2070 arrived at my doorstep in early August 2023: This is a cooperative (sorta) Graphic Novel book game from GNA. 2070 was on Kickstarter in back in October 2022 and it promised delivery in July 2023. I think it missed July 2023 by days, but I will count this as on time! Good job GNA!

This is a semi-cooperative game (wait, wait, we’ll come back to that) game where 1 to 4 people sit around the table reading simultaneously from 4 separate Graphic Novels, playing the game together. See the picture on the back of the box, and see us reading below.

What Is This?

This is the third in the Graphic Novel series of games from GNA.  It’s been a while since we’ve seen one of these: the original Crusoe Crew we reviewed in  2019 (see Part I here and Part II here), and the Sherlock Homes Baker Street Irregulars we reviewed back in 2020 (see Part I  here and Part II here).  So, it’s been about 2 to 3 years since we’ve seen a follow up from them!

The best description I have for these games is that they are like a table read: each character is reading from their own copy of a “movie script”, except each of the scripts are each different! The scripts are generally the same, except occasionally, one character may occasionally see/experience different things as players play. There are also really nice graphics in the book! This is a Graphic Novel game mixed with Choose Your Own Adventure: players cooperatively (sorta) make choices about what scene to go to next!

These really are Graphic Novels, except each one is tailored to an individual character.

In 2070, each player takes the role of one of four characters: Itaka, Suaoran, Dama 2D, and Yzaline (see pictures above).  Each character has a very different personality, and your job is to inhabit that character for the adventure.

Each character is described on the back of their individual books: See Ittaka (the alien) below.

This game is set in the world of Anime/Future Tech. The object of the game, without giving away too much, is to catch “the bad guy”.

Components

The components are very similar to Crusoe Crew and Sherlock Homes: Baker Street Irregulars: there are four Graphic Novel books (one for each character), a map, and some tokens. The box has a really nice magnetic clasp and a fantastic ribbon for making it easy to pull all the books out. The ribbon is both necessary and a really nice touch: without it, the books would be very hard to get out.

The map describes the city you are exploring (but we didn’t really use it very much).

The instructions were on the back of the map, and they weren’t great. They are just a little too terse and the teeny font made it harder to read. For example, there’s all sorts of symbols in the book that aren’t explained… you know what those are? They are to “double-check” that you went to the right panel!

See the winged circle in the upper left? If you solve the puzzle on the panel correctly (I elided most of it to avoid spoilers), the panel you are taken to should have that same symbol! We figured it out because we have played all three books! But the rules DO NOT explain this!! They sorta allude to it..

There are also a number of punchouts that will be used in the game: as the characters find things, these items will help “augment” their character. This is a little different than the first two books: almost everything was in the books. Now, there are some physical tokens you can collect! And you also have hit points! Essentially 4 hit points: you may take damage as you play … there are consequences if one of you “dies”…

The components are good, but the real determining factor for most people will be: “Do you like the art in the Graphic Novels?” I think the art is great, and so did my gaming group.

Semi-Cooperative?  Naaaaahh

If you look very closely at the back of the box, you can see that this is a semi-cooperative Graphic Novel Game. Whaaaaaaaat? The original two Graphic Novel games were cooperative, but this one is semi-cooperative?

The rules basically say that players work together to play through the adventure, but each player is collecting Success Points throughout the game as they play: whoever scores the most Success Points wins!

There’s a scoring table on the rulesheet so you can score yourselves at the end of the game.

At the start of the game, each player also has a Secret Objective (hidden from other players) which is a secret way of scoring extra Success Points. See the Secret Objective cards above.

Players still have a play as a group “cooperatively” to win, but the final score determines the winner.

We think that the purpose of the Success Points was an attempt to keep players more engaged as they play: each player can be concentrating on their own Secret Objective, which helps guide them and focus on their character.

Here’s the thing: we accidentally ignored the Secret Objective. It almost seemed to get in the way more than it engaged us. As we played, the Success Points and Secret Objective were more like an odd rule that we had to keep track of while playing, rather than something engaging. The STORY was engaging! The world of 2070 is engaging! The reading to each other is engaging! The Success Points and Secret Objectives were NOT engaging … they actually took us OUT of the game as we played. It seemed liked any dealing with Success Points would interrupt the flow as we were trying to to get through the game. For Example: “Oh, wait, stop the game, I have to get 3 Success Points for no reason .. hold on ..”

In the end, we just ignored the Success Points and Secret Objective and just played completely cooperatively. This might remind some of you of Marvel Legendary: it’s a semi-cooperative deck-builder game with points, but everyone I know just ignores the points and plays cooperatively. I suspect most people will prefer 2070 purely cooperatively and it enjoy it that much more .. but maybe I’m wrong. My group enjoyed it much more cooperatively.

Thoughts

Of the three Graphic Novel games, 2070 was our least favorite. Now you have to understand that’s a high bar: Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars made the #1 spot on Top 10 Cooperative Games of 2020 and Crusoe Crew made the Top 10 Cooperatives Games of 2019! We still liked 2070, but it was everyone’s least favorite. Part of the problem of 2070 was the “distraction” of the Success Points and Secret Objectives. Even if you play fully cooperatively, the game is more of a chase than an exploration. You are basically chasing the bad guy throughout the game. Now this “chase” was novel (no pun intended) at first, but it felt like we were speeding through the game, and maybe not enjoying the art and story as much as we should. One of the reasons we liked Sherlock Holmes: Baker Street Irregulars so much was the exploration. Maybe you would enjoy the chase idea more?

I was also surprised that my friends enjoyed this one the least: they love anime (having been in an anime club in high school), and I thought the theme would would draw them in … nope! The exploration and mystery in the Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars Graphic Novel is what they enjoyed the most.

Player Count

You can play this solo, but it’s sort of lonely to do that. You can also play at two and three players, but four is absolutely ideal. Everyone stays involved as you play, and I think you get the most out of the story. You can play at other counts, but it’s not ideal.

Replayability

Replayability is an odd duck for this: we ended up playing through the adventure about 3 times in one night (for total of about 3 hours) until we finally caught the bad guy, so we call it a “win”. There is a timed element to the game (you start with 8 clocks and lose one every time you hit a panel with a clock), so sometimes you time-out when you play, and you can just start over. There are also points in the game, after you reach major milestones, where your time is reset.

Our understanding is that we just found “one path” through the book to win: there are multiple endings. So, even though we “finished” one path, there are still more to explore … so there is replayability.

Conclusion

We liked 2070 but didn’t love it like we did the previous two, much to my surprise since my friends are big anime fans! I thought the theme would influence their choice more! It turns out, 2070 is more of a chase game than an exploration game: it’s the exploration that my group enjoyed.

The choice to make 2070 semi-cooperative seems a way to try to engage the players more, but we found it to be distracting and ended up just playing cooperatively: your mileage may vary, depending on your group.

Looking back and refining our scores through the lens of time, The Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars game would get an 8.5/10, Crusoe Crew would probably get a 7.5/10., and 2070 would probably get a 7/10 (but only if played cooperatively: if played semi-cooperatively, it’s probably a 6.5/10.0).