Interested in the game Terror Below? Well, it’s certainly an interesting game! So, I decided to do a Terror Below review to help you make a choice if this game is worth your interest.
Terror Below is a game about stealing the eggs of giant worms and also killing those worms. You play cards that move the worms and let you do actions, but your goal is to get 20 points by the end of the game or to have the most if someone’s squad dies. It’s a great game with a unique theme.
Table of Contents
Some Background Before The Review
Terror Below was published in 2019 by Renegade Game Studios. It was designed by Mike Elliot, and the art was by Eric Hibbeler.
Overview
So, now it’s time to take a look at Terror Below and what it’s all about. As always, please keep in mind that I’m not covering everything about the game in this review. I’ll only be covering enough to give you a good idea of what it’s all about and whether or not it’s worth buying.
So, let’s get to it!
Back-Of-The-Box Facts About Terror Below
- Player Count: 1-5
- Time To Play: 45-60 minutes
- Age Range: 10 and up
- Difficulty: Beginner/Easy
- Price Range: $25-$35
- Release Year: 2019
- Publisher(s): Renegade Game Studios
- Designer(s): Mike Elliott
- Artist(s): Eric Hibbeler
- Expansion(s): Hidden Cache Expansion
- Where To Buy: Amazon, Game Nerdz, Renegade Game Studios Store
What Comes In The Box?
In the box, you will get a deck of bounty cards, item cards, weapon cards, W.O.R.M. cards, character cards, player aid cards, and also vehicle cards.
Whew, that’s a lot of cards!
You also get various tokens, a bunch of little plastic rubble pieces, 2 dice, some W.O.R.M. standees that are unfortunately just for show, a super cool, egg-shaped game board, instructions, 5 wooden cars of different colors, and a bunch of plastic eggs of four different color groups.
Theme
Terror Below is heavily inspired by the movie and series, Tremors. Why it’s not called Tremors though, I’m not sure. Maybe they couldn’t get the license or didn’t want to.
Either way, this is obviously Tremors The Game.
How To Play
The first thing you do on your turn is play a vehicle card onto one of the slots beneath the currently rampaging worms. A vehicle card has 3 pieces of information that tell you what to do. Weirdly, you don’t follow those steps from top to bottom. Actually, the order is the bottom, the top, then the middle.
The bottom is called a distraction. Whatever worm you played the card beneath moves in the direction the arrows show and as many spaces as there are arrows (unless they run into a wall in which case they just stop).
The top has a number, which is how many actions you can take that turn.
Here’s a list of the actions you can do:
- Move 1 space up, down, left, or right
- Ramp an adjacent player (getting to move 2 spaces for 1 action)
- Remove 1 rubble from an adjacent space
- Pick up all the eggs in your space (which ends your actions for this turn)
- Deliver 1 egg to the location you’re on (each location has a different reward associated with it)
There are also some item cards you can use on your turn. The items will tell you when to use them.
The last thing on the vehicle card is the middle, which tells you some special action to perform. There isn’t always a special action on the card, but when there is, it’s pretty clear in terms of what it wants you to do. For example, move the worms closer to you or play another card.
Worm Attacks!
So, as you keep playing these vehicle cards, every worm has a set number of vehicle cards that can be played beneath them. Once that limit is hit, once that person’s turn is over, the worm attacks.
Each worm card will show the worm’s attack pattern. It could be a cross, a straight line, or hit a large square’s worth of spaces. This will tell you where to place rubble and eggs. Moreover, anyone who’s caught in those attacks has to defend themselves using their weapons and items.
Each player caught in the attack goes one at a time, using whatever cards they can to help kill the worm. If the worm is killed, then whoever killed it gets a bonus and everyone caught in the attack survives. But if the worm isn’t killed, everyone caught in the attack dies. Consequently, they have to discard their current squad leader and pick a new one.
How To Get Points
There are three ways to get points in Terror Below. One is by delivering eggs to locations. Bounty cards at the top of the board show what locations want what color eggs, so if you deliver that color egg to that location, then you can collect that bounty. If you deliver an egg to a random location with no bounty, you get 1 point.
You can also get points by killing worms if there’s a bounty that says to kill that specific worm. If not, you get 1 point for killing the worm.
You can also get points for delivering eggs to the Motel and some item cards will give you points too.
How To Win
The first player to get 20 victory points wins. Alternatively, if all the members of a player’s squad are killed, every other player gets 1 final turn. Whoever has the most points at the end of that turn wins.
And now onto the review.
Terror Below Review
Now it’s time to slither on over to the review.
Art
I really like the art for Terror Below. It’s very clean and attractive. The colors are great and varied. Also, it has a certain time-period feel that I can’t place (maybe ’70s or ’90s?) but it really works to evoke a great mood for the game.
Components
The components are top-notch. As a result, the game board is super cool-looking and the plastic eggs are a nice touch. You can tell Renegade Game Studios went above and beyond to make this game look nice, and they succeeded.
Theme
I think the theme comes through pretty well here! You do feel like you’re hunting and fighting against these giant worms. I also love that the game embraces how ridiculous this is by having a dog character and a laser satellite weapon. It’s just a fun game with a great theme.
Gameplay
Gameplay can be somewhat challenging to figure out at first, but once you figure it out it’s a piece of cake. No turn takes too long and there’s always something fun going on to keep you engaged. Plus, you never know when you’ll be caught in a worm attack and have to defend yourself!
Terror Below Review: My Rating
On the scale of Don’t Buy, Wait For A Sale, and Buy, I rate Terror Below a Buy. I do not think you have to rush out and get this game though. This is a game that has a lot of appeal to Tremors fans though.
I think for everyone else, if you’re looking for a solid game with a theme that doesn’t show up very much, this is a good one to pick up. Plus, it looks gorgeous on the table.
In conclusion, you’ll like Terror Below if you like Tremors and you’ll also like it if you want a good-looking game that plays well.
Where To Buy
You can buy Terror Below at the following places:
Did You Know?
(Each time you refresh the page you will get a new “Did You Know” fact!)
Did you know there’s a lot that goes into teaching board games? For example, are you familiar with what I call, “little rules?” Even if you are, check out my huge list of strategies to make teaching board games easier here!
Conclusion: Terror Below Review
So, there you have it, my Terror Below review. I really like this game and it’ll be staying in my collection for a while.
What do you think though? Want to pick this up or going to pass? Let us know your thoughts and why in the comments below!
And, as always, keep on gaming, maniacs.
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