Nemesis: Lockdown

I put Nemesis: Lockdown on the table mainly to see what had changed from the first game, and the immediate impression was favourable: it is more streamlined. It is much less eager to throw someone out with an insta-death in the first room, which is rather useful when you would like to play the game instead of explaining why a player has already died.

At its centre, Lockdown keeps the tension of moving through rooms and surviving the aliens, but gives it a smoother flow. Players can get on with the session without quite so many abrupt, clumsy blows cutting the thread before the game has had time to make a story of itself.

The trouble starts with the number of people at the table. Several elements do not scale properly with player count, and the Visitors automatically handing out serious wounds slow the whole affair further; splendid, you may not be removed immediately, but you can suffer for longer while waiting to see where it all goes. The table starts to feel heavy.

It has its laughs, and I would not complain if it appeared again, but it is not one to gorge on. I prefer the original Nemesis, and I certainly prefer the basic aliens or the Carnomorphs to the Visitors. Lockdown is a cleaner, but slightly less satisfying, serving of Nemesis.