Close Encounters with Lifeform and Sci-Fi Horror in Space
Escape the Valley Forge as a horrifying creature lurks in darkened rooms and vents with time ticking down in Lifeform.
Years ago, I was excited about the premise of Lifeform. It’s a game set in deep space where a creature has found its way aboard, and time is running out. That may ring a bell, and it certainly plays out in a similar way to the fantastic original Alien movie! However, I wasn’t sure what to make of the solo mode, and finally braved bringing it to my table again.
Game Overview
Game Name: Lifeform
Publication Year: 2019
Designers: Mark Chaplin and Toby Farrands
Artists: V. P. Corbella, C. Nieto, N. Stavarache, and J. Wajs
Publisher: Hall or Nothing Productions
Solo Mode: Included in Lifeform: Dragon’s Domain
The goal is to escape on the shuttle as time runs out and the creature moves ever closer. Objectives form the various requirements, typically discovered through story cards on each deck. There are tense moments when the motion sensor picks up activity nearby… Watch out!
First Play
August 29, 2019
Complexity
2
Latest Play
August 5, 2023
Expansions
2
Setup Time
15 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
1 Hour
High Score
N/A
Game Area
42" x 32"
Low Score
N/A
Back to Valley Forge
I was quickly reminded of the ups and downs I had during my first (and only) play 4 years ago. Many of the components look amazing, including the ship itself.
The premise is awesome, particularly to someone who loves the movie gameplay was inspired by! But… Uh-oh.
Tokens abound and cover up important information. Paths are hard to find. A lot of components aren’t used in solo. And then there are the rulebooks and iconography.
Getting back into this one was a chore, unfortunately. These are some of the worst rulebooks I’ve come across.
Story Potential
One of the main elements of the solo mode is the deck cards, which provide story vignettes and options for how to proceed. These get progressively more terrifying!
However, as I’ll touch on a little more, it basically comes down to having the right icons or not. There aren’t really choices to be made: Only getting lucky with card draws.
There is the making of something awesome here, though. Stories could have been very interesting in this setting.
Still, despite a lot of issues, I wanted to see if I could find the magic here… And preferably avoid the creature. Ha!
Token Overload
I used the neoprene playmat, which looks really neat and shows just how enormous the ship is. In another frustrating moment, the tokens spoiled a lot of it.
They all served their purposes, but room names were covered up and I had a lot of trouble seeing the paths.
Room connections are a huge part of gameplay. See one of the major issues near the middle right of this area, just above the power outage token? Hallway slivers!
But I pressed on with the lengthy setup process, hopeful that I could pull together a fun experience of survival.
A Familiar Face
Cameron, the executive officer, certainly looked familiar! Actually, every character bears a resemblance to a lot of action and sci-fi characters from the 80s. Very cool!
Yet I’m going to bring up something very important. The solo mode removes the unique abilities… Every character plays exactly the same, with only different appearances.
Worse yet, take a look at the requirements section. Where do you think the ship’s cat can only be found?
I’ll circle back to this maddening choice, but shown here is yet another reason why I’ve already passed this game on.
Separating the Love of a Theme from the Game
In all of my collection, I don’t have a lot of sci-fi horror solo games. It’s not necessarily my favorite genre, although I watch enough movies in the realm! So I was drawn to this specific theme and the idea of replicating that sort of tense atmosphere as I played. The map of the ship really is something interesting to look at before setup begins.
But as much as I love the setting and idea behind the game, it just doesn’t deliver. The solo mode is relatively light for the amount of work put into setup. Matching icons becomes the focal point, not whether the character is being chased into another room or stealthily trying to move around the vents. I enjoy the concepts, but they don’t make a game.
It’s also hard for me to look at how low this rates on my scale when I enjoy practically everything from the publisher! Again, though, I’m not here to blindly give high ratings to every game based on liking a publisher or designer. This is ultimately a hobby where I want to know the games I’m bringing to my table are ones I truly enjoy for various reasons.
Key Story Moments
Things started off on A-deck, where I assumed I needed to keep flipping story cards until the cat showed up. The mission tokens helped advance towards victory, too.
Yet it quickly devolved into a game of matching icons. I either had the “good” icon available, or I didn’t. The bad consequences really couldn’t be avoided, courtesy of luck.
With my assumption that the cat was on A-deck, I stayed far away from the shuttle. And time ticked down…
I’ll spoil things here and say that it turns out the objectives show up on story cards on any deck. What?!
Proximity Alert!
Between searching through rooms and collecting mission tokens, danger crept closer and closer. With a carefully played card, the creature was sent back in flames!
Naturally, this is only a temporary measure, as a final showdown is what ultimately decides victory. And I didn’t make it, thanks to hanging around A-deck half the time.
I know… This all sounds like I was just upset over a misunderstanding, but the rulebooks were confusing.
Flipping around and finding that some icons just weren’t clearly defined was another horror-related element.
In Another Life
Ignore the fact that I used the wrong tokens to cover up the objectives… Only when I was cleaning up did I find the correct markers in a pile I thought was for multiplayer.
Cameron perished as the timer ran out and he was racing for the shuttle. He was almost to C-deck at that point. Blame the ship’s cat for being all too confusing to find!
There is so much potential here hampered by rulebook confusion and some odd graphic design choices.
I wanted to get into this one, yet I’ll have to be content watching one of the best sci-fi horror movies instead!
Getting Kind of Close
Mission tokens told a story of some competence… Only the coolant level wasn’t at its minimum, and that was due to bouncing around already explored rooms on A-deck.
This was a neat mechanic that allowed a few choices in the order of bonuses and what to work towards.
Even the halon gas, which isn’t a requirement, can be immensely useful during the final showdown. Sadly, I didn’t make it to that point. Goodbye, Valley Forge.
I will continue to say that there are fantastic elements here, yet it just doesn’t feel like a finished solo experience.
Session Overview
Play Number: 2
Expansion 1: Lifeform: Dragon’s Domain
Expansion 2: Lifeform: Thirteenth Passenger
Accessory: Lifeform: Playmat
Solo Mode: Included in Lifeform: Dragon’s Domain
Play Details: Standard Difficulty Level
Outcome: Loss
Maybe it would have panned out, and I certainly could have tried again. However, it was pretty clear this wasn’t going to be my cup of tea going forward. I’m glad I played it one last time before sending it off to a new home!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
1
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
6
Originality
Design & Theme
6
Quality
Components & Rules
4
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
4
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- The map of the Valley Forge is very interesting and gets across the vastness of the ship’s size and connected paths.
- All of the artwork matches the setting to bring the horror of deep space alive with action-filled card illustrations.
- Dangers exist in many forms to create a terrifying environment where everything that could go wrong already has.
- Mission tokens may be placed in different spaces to control the order of rewards and other bonuses.
- Finding a path from A-deck to the shuttle can take some unexpected turns to avoid terror and other hazards.
- Mitigating bad luck or providing help in different situations exist with trait tokens that can be used at any point.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Solo requires flipping around through both rulebooks, which are very confusingly written with missing icons.
- Gameplay is mostly about having the right icons at the right time with the story cards to complete requirements.
- There are too many different tokens that take away from the clean graphic design and cover up the room names.
- Many components are left out of solo entirely, including the unique abilities each character normally has.
Victory Conditions
Survive to the End
- Overall Goal Progress 0%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the standard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Lifeform? Are there any other solo games in the general sci-fi horror realm that you enjoy? I really wanted to like this one for its setting and storytelling potential, but it fell pretty flat for me. At least I gave it another chance… And lost. Maybe I just need to steer clear of the darkest reaches of space from now on. Watch out! Ha ha!
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