WBG Score: 7.5/10
Player Count: 1-2
You’ll like this if you like: Quick, light tableau building games.
Published by: Button Shy
Designed by: Kevin Ellenburg
This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.
Death Valley: Highs & Lows is the second instalment in the Death Valley series. The 18 cards in this game can be enjoyed on their own as a standalone game, or mixed with the previous Death Valley game to form a fresh set of 18 cards each time you play. This is a tableau builder at heart, and works just as well in solo as it does in two player. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays.
How To Set Up Death Valley: Highs & Lows
Shuffle the 18 cards and place them face down on the table. Flip the top card face up and place it next to this pile. Decide the first player, if you are playing in a two, and you are now ready to play. The game suggests you do this by finding out which player last drank water!
How To Play Death Valley: Highs & Lows
Players will now take turns to either Travel or Rest. Travel means to take either the face-up card or a face-down one from the top of the deck, collectively called the Desert, and add it to their own personal array. This is called their Journey. It will be a horizontal line, formed left to right in front of them. Rest means to move one card from your Journey to your Scrapbook. This is a line below your Journey, which again you form left to right. When you do this, you may hide additional cards from your Journey underneath this card. You can also shuffle any number of Journey cards you still have back into the deck if you wish. Hiding simply means to place a card underneath another. This card now does not score at the end of the game, but its Hazards will not count towards busting for you anymore either. Some cards, such as Salt Creek, let you hide one card with the paw print underneath it, or swap another hidden card with the paw print with any other card in your Journey each time it is your go at the start of your turn.
Players are doing this to try to form the most point-worthy Journey possible. This is done mainly through the stars on the cards but also some of the card powers, such as the Desolation Canyon, which gives you two points for each card in your discard pile. Hells Gate scores you three points if it is your only card with a Sun hazard symbol. And Amargosa Opera House scores you one point for each star on the cards that are adjacent to it. Players then check that they do not have three of the same Hazard card type in their Journey and Scrapbook. If they do, they bust and must take the rightmost card showing this hazard type, flip it face down, and then place it in their personal discard area to the right of their Journey and Scrapbook. They must then shuffle all remaining Journey cards back into the deck. The Scrapbook cards remain in situ. You will know how many of each type of specific hazard cards there are by the number shown on the top left of the card under the hazard symbol. So, you can hedge your bets when you take each card, knowing how soon its hazard symbol will be.
Then, refresh the Desert by flipping over the top card if the previous card had been taken, and then move to the next player's turn. When only one card remains in the Desert, the game is over. All players will score their cards based on the stars shown on them in their Journey, one point for each. Then subtract one point for each Bison's head symbol. I think it is a Bison? Then check any card's unique scoring ability. Most points wins.
In solo mode, you must use the Backseat variant, which can be used in two-player too. Here, when you travel, players add cards to their opponent's journey, not their own. In solo, simply do this to an imaginary AI player. When the AI takes their turn, check if the face-up card in the desert would bust you or the AI. If so, add it to your own journey. If it does not match the hazard type in the AI's journey, add it to the AI's journey instead. If it does match, add the top card from the desert instead. You ignore card abilities in solo mode, but not hazard types. You score as usual, but the AI scores one point for each star or skull, as well as scoring points equal to the positive numbers in the scoring abilities of their cards, ignoring any negative points.
Each card will have a special unique action as well, that will come into effect at various times. For example, the Manley Beacon lets you swap that card with any other card in another player's Journey whenever any player busts. The Surprise Canyon forces you to add the top card of the deck to your journey after your action. The Ventifact Ridge says you must shuffle that card along with a card from your opponent's Journey back into the deck before you Rest. And the Keane Wonder Mine says that as your action, instead of Resting or Traveling, you can take a hidden card from your Scrapbook and add it into your Journey.
Is It Fun? Death Valley: Highs & Lows Card Game Review
I cannot comment on how this links with the original or what the original is like, as I have not played it yet. But this game, as a standalone, is a brilliantly subtle puzzle game that works just as well solo as it does with two players. Games are short but full of fun decisions on which cards to take, which ones to use, and which ones to try and get rid of. You will be constantly evolving your journey, moving cards into your scrapbook, or busting, as you move along the desert path. The various ways to score will keep you coming back for more. Each game feels very much the same, but the end-game scoring can be quite different.
The art on the cards is a little washed out, with pastel colors and simple design. But it looks gorgeous and adds nicely to the overall theme. The iconography on the cards is also incredibly clear, and you will find you are reading the cards in an instant, helping with your decision as to which card will be right for you.
The higher scoring cards will often have an effect that does not help you, and vice versa, such as the Mountain Lion, which offers four points off the bat, but then its power means that it counts as two Paw prints when it comes to busting. That said, there are only two other cards with Paw prints, so it can be worth the risk.
Each card comes with a small fact about the location or subject on the bottom right, which is a nice touch. It does not add to the game mechanically, but certainly helps with the theme. Each fact is short enough to read without slowing the game down at all.
I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a simple solo or two-player game that they can take with them anywhere and play wherever they can lay out cards in a row safely, without fear of wind or spillage! The theme will draw in people who like exploration, the outdoors, or who have been to Death Valley. I drove through it once. In a convertible. I had the top down for one minute before I had to pull over, put the top up, and blast the air conditioning on full power for the rest of the journey. It's a hot place for sure, and so too is this little pocket game.
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