Campy Creatures Review

Campy Creatures by Keymaster Games, has you taking on the role of a mad scientist! Only the best mortals will do for your diabolical experiments, but you’re not the only one after these helpless victims. Using an array of campy monsters at your disposal, you must fight others in a bid to capture the most valuable mortals.

Gameplay

Each player starts with the same hand of monster cards, all numbered from 0-8. Only the backs of the cards differ to match the players markers and so you know who’s set is who’s. Each monster card has a large number in the top left (creature strength) and has its own unique ability that will activate when played. With everyone having the same cards the game is well balanced, so it’s all about knowing when to play the right cards at the right time.

The game is played over three rounds, each round will take place at a very stereotypical horror movie location. Wether it be an abandoned camp, a creepy motel, dark castle or one of the many more iconic spooky locations. These location cards can be claimed at the end of each round, by having the most story icons on your captured mortals, they will grant that player an in game bonus.

At the start of each round, depending on the number of players, a certain number of mortal cards are laid out for the taking. Mortals vary in how much points they are worth, some are parts of a set, some have story icons on and some are even worth negative points. This is when you have to start planning what mortal you want to take, but there’s so much to decide from. Do you want to grab the mortals worth the most points?

Do you want to try and collect a set of mortals or ones with more story icons to claim the location bonus at the end of the round? Whatever you don’t take will be snatched up by the other players. Remember some mortals even have a negative score, so you don’t want to get lumbered with those ones.

Each player selects a card from their hand to play face down on the table. Once everyone has picked one of their campy creatures, you reveal what you all played, some creatures will have abilities that can activate now (before capture) The next step is to capture mortals. Highest number will capture first and this will follow in descending order, with their capture abilities coming into play now. Some abilities allow you to give mortals to other players, discard unwanted ones, or even capture more than one.

Once all the mortals have been taken you then begin another turn. Dealing up a fresh batch of new mortals for the taking from the pile. However, this time you will not be able to use the creatures you have already played during this round, limiting your abilities. This makes for great bluffing as you can see what other people have played, so you can try to predict what they have left in their hands. You may not have to just play your highest card to claim the mortals you want. This continues until the mortal deck is depleted. When this occurs, location cards can be claimed. Points are totalled up and scored using the players tokens.

The mortal cards are then gathered up and shuffled, a new location card is revealed and players collect their creatures back into their hands. This starts a new round. You’ll play three rounds in total, player with the most points at the end of the three rounds wins!

Breaking Ties

There is evidentially going to be a time where you’ll play the same number card as your opponent, but fear not, Campy Creatures has a fantastic way of breaking these ties.

The Clash-o-meter isn’t just a fancy show piece, it serves a very meaningful purpose. Being the higher player on the clash-o-meter, grants you priority (activating creatures abilities or capturing mortals) breaking any ties. If a clash has occurred, then at the end of the turn they will move their wooden marker down to the bottom of the clash-o-meter. This is repeated if multiple clashes happen, with players who won the clash moving down. It’s a brilliant and simple mechanism that helps the gameplay flow easily without any arguments.

Amazing Artwork

How could I not comment on how gorgeous the artwork is in this game. Vampires, blobs, aliens and robots, Campy Creatures is full of things that go bump in the night and the illustrations on these various monster cards are breath-taking. There’s not a single one I wouldn’t have framed on my wall.

The little wooden tokens and clash-o-meter really stand out on the table and fit so well to match with the players card sets. Even the rule book, which is very suitably named ‘Mad scientist handbook’ really captures that classic monster B-movie vibe. This game oozes with theme throughout.

Keymaster Games have done a marvellous job designing this campy monster themed card game. All of the components have been really well thought out to tie into this games spooky theme.

Overall Thoughts

I absolutely love playing Campy Creatures. It plays in about twenty to thirty minutes, making it a nice quick game you could play a few times in a row, or as lighter filler game for a games night. Its simple gameplay makes it easy to teach to new players, but does offer more complex thinking when it comes to deciding what card to play.

I find it works better with two or three players. It can get a bit messy with four or five, having more clashes can really slow down and confuse the gameplay. The artwork alone however completely sold me on this one when I first came across it. With being a fan of card games and classic horror movies, I knew it was one I had to add to our collection.