Storm Raiders Review
By land, by air or by sea, we will scavenge, salvage and survive. The rift storm rages across the ravaged land of Atlantis leaving treasures from a forgotten world in its wake. These materials keep us moving and only the strongest will survive. Strap in Storm Raiders, let’s get to work!
1-4 Players 60-90 Mins Age: 14+
Designer: Shem Phillips
Artists: Dane Madgwick, Paul M Tobin
Publisher: Arkus Games
Tighten Your Seatbelt
Storm Raiders from Arkus Games is a dice-placement, pick-up-and-deliver game in which players are the titular raiders competing in a race across the desolate landscape of Atlantis. Their goal, to secure the resources they need to survive and keep their vehicles running. These resources are provided at the whim of the rift storm, which traverses the vast wastes of Atlantis. This endless cyclone counters its destruction with rare gifts from beyond this world’s borders. Food, metal, weapons and fuel are just some of the treasures left scattered about in the storm’s wake. These resources can be collected and used to upgrade vehicles, recruit more raiders and fulfil contracts to collect prestige. Players each begin with a Storm Raider character featuring a unique ability and three random vehicles, one each for land, sea and air. Vehicles provide additional abilities and grant different strengths and weaknesses that can be modded to improve their utility. The game lasts for six rounds after which time, the player with the most prestige wins.
Your Car Is In A Tree Around The Corner
The core conceit of Storm Raiders is the raging storm traversing the landscape, leaving a trail of goodies in it’s aftermath. These treasures could be anything from weapons and ammo to spare parts for vehicles or even new crew members. The storm is chaotic and moves with a will of its own, leading to a dangerous and unpredictable board state that can give as easily as it takes away. Players retain some control over how much risk they take and can choose to move away from the storm’s path, however, if the specific rewards a player craves takes them closer to danger, they’ll have to weigh the risks before acting. The tension created by this decision space makes for compelling and rewarding gameplay. Having a particularly reckless move pay off is immensely satisfying and feels in keeping with the scrappy seat-of-your-pants action the world of Storm Raiders invokes.
Dice rolling to assign actions adds to the mayhem, encapsulating the chaos of the environment how it influence alters the state of play. I personally enjoyed the unpredictable nature of using dice to determine which actions I could take and how this went of to affect future actions.
Storm Raiders has wonderful production values, with lots of custom dice, full coloured acrylic standees representing you the raiders, double layered player boards and custom inserts that do a commendable job of keeping all this chaos contained. Granted, my copy is the deluxe version, so your experience may vary, however no differences in the components will affect what matters the most, the gameplay experience itself.
Speaking of which, the solo version is just as well thought out as the standard game, allowing a lone raider to engage with all the systems the game has to offer without significantly altering the experience. It’s a point of contention with me when a solo mode begins by instructing you to return most of the pretty components you paid for back to the box in favour of a single deck of cards or a sheet of instructions with a die or some such to serve as the bot player. Here however, while the bot doesn’t necessarily get everything the player does, at least the solo gamer gets to use all their own toys.
We’re Talking Imminent Rueage
While Storm Raiders is a solid game, the randomness of the dice-rolling might be off-putting to those who prefer total agency in their games, but then, it’s a dice rolling game after all, so you’ll likely enter the experience with appropriate expectations. Having said that, I never found myself stuck or without something to do with the results I rolled and figuring out the optimal move with limited choices is part of the fun, so turn that randomly-rolled frown upside down!
While the setting is appealing, I struggled to really gel the gameplay with the theme as well as I’d like. While the art work and the overall premise does most of the heavy lifting in terms of setting the scene, I felt that the post apocalyptic world felt a little been-there-done-that. That’s not to stay it wasn’t a great romp, and having different vehicles to manage certainly added something different, but still felt like there was a world under the surface here that wasn’t fully realised.
We Have Debris
One of Storm Raiders strengths, beyond the great gameplay, is the fantastic art that depicts a gritty, desperate environment filled with old-world technology. While I didn’t quite connect with the theme myself, there no arguing that the artwork and graphic design are of a high caliber, as are the character and vehicle depictions, I just wish the world itself were a little more fleshed out, perhaps incorporating some kind of campaign or narrative drive elements to broaden the scope of Atlantis.
The deluxe inserts and components look and feel great, with the insert making setup and tear down much less of a hassle. A place for everything and everything in its place. Unlike some dedicated trays, I never struggled to get everything to fit and it kept everything in place no matter with the game was stored vertically or laying flat. I’d dreaded opening the game for the next play session, expecting it to look like the rift storm had hit, but I was pleasantly surprised, speaking of which, even the little wooden resources feel fun to sprinkle around the board after the storm moves!
I’ve said in the past that as much as I love nicely detailed minis, I’m also aware of how they can inflate the price of a board game. These days with games now casually costing upwards of $200 or more I can appreciate when a publisher finds ways to reduce the cost to the customer without reducing the overall quality of the product. For me, acrylic standees are a compromise I’ve come to appreciate. They provide a 3D element on the table with full colour art that matches the character designs (no more unpainted grey plastic!), are easier to store and less prone to damage, yet they still have a premium feel to them and as far as these points go, the standees in Storm Raiders serve their purpose well, I’m a big fan!
Maybe We Should Get Off This Road
Storm Raiders is a fun filled, bullet-fuelled race to secure resources, upgrade your vehicles and recruit crew in order to survive in a world far removed from our own. The post apocalyptic setting may bring much new to the table narratively, but the game more than delivers on its gameplay and tight mechanics. If you’re a fan of dice placement and pick-up-and-deliver games, then there a lot to sink your teeth into here. The learning curve is low and you should have even a casual gaming group driving headlong into the storm in no time, I highly recommend this one!
A big thank you to Arkus Games for providing this review copy of Storm Raiders. While I appreciate the support, I will always review any game with same scrutiny and objectivity as if I bought it myself with my hard earned cash. Thank you most of all to our readers, I hope you found this review useful. Do you have a particular game from Arkus Games that you enjoy? If so, why not let us know in the comments below, or on our Facebook community page. Remember to check us out on Instagram as well! All the best and see you next time!
