Bang! The 2nd game in my collection
Why another review about Bang! when most of the members onboard have already played it before and even owned it? Personally, Bang! was once my favourite game, and indeed was among the first few games i bought in my gaming collection; first being citadels, and bang! was the 2nd
. It WAS once my fav game until i became more attached to Powergrid and Carcassonne, and the more games i played, the more my gaming taste evolved and I ALMOST forgot about Bang! until i played it last sunday at fredrick's place. The game works on interaction and here i share some of my experiences in how it can be good and bad.
This is fairly long review, if you are not interested in understanding the gameplay, you can skip to 'My view of Bang!'.
Gameplay
For those who are new to the game, players take the roles of cowboys who have collective agendas in the game. The good guys consists of the 'Sheriff' and his 'deputy sheriffs', the bad guys consist of the outlaws, and there is a mysterious 'renegade' that strive to be the last guy standing. The Sheriff and renegade is always in play and depending on the number of players, the number of 'deputy sheriffs' scales nicely to the number of 'outlaws'.
Each player holds their identity and keeps it secret. In addition, player has a character card that gives him a distinct ability over other players. Taking turns in a clockwise order from the Sheriff, each player draws 2 cards before playing their cards, and ending their turn by discarding down to their life counts.
The game is won by the outlaws bring down the Sheriff to zero life, or won by the Sheriff and his deputy by killing all the outlaws and the renegade. The renegade wins by being the last player in play after killing all the outlaws.
My view on Bang!
Bang! is an interactive cardgame, and card abilities are drawn out of easily learnt symbols. Unlike other games,with mostly individual objectives, players have collective objectives and this adds to the amount of playing motivation and playing interaction.
The Good
I trust Bang! over other games i have among my newbie gaming khakis because it makes all players cowboys and cowgirls. I think guys will find it cool, maybe girls will find it sexy. I can easily imagine those pictures. HMMmmmMMMMMMMMMmm. Lol. eEEhAA!
Explained properly among a group of discerned players, the game divides the group neatly between the 'good guys' and 'bad guys', and it is always interesting to see how the players take each other out
.
The even more interesting part is how each other tries to save each other. The MOST interesting details i have used and seen is making sacrifices for the greater good, like dying when it benefits your team mates; another interesting and common strategy is creating discord or confusion by hitting your team mate early in the game so that your identity becomes more obscured.
Indeed, creating discord and confusion is the icings of the cake; so sweet yet it comes in relative small proportion to the overall gameplay
. Sometimes its not present, but i do hope for these icings. It is the key difference i am playing Bang! over other cardgames like Citadels and Sabotuer.
In comparison, Citadels is not short of interaction, but Bang! does do a better job and bringing new players together. The key reason i am comparing Citadels and Bang! is that the earlier editions of Bang! sell so much cheaper than Citadels, and yet play so much better among my newbie friends. Viewing Sabotuer, i can see that elements of identity guessing and sabotage, except Bang! can provide better replayability and interaction and player's involvement, IMHO.
Buck for buck, its the best thing u can get under $20
. Whenever a customer at the cafe ask for an interactive game for many players, there was once i asked the customer for 20 bucks and giving him Bang! to him telling him he will never regret it. He argued so much that his group likes Sabotuer and Bang! might not fit the bill. I was fortunate enough to meet him once after my exam at unisim one day when i heard my name called from across two seats, it was the same customer. He told me how much his group likes Bang! over sabotuer 
.
Don't be mistaken, i am not saying i am a good salesman, i am saying i saw the goodness in Bang! Its cheap, easy to play and accomodates many players. For many people starting a collection, this is a gem
.
The Bad
I believe if you have read the article thus far and have not bought Bang!, you must have been partially sold at the cost-efficiency of Bang! among a group of casual players. I am discussing some of the issues hereafter on why certain Bang! sessions can be a BORE
.
Bang! can get abit 'dry' with a group of experienced players. Role guessing is part of the fun in Bang!, but when its only 2 rounds in the game and all experienced players seems to know whos' who and the game boils down to who kills the opposition first can make gameplay mechanic more than thematic
.
Sometimes i wonder why are we playing it when everyone is rushing to finish it. Lol. In short, recommending Bang! requires the game host to correctly understand the players' enthusiaism and atmosphere, IMO. I believe this happens in similar ways i compared Saboteur to Bang! While Bang! offers more replayability to casual gamers, it do not satisfy a group of serious gamers in the same way. Do not use it as a game filler when the atmosphere seems dry for a thematic experience.
Another issue with Bang! among experienced players is the downtime between games. I say between games because i dun see too much downtime among players as experience pushes game turn but i do see many times the game gets lengthen among the surviving players while the dead players looks on
. While it is not strictly the game's flaw, and dead players can always play another game, my experience is the dead players chooses to look on and get themselves BORED.
