Octo Dice Review

I know this guy who always claims that any dice game of any kind is nothing but a knock-off of Yahtzee. As dumb a blanket statement as that is, sometimes it’s true. In the case of Octo Dice, from Alderac Entertainment Group, you can easily see that it has its roots in games like Yahtzee or Farkle but it’s so very much more. Most of the dice games I’ve played recently were somewhere between dreadful beyond explanation and “please, get me a noose”, but Octo Dice completely blew me away with its fun, tense gameplay and smart mechanics. It’s also the first dice game I’ve ever played that one can almost taste spaetzle while playing. Despite a friend who played with me describing it as “German Point Salad” and not being entirely wrong, boiling it down to that one phrase doesn’t nearly do it justice.

Octo Dice is a push-your luck dice game with short and long term goals, played over three phases with intermediate scoring at the end of each phase. What sets it apart from other dice games is that there are multiple paths to victory, and that you may choose to use other players’ rolls to augment your own score. Thus, while your turn is going on, others are plotting to use two of your dice two times per two rounds. So you have to weigh your own score versus denying opposing players the opportunity to utilize your roll in their favor. It’s a brilliant and underused mechanic, and this game absolutely nails it. The tension is immense, which isn’t something that many dice games do well very often.

One of my favorite things about the game is the large number of objectives that yield points. For example, if you score a robot of one of the five colors, it’s a one point bump. Score a second, and it’s now a two point bump. If you manage to score the matching sub as well, now you get an additional point per robot each time the intermission scoring hits. The robot-sub combination is only one of six possible main paths toward earning points, and there are several minor paths as well, related primarily to rolling multiple octopi or earning special bonuses through the lab advancements. Speaking of the lab, there are three tiers of three skills and while advancing through them doesn’t score immediate points, they do earn points at the end of the game, and their progressively better abilities earn you immediate bonus points for performing other actions, such as catching an octopus or launching a sub. All in all, it’s a game that really has a lot going on but doesn’t overwhelm you.

The components are quite nice, with colorful illustrations and very effective use of language-neutral symbols. The wooden dice are a great touch, with one guy I played with noting, “I haven’t used wooden dice since the last time I played HeroQuest!” My only real gripe about the dice is that the purple octopi are very dark, and against the black background, they can be very hard to see, even in a lit room. Luckily, every other face on the black dice is bright white, which allows you to deduce easily that an octopus face was rolled despite not really being able to see it very well. I absolutely adore the score sheets, of which there are a huge number in the box; they are a little daunting to understand initially but become second nature after your first game. Everything is clearly marked, and scoring values are clear and understandable, which means less referring to the rulebook.

Octo-Dice has won me over with its charming art, fast turns, and truly unique and interesting blend of tried-and-true mechanics. Getting past the rules the first time might be a bit painful, but this is the kind of game where you wing it, screw up the first game, and then the next game you have the rules completely down. It’s not that it’s a complex game; it’s just that the rules are written and organized in a way that you may not get immediately. I gave my copy to a friend at Origins, and immediately re-ordered it when I got home. That almost never happens, and I can’t wait for my copy to arrive. It’s a fantastic little game that isn’t hard on the wallet. If you like dice games with a bit of Euro flair might become a go-to filler game for your group.