Publisher: IDW Games
Release Date: January 2015
MSRP: $59.99
Designer: Kevin Wilson
Number of Players: 2 to 5
Playing Time: 60 to 90 minutes
Age Rating: 13 and up
Product #: 827714006667 (UPC)
ICv2 Rating: 3 Stars out of 5
"The truth is out there." That phrase defined a pop culture phenomenon that continues to have influence today, more than 20 years later. A phenomenon that IDW continues to keep alive through the medium of comic books, and now board games.
The X Files is an "overlord" style game, pitting the wits of one player against everybody else, who win or lose as a team--a perfectly suitable format for a game about the FBI's weirdness department.
Summary: One player assumes the role of the nefarious "Cigarette Smoking Man," who controls the shadowy conspiracy of the undefined “Syndicate." Nobody knows what they're really up to, apparently not even the smoker himself. What is known is that they really don't want the "Agents" (Mulder, Scully, Skinner, and Krycek) to do their job. The Cigarette Smoking Man obstructs the Agents by secretly playing Syndicate cards on the many X-Files that the Agents try to investigate.
The Agent players must work together, moving their pawns around the country and playing cards of their own. Investigation cards allow them to make progress towards solving an X-File. If they can solve enough X Files before the Cigarette Smoking Man can permanently suppress enough evidence, the Agents win the game.
Originality: In many ways, The X-Files is like any overlord-style game. The heroes move around the board trying to progress their own storyline while the overlord uses his resources to try to stop them. But what makes this game different is the fact that the overlord player does not directly control anything. Instead, he sits back and plots, using his cards to hamper the agents without ever directly attacking them. This is both very appropriate to the theme of the game, and an interesting variant on the style.
Presentation: IDW Games has drawn upon its connection to the comic side of things by inserting excellent comic book art throughout the entire game. The rulebook, cards, even the box all has delightfully dark and eerie art offering surprisingly good likenesses for the characters of the television show. The box does an excellent job of communicating the idea behind the game and the type of action you can expect while playing. The rulebook is made to look like a file folder, with Mulder's notes paper-clipped inside. And the best part: Each agent has his or her own little wallet with FBI ID and badge, that doubles as a player aid during the game.
I did have one big disappointment with the presentation, however. The centerpiece of the game is the map of the US with cards representing the X-Files that Mulder and Scully investigated in the show. But unlike all of the other cards, the X-File cards do not have beautiful illustrations. Instead, simple flat maps of the US with a region highlighted to show where it should be played. Having artwork showing something about the X-File in question would have gone a long way towards building the atmosphere of the game, and I think this was a lost opportunity.
Quality: The material quality of the game is, however, excellent. The box is sturdy and heavy, with a very nice linen finish. The game board is nice and thick, fully wrapped, and also linen-finished. Playing tokens are thick, and it includes a nice black linen bag to draw tokens from during play. The playing cards are very good and should stand up well to repeated play. All in all, there is nothing to complain about in this department, despite the hefty price point.
Marketability: The X-Files TV show has not been on the air for a long time, but the show continues to resonate with fans, who fondly remember the show and the themes it explored, and the comics themselves have been enjoying some success. So, the game has a built-in fan base in that respect. While the game is worth the price, its high tag might discourage some from picking up what is otherwise a worthy title.
Overall: Playing The X-Files is fun. With its low level of complexity and quality components it makes a worthy introduction to the overlord genre of games. The game length is just about right, not overstaying its welcome while still offering enough depth to keep players engaged. The victory conditions for the two sides are surprisingly well balanced. So, overall, the game play is quite good. Unfortunately, the game system doesn't make the players feel like they are investigating the paranormal. It feels like playing a game. Opportunities to make the experience more immersive were missed, and the investigation elements are reduced to game mechanics.
The X-Files is a solid and well-balanced overlord game that can easily be played in an afternoon or evening. It's eerie and mysterious theme spawned gorgeous graphics and artwork, but it fails to really draw the player into the paranormal world of the X-Files. Easily good enough to play at least a few times, I give this game 3 out of 5.
--William Niebling