Another issue with experienced players is the 'ganging' factor. Sometimes, its not because of your identity in the game, its who you are in life. The best players can be 'ganged' before they even takes their turn. I personally find it amusing, but i do believe it can also be frustrating, just imagine you are dead before your 1st turn. In the next game, it happens again. OMG, the amt of time wasted for this poor player...
The Worse
There was one time i taught 7 other players. It was my worse game of Bang!, during which i had to repeat the rules and how the card works almost every players turn
. In the first round, i felt like i took 8 players turns. You would not wan to try this if you have heart problems. If you are healthy, stay away too as this is cardio-arresting. I never wanted a game to end so badly 
Recently, the 4th edition turned $39.90 and earlier comparisions with Citadels and Saboteur, together with the bad gaming experience puts me away from recommending it to customers again.
Ending Remarks
I almost forgot about Bang! because i felt it was a passe for me until i played again at Fredrick's place that night. The group number was a big 7, we played 3 games and each game was pleasant.
It is unfair to attribute it solely to the player mix that night but i believe apart from subjective players' capacity for the game, we played the game with an expansion: Dodge City. The additional cards and mechanics gave me a refreshing experience, and also more options and lifting the personal mastery of the game to getting involved again.
It was particularly amusing to see the newbie Sheriff (Eggman) constantly guessing whos' who, and often hurting his own deputy at some point of the game. Other players also have their share of interesting decicisions and intrigue. This is wat the game is truly about: some uncertainties and never close to complete mastery, coupled with thematic shooting and squabbling (vulgarities are bonuses!).
I was tasting the icings of the cake again; so sweet and yet in the right proportion. As such, i believe Bang! serves a specific niche, and that is for a mixture of causal gamers and serious gamers. To keep only serious gamers interested, the expansions are needed to scale the game considerably in terms of player's capacity and number of players. In short, Bang! can facilitate interaction, however, certain gaming group can downplay the interaction and reduce it to boredom, keep the game away from these groups.
However, I am glad i bought it at 20 bucks , and using Bang! correctly on the right group has the potential to create a wonderful shotting and simple intrigue among causal gamers and thinking gamers alike 
. At the moment, i have Dodge City expansion which was under-utilized among my friends. For those looking at purchasing a very good game can look at getting the Bang! bullet for good scalability and different levels of interactivity.
Why another review about Bang! when most of the members onboard have already played it before and even owned it? Personally, Bang! was once my favourite game, and indeed was among the first few games i bought in my gaming collection; first being citadels, and bang! was the 2nd
. It WAS once my fav game until i became more attached to Powergrid and Carcassonne, and the more games i played, the more my gaming taste evolved and I ALMOST forgot about Bang! until i played it last sunday at fredrick's place. The game works on interaction and here i share some of my experiences in how it can be good and bad.This is fairly long review, if you are not interested in understanding the gameplay, you can skip to 'My view of Bang!'.
Gameplay
For those who are new to the game, players take the roles of cowboys who have collective agendas in the game. The good guys consists of the 'Sheriff' and his 'deputy sheriffs', the bad guys consist of the outlaws, and there is a mysterious 'renegade' that strive to be the last guy standing. The Sheriff and renegade is always in play and depending on the number of players, the number of 'deputy sheriffs' scales nicely to the number of 'outlaws'.
Each player holds their identity and keeps it secret. In addition, player has a character card that gives him a distinct ability over other players. Taking turns in a clockwise order from the Sheriff, each player draws 2 cards before playing their cards, and ending their turn by discarding down to their life counts.
The game is won by the outlaws bring down the Sheriff to zero life, or won by the Sheriff and his deputy by killing all the outlaws and the renegade. The renegade wins by being the last player in play after killing all the outlaws.
My view on Bang!
Bang! is an interactive cardgame, and card abilities are drawn out of easily learnt symbols. Unlike other games,with mostly individual objectives, players have collective objectives and this adds to the amount of playing motivation and playing interaction.
The Good
I trust Bang! over other games i have among my newbie gaming khakis because it makes all players cowboys and cowgirls. I think guys will find it cool, maybe girls will find it sexy. I can easily imagine those pictures. HMMmmmMMMMMMMMMmm. Lol. eEEhAA!
Explained properly among a group of discerned players, the game divides the group neatly between the 'good guys' and 'bad guys', and it is always interesting to see how the players take each other out
. The even more interesting part is how each other tries to save each other. The MOST interesting details i have used and seen is making sacrifices for the greater good, like dying when it benefits your team mates; another interesting and common strategy is creating discord or confusion by hitting your team mate early in the game so that your identity becomes more obscured.
