Solo games are a weird breed: they tend to either be too simple and luck-based, or if they are complex (I’m looking at you, Steel Wolves), they might as well be computer games. Thing is, I like solo games. I like pushing some cardboard bits around a board by myself, taking decisions and seeing where it goes. On the other hand, like a regular game, I like it when my decisions are meaningful and not based purely on luck but unlike regular games, if it’s too complex, there’s no one else there to tell me we got a rule wrong.
I’ve had a on-again, off-again love affair with the solo games from Victory Point Games. Their State of Siege series has both some very good games (We Must Tell the Emperor) and some not so good games (Levee en Masse) and as such is very hit or miss for me. The other solo games they’ve put out so far are excellent and it was with trepidation that I got Infection: Humanity’s Last Gasp. Here’s a subject that’s interesting, and even though it had been done before by Pandemic, the angle was different. Is it any good though? Well, let’s check it out.