Stay Unbroken and Un-Hungry in 4 levels of dungeony goodness.

This game takes a lot of effort.

Not all adventures end well. Some groups meet their untimely demise at the hands of monsters all too soon, and Unbroken is a story of one such ill-advised expedition.

You, the player, take on the role of the sole survivor of that failed adventure. Finding yourself in hostile territory, weak and wounded, you will need to gather your wits and strength, craft weapons from scraps found around you, and attempt to tackle progressively more challenging monsters on your way out of this forsaken place.

Unbroken Game Play

Here you have a character card with a different ability. There are a few to play but I went with the Rogue-ish ‘Sneak’.

You’re trying to survive over 4 levels defeating or avoiding 4 monsters on the way. To do this, you have a Travel Phase with a little prep then a Combat phase where the fighting happens.

The game flow is very “If This Then That” and there are a couple of flow charts included in the game to help you through all the options as you navigate through the game steps…

One thing to note is that ‘Effort’ is a resource and comes in 3 values with ‘Small Effort’ being the smallest and most commonly used.

Travel Phase

Preparation – Take as many General or Travel actions as you like which usually lets you spend the left resource to gain the right one on a cheat sheet. These let you trade resources with each other or spend resources to upgrade your Weapon.

You can also Scout where you roll a D6 and put out that numbered Monster for the current level you’re on. Now you know what you’re facing.

Decision – Either go to the Trickery step of the combat phase to get a jump on the Monster or go to the Exploration phase.

Exploration – Reveal 2 Exploration cards, choose one and discard the other. You can either Rest with the chosen card to gain ‘Small Effort’ equal to the time value on that card.

Instead, you can Resolve the card to spend the resource listed on the left of the card to gain the resource on the right.

Either way, you lose Time from the time track equal to the value of the card.

If time goes to 0 go to the Ambush step of the Combat phase but if you have time remaining, go back to the Preparation step.

Combat Phase

Ambush – If Ambushed, apply the ambush effect shown on the Monster card and go to the Battle step.

Trickery – If a Monster hasn’t been revealed, roll the die and reveal that number Monster. If you pay the resource listed on the cards Trickery cost you can bypass this Monster and go to the Hunger step.

Player Combat – If you get to combat you can Attack with a Weapon, Take any non-Travel Action or Skip the Turn. If you attack, pay the ‘Effort’ cost on the weapon and deal the damage shown. Some Monsters will have Armour and Armour-Breaking moves that need to be used before the Monster can be wounded with regular Wounding moves.

If the Monster’s health goes to 0, check the Response effects on the Monster then to go Rewards step.

Monster Combat – If the monster is alive roll the D6 and apply that monster effect. If the Monster effect asks you to spend effort but can’t, you lose the game.

If you’re still alive, go back to the player phase and repeat until something gives. Either you die and it’s game over or they do and you get the reward.

Post Combat

Rewards – Gain the rewards on the Monster, reveal 2 skill cards and choose 1 to Keep. These give you a permanent bonus.

Hunger – Eat food equal to the level of the Monster then gain 1 small effort per food eaten. Lose 1 ‘Small Effort’ for the first missed food, 2 for the 2nd etc. If you can’t pay the effort required you starve to death and lose the game.

End – Discard any Conditions affecting the player and add those for the new level shown on the previous Monster card. These give you a penalty for the next level.

Go back to the Preparation phase unless the defeated Monster was Level 4 in which case you win the game!

Theme

It is a dungeon crawl-style game. You have to prep by performing actions and scouting ahead to gain resources and info on your upcoming battle.

All of this takes time too which is another resource to manage.

So this game really does have quite a few very nice thematic touches to make the ‘move cubes up and down tracks’ gameplay element understandable

Setup & Rulebook

The setup is simple, just lay things out. Nothing needs to be in a particular place for any reason you just need access to the tracker boards.

The rulebook is OK. It’s HUGE and doesn’t need to be. I’d also like to see the reference part of the rulebook referred to more within the rules part. It would make it easier to find breakdowns of the various cards as they’re mentioned in the rules. As it is, you have to do a lot of flipping around.

Components & Artwork

Everything is really nice. The card quality is good and the iconography is good except for the 2nd and 3rd level of effort which are both similar-looking flaming fists.

The trackers are double-layered so those cubes stay in place, which is nice.

The art is good enough. You can see what a Monster is like and you can see the story of the Exploration card you’ve chosen.

Accessibility

As a solo game, it is pretty easy. You build up those tracks in the Prep phase then run them down in the Combat phase. Anyone can learn this game and will get better and better with each play as they learn more. There are 3 difficulty levels which are always good to see.

The flow charts that come with the game (which I wanted to put here rather than components) really help you get through your first couple of plays.

Unbroken Summary

My go-to solo games are also games of survival, Samurai Spirit and The Grizzled. Now, those games also play more players whereas Unbroken is solo only. I’ve never played a game designed for 1 player before so this is new to me.

I do like what you do here. Yes, it’s sliding cubes up a track but the preparation phase gives you several options as to what to do. You want different resources, to upgrade your weapon, to scout ahead etc but you only have so much time.

Run out of time, well, you get found out and ambushed. Simple, and makes sense.

Replayability comes from the different characters you can play as and the random monster selection from level to level as well as different choices of Exploration cards. You can also go a different route with your weapon.

However, I’ve played it a few times and it’s just not an interesting game. It’s an OK puzzle, but not a good game. But, if you like a solo challenge and a fantasy theme you might like Unbroken.

Jesta ThaRogue