from the Mothman.

Things got worse because I wasn’t drawing useful cards. The Skunk Ape took out my sidekick, Daisy, very quickly. I seemed to draw only Daisy cards and attack cards. I hit the Skunk Ape hard but struggled to move away. When the Mothman came over, I got beaten up badly.

In the next game, we were much wiser about what we could do and how to approach the fight. For example, I remembered that we could boost our movement.

We defeated the Skunk Ape early on, which freed one of us up to fight the Mothman. We took too long to finish him off, but I think we could beat him next time.

That is a brief overview of the games we played.

I enjoyed the game, especially figuring out the right tactics to use against the villain and minions. Being able to mix and match the minions, along with using other Unmatched characters, offers a lot of replayability. I am sure more villains will be added later to expand on this.

The side of the board we played on (one side for Mothman, one for Martian Invader) felt a little restrictive, at least where I started. In both games, I found myself stuck in one area of the board. First, it was the Skunk Ape and the Moth, and then it was the Tarantula and the Moth. My base movement was only 2, and I had some cards that let me attack and then move. However, every time I tried that, the enemy played a card that cancelled my action. I eventually remembered I could boost my movement to escape, but I soon ran out of good cards in my hand.

It is more likely that I played poorly rather than the board design being bad. Only more plays will tell for sure.

I did like how the enemy decks worked. There was a single card in their deck that caused all their discard pile to be reshuffled back into the deck. That card had a defense and attack value of 0. Since the enemy decks are quite small, you can guess when that card might appear and try to save your biggest attack for then. We tried this with some success.

I also enjoyed the initiative system. Each player and enemy has an initiative card, and they are shuffled together. The top card is drawn to see who goes next. This isn’t new, but the enemy cards have special actions that happen at the end of the round. For example, the Skunk Ape can ‘Deal damage equal to the threat level to one hero or sidekick adjacent to Skunk Ape.’ If the Skunk Ape acts last, someone is going to get hurt, as he will likely finish his turn next to one of us.

I believe that if we had played with one or two characters who had ranged attacks instead of both being melee, we would have had a better chance of winning. However, that is the beauty of Unmatched—it is a bit like Rock, Paper, Scissors, and finding the right characters is a lot of the fun.

The bridge scenario that Mothman plays adds something extra to think about besides just defeating the villain. You have to remove doom tokens to keep them at a reasonable level, which requires teamwork. There are also Event cards to play with, though we didn’t use them. They might add more strategic depth to the game.

Here is the thing: I didn’t enjoy the few games we played as much as I enjoy the competitive version. I found it lacked the tension of the original. Having someone flip over the villain’s card when they attack or defend didn’t have the same anticipation as trying to beat a real-life opponent.

Plus, with the villains and minions having quite small decks, it got a bit repetitive, and you quickly figure out what to expect. Again, it feels like Rock, Paper, Scissors. I imagine that you could choose a character whose deck works specifically well against the enemies. That is part of the game system, but I wanted a little more variety from the main villain’s deck rather than just changing the minions.

The characters themselves were interesting to play, and I am sure they represented their skills from the lore or comic books well. However, I look forward to playing with some of the characters I know and love from the series, which might change my view of the cooperative side of the game. The miniatures are great, as expected from this series.

To sum up, these are really early thoughts. The game requires a lot more play to get a better insight. It will be interesting to see what the Martian Invader brings to the table, as well as playing with the other characters and sidekicks in the box.

For now, I would say it is a game that Unmatched players will be drawn to and really enjoy. It adds more to the ever-growing series. Playing with four players will be an interesting experiment, as I would like to see just how restrictive it becomes on the board with more players and more minions. All the components are up to the usual standard seen in the series, so there is nothing to worry about there. For me, I think it will prove an excellent addition to the collection, as I can play it solo, though I think I will still prefer the competitive version.