Project Elite – Initial Impressions

Now here is a game that I wanted to try for a long time, and I got to play it this weekend. My buddy James owns it (along with most of the expansions) and broke it out for his Birthday Party!

The Alien Pack Expansion for Project Elite.

The Adrenaline Expansion.

The Core Box of Project Elite.

When James told me that this was the game that he would like to play, I was excited! A Miniatures Board Game… Check! A co-operative game… Nice! Highly rated by Tom Vasel… Fantastic! Great artwork… I am in!!!

Then James mentioned that it is a “Real Time Strategy Game.” In my mind, I was looking for my coat and walking out the door. I had terrible visions of playing “Perpetual Commotion” with my wife. I suck at speed based games! Since I was sticking it out, I gave the guys the heads up that I am not fast and might not do well at this game as a result.

I got to pick out my character and I will mention again that the artwork is really nice. I chose Bus.

Great Artwork. Kind of reminds me of Doom.  🙂

Then I saw the miniatures… Again, I was heading out the door in my mind.

This is Bus from Project Elite. The mini leaves a lot to be desired.

Seeing that Bus was not great in detail, I checked the other minis.

Some of the Characters from Project hiding in the Bunker.

As one can see, the other miniatures are no better. Quickly I refocused my mind to allow me to enjoy the game. Instead of thinking of Project Elite as a game with gorgeous miniatures, I thought of it as a game with nicely shaped game pieces. As “game pieces” these miniatures are great. The game is fast paced so the miniatures get manhandled. Since the pieces get manhandled, I am okay with the minis being a bit chunky and light on details.

Back to the cards, I equipped Bus with a close-ranged Projectile Gun and a Rocket Launcher.

Above is my initial load-out for Bus. He would use this load-out throughout the mission. I really like the artwork. Too bad the miniature didn’t match up in quality. That said, keep reading… I was really impressed with the game play of this game.

Below is how the game started. The players are in the Bunker to the left while the monsters spawn on the right. One of the spawning points is an Alien Egg that moves the spawning point closer to the players’ zone. The players have to destroy all four marked objectives (each has 3 to 4 red gun symbols) and get back to their bunker. If the aliens kill the players or reach the bunker, the players lose. The players also lose if they do not complete the objective by the end of turn Eight.

The initial set up. There are several Aliens and the players hide safely in their bunker.

The players move out and start clearing aliens. I am the mini on the top-middle of the map.

The Red enemy is a boss. He is tough and causes negative effects to the players each round. It took us a couple of turns to kill him.

At the end of turn 4, it looked like we were about to lose. Look at how close those aliens are to our bunker!!! One more square of movement and we would have lost.

Some of the alien cards and miniatures. Again, the artwork is quite good.

By the top of turn 7, we pushed the monsters away from the bunker and have just one objective left to take over. Time wise, I wasn’t sure if we would make it out alive.

By the end of Turn 7, we captured the objective, killed some enemies and made it back to the bunker. Players Win!!!

Overall, this was an extremely fun game. I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the game because I was very scared about the “real-time” component. For the duration of the game, I was standing and heavily involved. It is great how quickly and excitingly Project Elite pulls in its’ players. All around the table, everyone had a great time. James (the Birthday Boy), Kevin (the Boss), Jennifer and myself all celebrated in our victory!

I found that Project Elite plays with the feel of a Tower Defence game on a PC or Mobile App with objectives added. The enemies keep spawning and you have to frantically stop them from reaching and overrunning your bunker.

The heroes in this game are super-powered and can kill plenty of enemies a turn. While we did take some damage on our side, no-one died.

For me, this game was extremely fun, but it is not one that I would add to my collection. That said, if anyone ever asked, “who wants to play Project Elite,” my hand would be one of the first to shoot up in the air. This is a great game. I was amazed with how much I was drawn into the action and excitement. If my readers ever get the chance to try this game, I recommend that they test it out. I loved it!

Given the price this game is now selling for on EBay and the GeekMarket, I would recommend that only the most dedicated fans actually look into purchasing Project Elite. The last prices I saw were $200 for just the base game or $400 for the whole collection. Both of these were previously used copies. One could buy a lot of other games for that same amount of money.

Update – July 25th, 2018

I just saw that CMON plans to come out with a Kickstarter for Project Elite. If they follow through, there is an opportunity for those that missed the original game to pick up a similar version for a more affordable price. Also, the preview artwork they have posted already looks better than that in the original game and I bet the miniatures will be better too!

Until next time, Happy Gaming Everyone!!!