Indeed, creating discord and confusion is the icings of the cake; so sweet yet it comes in relative small proportion to the overall gameplay
. Sometimes its not present, but i do hope for these icings. It is the key difference i am playing Bang! over other cardgames like Citadels and Sabotuer. In comparison, Citadels is not short of interaction, but Bang! does do a better job and bringing new players together. The key reason i am comparing Citadels and Bang! is that the earlier editions of Bang! sell so much cheaper than Citadels, and yet play so much better among my newbie friends. Viewing Sabotuer, i can see that elements of identity guessing and sabotage, except Bang! can provide better replayability and interaction and player's involvement, IMHO.
Buck for buck, its the best thing u can get under $20
. Whenever a customer at the cafe ask for an interactive game for many players, there was once i asked the customer for 20 bucks and giving him Bang! to him telling him he will never regret it. He argued so much that his group likes Sabotuer and Bang! might not fit the bill. I was fortunate enough to meet him once after my exam at unisim one day when i heard my name called from across two seats, it was the same customer. He told me how much his group likes Bang! over sabotuer . Don't be mistaken, i am not saying i am a good salesman, i am saying i saw the goodness in Bang! Its cheap, easy to play and accomodates many players. For many people starting a collection, this is a gem
.The Bad
I believe if you have read the article thus far and have not bought Bang!, you must have been partially sold at the cost-efficiency of Bang! among a group of casual players. I am discussing some of the issues hereafter on why certain Bang! sessions can be a BORE
. Bang! can get abit 'dry' with a group of experienced players. Role guessing is part of the fun in Bang!, but when its only 2 rounds in the game and all experienced players seems to know whos' who and the game boils down to who kills the opposition first can make gameplay mechanic more than thematic
. Sometimes i wonder why are we playing it when everyone is rushing to finish it. Lol. In short, recommending Bang! requires the game host to correctly understand the players' enthusiaism and atmosphere, IMO. I believe this happens in similar ways i compared Saboteur to Bang! While Bang! offers more replayability to casual gamers, it do not satisfy a group of serious gamers in the same way. Do not use it as a game filler when the atmosphere seems dry for a thematic experience.
Another issue with Bang! among experienced players is the downtime between games. I say between games because i dun see too much downtime among players as experience pushes game turn but i do see many times the game gets lengthen among the surviving players while the dead players looks on
. While it is not strictly the game's flaw, and dead players can always play another game, my experience is the dead players chooses to look on and get themselves BORED. Another issue with experienced players is the 'ganging' factor. Sometimes, its not because of your identity in the game, its who you are in life. The best players can be 'ganged' before they even takes their turn. I personally find it amusing, but i do believe it can also be frustrating, just imagine you are dead before your 1st turn. In the next game, it happens again. OMG, the amt of time wasted for this poor player...
The Worse
There was one time i taught 7 other players. It was my worse game of Bang!, during which i had to repeat the rules and how the card works almost every players turn
. In the first round, i felt like i took 8 players turns. You would not wan to try this if you have heart problems. If you are healthy, stay away too as this is cardio-arresting. I never wanted a game to end so badly Recently, the 4th edition turned $39.90 and earlier comparisions with Citadels and Saboteur, together with the bad gaming experience puts me away from recommending it to customers again.
Ending Remarks
I almost forgot about Bang! because i felt it was a passe for me until i played again at Fredrick's place that night. The group number was a big 7, we played 3 games and each game was pleasant.
It is unfair to attribute it solely to the player mix that night but i believe apart from subjective players' capacity for the game, we played the game with an expansion: Dodge City. The additional cards and mechanics gave me a refreshing experience, and also more options and lifting the personal mastery of the game to getting involved again.
It was particularly amusing to see the newbie Sheriff (Eggman) constantly guessing whos' who, and often hurting his own deputy at some point of the game. Other players also have their share of interesting decicisions and intrigue. This is wat the game is truly about: some uncertainties and never close to complete mastery, coupled with thematic shooting and squabbling (vulgarities are bonuses!).
I was tasting the icings of the cake again; so sweet and yet in the right proportion. As such, i believe Bang! serves a specific niche, and that is for a mixture of causal gamers and serious gamers. To keep only serious gamers interested, the expansions are needed to scale the game considerably in terms of player's capacity and number of players. In short, Bang! can facilitate interaction, however, certain gaming group can downplay the interaction and reduce it to boredom, keep the game away from these groups.
However, I am glad i bought it at 20 bucks
, and using Bang! correctly on the right group has the potential to create a wonderful shotting and simple intrigue among causal gamers and thinking gamers alike . At the moment, i have Dodge City expansion which was under-utilized among my friends. For those looking at purchasing a very good game can look at getting the Bang! bullet for good scalability and different levels of interactivity.