Rats of Wistar

I went into Rats of Wistar expecting a cute trip with little mice looking for cheese around a house. What I found was a recent, heavy Cranio euro, full of clutter, icons, and moving parts. It strongly reminded me of Woodcraft: a game with a lot of work happening on the table and a general logic that had not won me over there either.

At its core it is worker placement, but a rather bloated version of it. There are many actions, many cards, and countless little things that can happen, so keeping track of what is going on and what is worth doing demands constant attention. The first plays in particular felt fiddly to me, not because the game is necessarily bad, but because it asks you to hold far too much in your head.

Interaction mostly comes through the tempo and the occupation of action spaces, but that is also where my biggest issue appears: downtime. You may have taken one or two feeder actions to gather resources, then wait roughly fifteen minutes for your turn to return while somebody else unspools a five-action combo. Repeat plays will probably smooth out the playtime and raise the strategic challenge somewhat, but the large card presence and randomness remain part of the experience.

On the plus side, it genuinely has countless paths to victory, which gives it depth for people who want to explore it. Me, though? I was not blown away. For the same effort, I would rather serve some cured fish.