Unsurmountable: Conquering a Solo Mountain Challenge
Pick a path to the top of a mountain by laying out the terrain and using abilities across many challenges in Unsurmountable.
Maybe it isn’t exactly time for snow or winter yet, but it seems like I’ve picked up a number of these sorts of games lately! Unsurmountable looked like an interesting card game about finding a path on the treacherous slopes. I was ready to dive in and see what kind of mountains I might encounter on my journey. Let’s just simulate winter for now. Ha!
Game Overview
Game Name: Unsurmountable
Publication Year: 2021
Designer: Scott Almes
Artist: Christy Johnson
Publisher: Button Shy
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
The goal is to set out from base camp and add cards to the mountain, or discard them to use abilities. With a specific pyramid shape in mind and other possible goals, the way to create a path to the top isn’t so easy. A quick play time and clever decisions make it fun to keep on climbing!
First Play
August 26, 2024
Complexity
2
Latest Play
August 27, 2024
Expansions
4
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
34
Play Time
5 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
16" x 14"
Low Score
N/A
A Snowy Landscape
Gameplay is very easy to understand, as it’s about creating a mountain and tracing a path up to the peak. But often, it makes sense to utilize card abilities in the base camp.
I also enjoyed the helicopter card, which is always available to act as a rescue with cycling through the cards.
Whereas a wintry world is something I like to treat as a lovely sight to admire, this is definitely the only way I plan to venture out on a climbing expedition in the snow!
It seemed fairly easy to start building the paths, slowly adding on layers to reach the very top before the end.
Victory Lap
Success! At the easiest difficulty level, there weren’t too many decisions to make. I liked how I got a taste of the mechanics without having to deal with a challenge.
The cards were trickier, though, as there never seemed to be the right assortment of paths going up or down.
I didn’t utilize that many abilities, although I found a few neat ways to help build the mountainside.
Although it might look easy, planning the paths and making sure to save some of the rarer patterns was a lot more involved than I expected. Pretty awesome!
Little Artistic Details
Each card brought a bit of personality to the climb with all sorts of details. The different types of cards featured scenery that added elements beyond simple snow.
I also enjoyed seeing the climbers on various cards! They didn’t have a gameplay effect until the highest difficulty level, but they were still a welcome sight along the way.
Reforming paths or changing my strategy partway through happened a lot in a very enjoyable sense.
Not a lot of abilities triggered, yet figuring out the optimal actions and card order made for a great experience!
Many Difficulty Levels
I seemed to be on a quest to conquer every mountain out there… With multiple difficulty levels, I found myself trying to achieve a victory with each set of challenges.
The first couple of levels felt pretty standard and helped me get into the mechanics, sort of like a basic tutorial.
Yet as I moved into the middle zone of difficulty levels, I felt the tension rise! Getting the symbols in the right places took a lot of careful planning and understanding.
But the rest of the rulebook was far too confusing. I didn’t realize the base camp wasn’t part of the mountain at first.
The Benefits of Many Solo Difficulty Levels
When I first play a solo game, I go in expecting to lose as I get a grasp of the rules and strategies. Winning is something I like to work towards, rather than randomly stumbling across with a bit of luck. In the best cases, I can start off at a low difficulty level without any pressure and work my way up, celebrating my better understanding of the decisions!
This can, of course, lead to a disappointing first experience when the lowest difficulty levels are too easy. I still like to treat those as tutorials, yet these are best in quicker games. When I spend hours playing and thinking I’m learning, only to win by a ridiculous margin with the right rules, it makes it hard to want to return to play again so soon.
Luckily, this is a wonderful example of how it works well! First-time players may want to start a little higher in the levels for a challenge, but I found that everything started to come together around the fourth or fifth difficulty level. So tricky! I needed the right cards, along with a full understanding of how I needed to build the mountain. Very fun!
Rescue Helicopter!
The trick to many of my victories was the helicopter card, which I forgot about once or twice. Being able to place a base camp card at the bottom of the deck was vital!
If anyone is familiar with the movie Cliffhanger, you likely know why I kept yelling, “Frank!” every time I used the helicopter, which was once per play. FRANK!
I liked seeing how gameplay changed tremendously as I moved into the higher difficulty levels, which were great.
For some players, it might actually be best to start around level III to see the sorts of challenges the game offers.
Relentless Pursuit
Oh, I was persistent! When I got to level V, I simply could not replicate an earlier play that technically counted as a victory at this level. But I kept on climbing… And climbing.
With a play time around 5 minutes, I found it easy to start over and try again until I finally put this mountain together. Follow the meandering path to see my success!
It wasn’t easy, and I had to activate abilities to make sure I had a way up to the top of the mountain. But I did it!
Only took me over 20 consecutive plays. Ha! It was a little frustrating, yet I was quite proud of this accomplishment!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1-34
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Play Details: Difficulty Levels I, II, III, IV, & V
Outcome: 8 Wins & 24 Losses
It took some effort to win at the highest difficulty levels, yet that seems to be where the game shines the most. Such a great time! I’m technically at a point where I feel like I’ve gotten everything I can out of the base game, but there’s a whole set of expansions I can move onto next. They seem to be the perfect way to add more elements to these mountains. Should be a perfect winter activity!
%
30 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
9
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
8
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
5
+ Pros (Positives)
- Each difficulty level, particularly the higher ones, provides a different and more challenging sort of puzzle.
- Figuring out how to use the cards to create a mountain takes careful planning and is never exactly the same.
- Little details in the artwork bring the scenes to life and make it all seem like more than a uniform, snowy area.
- Abilities may not be activated too many times during a play, yet they provide a good deal of variety.
- The play area is very compact and it’s easy to figure out how much space will be needed for the card pyramid.
- There are some very interesting things that can be done with the cards, especially when flipped or removed.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Some of the earlier difficulty levels feel too easy, and don’t really provide a full idea of the interesting challenges.
- Although minor, not all of the cards neatly align with the paths, leading to a few odd-looking play areas.
- The base game provides a fun experience at each difficulty level, yet there isn’t enough variety to keep playing.
- Luck can play a major role in getting the right cards in the right order to achieve some of the requirements.
Victory Conditions
Complete the Level Challenge
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at difficulty level I.
Win at least 1 game at difficulty level II.
Win at least 1 game at difficulty level III.
Win at least 1 game at difficulty level IV.
Win at least 1 game at difficulty level V.
Continue the Conversation
How well have you done in Unsurmountable? Have you beaten each difficulty level or tried out any of the expansions? I say I’m done for now… But that’s after playing over 30 times in a couple of days! This is a very fun sort of challenge that I look forward to returning to in the winter with the expansions. For now, I’m sticking with the actual season. Ha ha!
0 Comments