Suddenly, you come to. You’ve woken from a deep dream – or maybe it was a nightmare. You’re lying on the cold ground. Your immediate thought is to check for injuries, but you only have some light bruises and scratches. Your memory seems worse though. Everything is a bit muddled. You can’t remember where you are or why you are here. You dimly recall the scent of flowers. Yes, that’s it. The flowers were what made you come here. They were so beautiful and inviting. But then something changed as the sun set. The exquisite flowers changed. They turned into nightmares, with evil eyes, gnashing teeth and lashing vines. It all started to come back. The evil flowers had been feeding on your energy. Your magic is drained. Yet, you instinctively know that you have to get out of here. You have to flee this Malus Hortus by Nikita Sullivan from Atikin Games.
Storytime
When you read the introduction to this cooperative game, you’re immediately captivated. You know exactly where you are and what you have to do. The setting is captivating and really appeals to your imagination. I certainly enjoyed reading the introduction to Malus Hortus. It is clear that the storytelling in this game is really important. That’s already a bit different to other cooperative games that I have played which are either educational or where there is very little active storytelling. It almost feels like you’re about to start a role-playing game.
That’s almost what Malus Hortus is, because after every round, you draw a card that has a short story snippet on it and then a certain effect. The cards are shuffled, so it’s not like there is a continuous story being told, and there are more cards in the box than you will use in a game, which means every game the story will unfold slightly differently. Yet, every card does give a clue as to what might be going on in this world that the designer Nikita Sullivan has created. You’re always looking forward to the next card, even if it means something bad happens. You’re so curious to find out what’s going on.
There are even more cards in Malus Hortus, the so-called critter cards, which further add to the storytelling part of the game. I have only played the prototype of the game, but Nikita has told me that she’s adding more stories to the game to replace some of the cards which are a bit more of a placeholder. That means you can expect a lot of story snippets when the final product is released. I’m so excited about what else we’ll find out about the world of Malus Hortus when we play the game.
Nymph Team
Enough about the storytelling though. Let me tell you what Malus Hortus is about. You can play the game solo or with up to four players. Everyone takes on the role of a nymph, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses, which makes it important that you work as a team.
There is even more asymmetry, because there are four paths out of Malus Hortus and each one is a different length and has different obstacles. Additionally, a path can only be taken by one nymph. So you also have to decide which nymph is best suited to take which route out of the evil garden. That’s the first decision you have to make as a team. Of course, the first time you play, you won’t exactly know what the different special abilities mean, so you might as well choose randomly or based on each nymph’s weaknesses to certain flowers. However, in subsequent games, you can be more tactical and make better-informed decisions.
The next thing you need to discuss is what everyone should do on their turn. Malus Hortus looks like a roll-and-move game at first, given the four paths being divided into distinct spaces. However, instead of a dice, you have a hand of cards that represent two actions: something that affects the board or yourself and movement. The first action could allow you to move one of the evil flowers on your path out of the way. Or it could give you some health. It can also be a way of topping up your shared energy pool, which you use to use your magic. So you have to work out as a team what everyone should do, as you would expect from a cooperative game.
Movement
The second action is always movement. Most of the time you move forward, towards the exit. Sometimes you don’t move at all and other times you have to move backwards. Usually, the stronger the first action on the card, the weaker the movement. Mind you, sometimes moving backwards can be advantageous. That’s because some spaces give you benefits and there are also critters to save. So managing your hand is important.
I really like this mechanism. Malus Hortus has introduced something that I haven’t come across in a coop game. The idea that you play cards that decide how far you move and which are a balance between getting powerful bonuses or fast movement is really clever. Very often in the game one player would sacrifice their movement to top up our energy pool or do something else to benefit the group.
There is even more movement though. Every path has two flowers on them which are trying to harm the nymphs. At the end of every round, you roll dice to decide how far they move. Flowers will always move towards a nymph on their path. They will deal damage if they go past a nymph and they will attack if their movement ends on the same space as a nymph. Attacks are a matter of rolling a four-sided dice, which represents the amount of damage dealt. So planning ahead can be useful, even though you can never be sure where the flowers will end up.
Beautiful Game
As a game, Malus Hortus is very much like any cooperative game you might have played in the past, but at the same time, it’s also very different. Instead of working together on the same map, everyone walks along their own, individual path. Instead of having a certain number of movement points, you play cards that also give you a certain benefit. It’s only when your nymphs leave the board that they suddenly become much more powerful. Players continue to take their turns, but instead of playing cards to affect their own nymph, they now choose which other player benefits from the card, effectively giving the person an additional turn. Suddenly Malus Hortus changes from a multi-player coop to a full coop. It’s very different to anything else I have seen and really works.
I think it’s a great way to introduce people to coop games. Everyone does their own thing to start with, but as soon as one nymph steps off the board, they now actively affect one of their fellow players. At this point in the game, people will have built up some rapport and fully understand the game. Everything also starts to speed up, allowing another nymph to get to the end of their path more quickly. It’s really clever and different.
What makes the game stand out even more are the illustrations though. Nikita not only designed the game, but also illustrated everything. The drawings I have seen so far are amazing. So I can only imagine how gorgeous the final game will look. It’s a testament to the amount of love and attention Nikita puts into all of her games. I definitely can’t wait to see the final product.
The End
Let me just reiterate that I played a prototype of the game for this review. So I saw a lot of placeholder art and some of the stories were just there to fill the cards. However, the rules are virtually complete. The main work is now going into the artwork and the stories on the cards. There is still a lot to do, but you can already tell how much of a storytelling game Malus Hortus is going to be. It might not be a role-playing game in the truest sense, but you certainly will have a real adventure every time you try to escape the evil garden.
Useful Links
Transparency Facts
I feel that this review reflects my own, independent and honest opinion, but the facts below allow you to decide whether you think that I was influenced in any way.
- I was sent a free review copy of this game by the publisher.
- At the time of writing, neither the designers, nor the publisher, nor anyone linked to the game supported me financially or by payment in kind.
Audio Version
Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.
Music: Contamination by Purple Planet Music (https://www.
Song: Lochlainn – The Garden [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://NCS.
Watch: http://youtu.
Playlist
These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review:
