Reviews
The following reviews came from Wu Wei’s first Kickstarter as “Lineage”. As soon as new prototypes go out to reviewers, these will be updated to reflect the changes to the game. Wu Wei has expanded to include three different levels of play and a more exciting conclusion but the basic mechanics of the game haven’t changed.
I love games that have asymmetry in them—in this case, between the Master/Student players and the Emperor/General player. Although they’re moving around on the same board, they’re after different goals, and those lead to conflicts, both direct and indirect. The Master/Student players have to figure out how to work together to prevent the Emperor/General from winning, but then they’re also trying to secure victory for themselves. It leads to a delicious sort of tension—do you pursue your own training, relying on another player to stop the Emperor, or do you stop him yourself but allow the other player to pull ahead?”
The gaming pieces, board tiles and cards are well made, very artistic and help to immerse you into the Asian culture. The rules can be very complex when learning the game for the first time, but once you are familiar with them, gameplay flows fairly easily. More illustrations and examples of gameplay movements in the instructions would go a long way to help minimize confusion during the setup and learning of the game. With how well evolved this game is, a few small tweaks is all it would take to turn it from very good to great.”