Blackout: Hong Kong First Impressions

In Blackout: Hong Kong, the lights are out but nobody’s home.

Probably because they’re all out scouting for resources.

Hong Kong has been struck by a large scale unexpected blackout. As the government struggles to maintain control, you decide to take matters into your own hands and try to bring back some kind of societal order! Daily life as you were used to it has quickly dissolved. Even the most mundane tasks have become incredibly challenging without electric power. Whoever best manages this situation and restores the semblance of order will surely claim a position of power in post-blackout Hong Kong!

Blackout: Hong Kong Summary

So there is only one game I’m even remotely going to compare this game to and it’s one of Alexandr Pfister’s other games, Mombasa.

The card stacking system, while fairly different, has its similarities. You’re going to spread the cards you play across 3 piles. In Mombasa, you bring any single pile back into your hand, in Blackout you have to pick the largest pile.

Also, spreading the cards out across the piles doesn’t seem as important in Blackout. The hard part is when you need a card and it’s in your smallest pile, it means you’re not getting it back for a bit. (Well, 3 rounds)

The route building and tough resource management are all reminiscent of the older two games too.

The look of the game is really cool. It’s dark, obviously, and there’s a Blackout but the orange really pops from the board. The components aren’t great really. Cubes, Houses and tokens, are all standard.

But the game is fun. A roll of the dice determines what resources you’ll be able to get. Your played cards will see which you get then the rest of the stuff is up to you. How you use the collected resources, how you Scout, which cards you buy… all very important things.

You have to be able to plan to complete lots of things, some of which you’re not aware of yet. How do you do that? Well, how do you coordinate repairs and resources in a Blackout?

Jesta ThaRogue