Mezen: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Tile Placement, Sliding Puzzle
Player Age: 8+ Player Count: 1 - 5 playersTime to Play: 30 Minutes
Game Designer: Nikita SorokinGame Artist: Mariya StankevichPublisher: Arcane WondersYear Published: 2023BGG Weight: 2.00Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 8+
Game Designer: Nikita Sorokin
Introduction:
Mezen is an abstract grid manipulation game based on the beautiful art style of Mezen Painting. Players have a five-by-five grid which will be manipulated each turn by flipping a group of animal tiles, sliding the old tiles down and placing in the newly flipped tiles. This is done to try to score the most points from 10 communal goal cards.
Game Anatomy:
Tiles:
Each tile has a light and dark side, with each side containing one of five different animals.
Several tiles will include a spruce tree on the dark side which is also denoted by an icon on the light side. If a spruce tree is connected to an animal when making a group on a turn, they will count as wild and be included to flip over as well. This, however, does not count as a wild for scoring goals.
Amulet token:
At the start of each game, every player will begin with five amulet tokens. More can be gained throughout the game through sacrificing scoring a goal at the end of the turn and gaining two amulet tokens instead.
These amulet tokens have three uses:
- To pay to the announcer to change the animal type for yourself.
- Extend your group by placing an amulet over one animal that doesn't match the group type to help connect to more animals of the same type.
- Split up a group of animals by placing an amulet token to separate the animal group.
Goals:
There are 6 groups of 12 goal cards, each with one or two group symbols found at the bottom of the card. In each game, one of these 6 groups will be chosen to create the 10 communal scoring goals (two will be not used in this game).
Goals will give 1-4 points for each tile matching the condition of the goal. This could be having certain animals in certain locations, patterns of dark/light side tiles, or connected tiles.
Setup:
Game Setup:
- Place the amulet tokens in the centre of the board.
- Take the 12 goal cards with one particular symbol.
- Deal 10 on the goal locations around the board, discarding the last two.
- Reveal the first two goal cards.
Player Setup:
- Each player will gain a point marker starting on the 0 space of the point track.
- The announcer marker will go to the first player (players choice).
How to Play:
Mezen is played over 10 turns where each turn the player with the announcer marker will choose an animal type. Each player will then choose one group of connected tiles matching that type (a group contains light and dark tiles and all connected spruce trees). If a player wishes, they can use amulet tokens to manipulate the group. Then all tiles of the group will be removed and the floating tiles in the grid will slide down.
The removed tiles will be flipped over and placed in any order into the newly vacant locations. Any tiles that used an amulet token will not flip and will slide down with the remaining tiles.
Following this, the current goal will be scored and flipped face-down. The next goal will be revealed so that two are always on display. After the fifth turn, all players will score one point per tile on the dark side, then after turn #10, each player will score one point for each tile on the light side. After each turn the announcer token will pass clockwise and the player with the most points at the end of the game will be the winner.
Final Thoughts:
- Interesting sliding puzzle with an added element of flipping.
- Amulets are a powerful but limited resource to be used at the right time.
- Only two goals revealed at a time, helping to reduce the analysis paralysis.
- Turns can be prone to overthinking.
I've said this before, but there aren't enough sliding games that I am aware of. I always find a sliding puzzle activates my brain in a different Tetris-like way. Mezen adds an extra layer of randomness to this puzzle as the tiles will flip into unknown animals that may or may not suit the next goal. This has me trying to build the largest group before flipping to be able to maximise my tile placement possibilities. The challenge with this comes with the limited amount of amulets you have for the entire game, only five to start, and the only way to gain more is by ignoring points and gaining two amulets instead. This game could be prone to a lot of analysis paralysis but that is alleviated with only two goals revealed each turn. Mezen is a fast sliding game with a lot of puzzle optimisation. It easily has my recommendation and is staying in my collection for many more plays.
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