Level 7 [Omega Protocol]

 

Level 7 [Omega Protocol] is a tactical miniatures-based sci-fi dungeon delving board game for 2-6 players. Players work together as a team of elite commandos to infiltrate a massive subterranean complex full of creatures controlled by another player as the Overseer.


The game comes with nine missions with various objectives such as searching for information, escorting a friendly unit through hostile territory, and setting up a string of explosives. Each mission has a unique map setup and objective and can be played standalone or as a over-arching campaign.

 

What's in the Box?

Level 7 [Omega Protocol] is an in-depth game and, thus, comes with very many pieces, literally hundreds. The vast majority of these pieces come in sheets and must be laboriously punched out before playing the first time. These pieces are of solid quality, though, and hold up well.

Also included are plastic figurines of the characters in the game, one for each commando and several of each of the various enemies. These pieces look nice but are all unpainted. For ease of use, the "friendly" units, such as the commandos, are of higher quality and a different color than the mass of enemy figures. They get the job done, though.

A glaring problem with the game's packaging is the lack of any sort of organization system for the hundreds of pieces the creators intend you to keep track of. I purchased a plastic organizer from a nearby hardware store to keep it all in order, which is very disappointing for a game with an MSRP of $90.

The Game

The game itself is a slow, strategic experience for each of its players. It is easily likened to a board game version of XCOM - before there was an actual XCOM board game - focused entirely on the actual combat missions.

Theme

While having a pretty generic near future science fiction theme, the game looks great. Each of the pieces, both figures and tiles, are well designed, even if they are a little bland. The rulebook and mission guide are both fully illustrated and look nice as well, the mission guides even include world-building chunks of narrative that reinforce the theme.

The theme and setting also blend well with the mechanics of the game. The underground complex morphs the classic "dungeon dive" into a science fiction setting incredibly well. The pace of the game matches the setting as well: the game moves methodically when the commandos advance carefully, but it can much faster when they throw caution to the wind.

Accessibility

Omega Protocol stumbles when it comes to overall accessibility. For starters, setup takes a long time, at least 15 to 30 minutes to build the map and setup the players - even longer if not everyone is knowledgeable. The game itself can take several hours as well. The lengthy setup and playtime are the major reasons Omega Protocol does not get played more often at my weekly Game Nights.

The rules are not very accessible either. The rulebook needed another pass or two to properly explain how to play the game and there is even online Errata to print out to both clarify and replace parts. Prepare to read the book completely before even considering playing the game and don't be surprised if you still missed a few of the finer points.

The rules on Line of Sight, Range, and Cover are perhaps the biggest detriment because of how time consuming they are. Each of these rules requires counting spaces multiple times. For example, a unit has cover to an attacker if at least one of the shortest paths between the units passes through a wall that is adjacent to the defending unit. 

After one player learns, however, the rules are easier to explain as you play and usually make some sense. It doesn't take a lot of effort to get a new player up to speed if you have a learned group, something that is a very good thing. If everyone is learning the game at the same time, however, the rules really slow down the experience.

Fun

Like I said before, Omega Protocol usually plays very slowly as the commandos take their turn. Overall interaction is still relatively high, however, as most of the game takes place during the commandos' turn where the commandos are discussing their strategy and the Overseer is waiting to unleash one of their many interrupt abilities to ambush the commandos.

Each commando has a different role in the party and plays slightly different to all the others. The Team Leader, for example, provides offensive and defensive benefits to players around him, while the Heavy is the guy you call on when you absolutely, positively have to kill every monkey fighter in the room. (Thank you, Samuel L. Jackson) This reliance on team work is definitely fun and enriches the experience.

Combat is also fun because rolling dice is fun and rolling lots of dice is even better. Even better than that, it's very satisfying using abilities to both add MORE dice and to upgrade dice to better dice. Rolling for combat is definitely the most fun portion of the game both because of the inherent fun in rolling dice and because it's where the most hinges, as it's is the only real portion of randomness in most of the game. It's great fun to see the heavy go on a killing spree, and equally hilarious when they miss all of their shots miserably.

Replayability

There is a lot of replayability built into Omega Protocol. For starters, there are the different roles to play: five commandos and the overseer. Then you have the nine different missions in the mission guide, and each of these missions plays differently based on how the Overseer sets it up.

Simply put, if you enjoy playing Omega Protocol, there is plenty of content to get your money's worth.

Recommendation

Try It First

 As a big fan of tactical games, especially XCOM Enemy Unknown, I am a huge fan of this game and I wish I could play it more. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit the atmosphere at my regular game nights largely because of the accessibility issues, and would almost require purposely getting together to specifically play this. On top of that, I think the genre works a little better when a computer is handling the wonky bits like range and cover.

If you and your friends like games like XCOM I definitely recommend you try this game. The biggest barrier to me telling you to just buy it, however, is the price. At $90, I want you to be sure this is something you will like. Even on sale, I usually see it hover between $60 and $75.

Interesting Bits

• As a real player in the game, the Overseer is in it to win it, unlike a traditional Dungeon/Game Master. This makes the game both competitive and cooperative, and helps with making the game more replayable because the Overseer has to make decisions instead of act in a programmed or random way like other purely cooperative games.
• The action point system, or "adrenaline". Instead of simply having a maximum number of actions per turn (which they still do) the commandos build up adrenaline by performing actions. These adrenaline tokens then are given to the Overseer who uses them to activate their abilities. This means the commandos have to balance performing actions and giving the Overseer too much adrenaline to work with.