Mind MGMT: the board game
For my first real content, I thought I’d dive into cozy waters with a review of one of the newest games to grace my Kallax shelf and that is Mind MGMT. Described as the Psychic Espionage “Game”, inspired by the American comic book of the same name.
Mind MGMT is published by Off the Page Games, designed by Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim, with art by Matt Kindt. It was released this year after a successful Kickstarter campaign, but it was off my radar until I started seeing a lot of positive comments about it online.
Thematically, a team of Rogue Agents attempt to track down and capture a recruiter in Zanzibar to stop the evil Mind MGMT from taking over the world, or something to that end.
It feels like a new take on the hidden movement/one versus many style of games. The hidden movement takes place on a smaller board than games like Letters from White Chapel and the Recruiter (the one in the one versus many) must be even more careful because unless otherwise stated the Recruiter may not backtrack onto any previously space they have traveled to.
Let’s take a look at some of the game specs!
Mind MGMT plays 1–5 players but from my really limited experience plays really well at 3 players. 1 v 2 leads to less downtime for the Recruiter as there are a few less people discussing how to catch the Recruiter. I have not tried 1 player (yet). In terms of complexity, it comes in at a 2.67/5 on BGGs weight metric. Truth be told, if you’ve played Letters from White Chapel, Scotland Yard, or similar games you should be able to dive right into this one without much problem. As usual, let the more experienced player start with the Recruiter. If that player makes a big mistake the entire game will be fubar.
The game plays in 45–75 minutes but with less than 4–5 players I would be surprised if it took more than an hour.
Mechanics: Grid Movement, Hidden Movement, Point-to-Point Movement, Team-Based Game(one versus many), variable player powers.
Language Dependence: Extensive use of text.
How is the game actually played?
As the Recruiter, one player will search the city of Zanzibar for new recruits based on secretly assigned locations chosen at random at the start of the game. The Recruiter will start with a couple of moves as a head start and must either survive till the clock reaches 16:00 or contact 12 new recruits. The Recruiter will record their movement on a hidden dry erase board and the identity of their character (and viable ability) is unknown to the Rogue Agents.
The Rogue Agents must do everything in their power to stop the Recruiter from gaining too many psychic recruits. Capturing the Recruiter is a must! The Rogue Agents can choose between different actions, some of which are familiar from other games in the genre. “Move”, “Ask”, “Reveal”, “Capture” as well as other character-specific special actions can all be used to determine the location of the Recruiter or to slow them down.
If it wasn’t already hard enough, the Recruiter has help! 4 Recruiter-controlled minions called the Immortals. The immortals can recruit from a publicly known set of locations and can serve to slow down the pursuit of the Recruiter by the Rogue Agents.
And now to my assessment!
Art & Components: Personally, I really like the style of the art and really love the detailed mini-comic strips that can be found in many places. I actually prefer the standees of the retail version over the Kickstarter Deluxe components, so it’s a good thing I saved the money by buying at retail. The box top has a slick Spot UV finish and the brain-shaped Mental Note tokens are really fun too. 8/10
Ease of Learning: The game is easy enough to learn but if you or your playgroup are unfamiliar with other one v many or hidden movement games it might take a game or two to feel comfortable. The dry erase hidden map and the Mental Notes make it easy to track movement and clues for both teams. The Recruiter needs to be careful not to make mistakes as that could fubar the game. 8/10
Replayability: This feels like one of the strongest points in favor of Mind MGMT. I haven’t yet discussed the Slip Step System which is a set of 12 small boxes which include game components that can change the playing field for either the Recruiter or the Rogue Agents. There are all kinds of interesting cards, tokens, etc. inside these secret packets! I’ve only opened a couple of them so far but they seem to add massive replayability. 10/10
How is it different? The combination of mechanics are mostly well-used within many similar games but MIND MGMT does a few things differently and they all seem to make the game better. A tightness of play: The board is more compact than in other games like Letters to White Chapel, the rounds less, and the inability to backtrack all make this a game where it feels like the Rogue Agents are always close to a win and that the Recruiter is always close to gaining that last recruit. The variable abilities of each character add a unique element to the planning phase. The Immortals create a mini-game within the game where the Rogue Agents need to decide how much effort they are going to put into slowing down the Immortals and how much they want to dedicate solely to capturing the Recruiter. The Slip System is great. 10/10
What could be improved upon? While I do think the rulebook is well-written, there are certainly issues with when something happens that is left up to interpretation. Sometimes it feels like the wording of certain rules leads to ambiguity but they are written well enough to learn the game with relative ease. A minor critique from the Recruiter side of things is that I think the Mental Screen which is supposed to hide the Recruiter’s secret map, his character card, etc. is a bit too small. It’s hard to keep it all hidden behind the screen especially with 2–3 opponents sitting at the table with you. The Recruit tokens are lackluster in my opinion. I’m not quite sure what they are supposed to look like.
Overall, I currently rate Mind MGMT as a 10 on BGG and it is the only hidden movement game I feel I need in my collection. I’m happy to get it to the table and the reception from others in my gaming group has been generally favorable.
Until next time, I hope you enjoyed this review. Please leave a comment or a like = )
