YORKTON - There are games that just scream ‘you will like me’.
Of course sometimes the scream is really you stubbing your toe up against an underachieving game you so wanted to like.
Welcome to Distilled a 2023 release from designer Dave Beck and Paverson Games.
Distilled was very much anticipated.
The game is based on players creating ‘spirits’ the drinkable kind – gin to rum and more. That in itself sounded cool.
“Distilled is a highly thematic strategy card game about crafting spirits in a distillery, with resource management and push-your-luck elements. In the game, you have inherited a distillery and are hoping to someday achieve the title of master distiller through purchasing goods, building up your distillery, and creating the world's most renowned spirits,” details a description from the designer.
“Use cards to purchase new ingredients and invest in upgrades to your distillery, all while eventually distilling the spirit and sending it to the warehouse. Once in the warehouse, age your spirit to enhance its flavour and bottle it to sell it for major profits!
“Achieve the title of Master Distiller by having the most victory points at the end of the game. Points are obtained by distilling and selling spirits.”
Beck said the theme is rather unique suggesting via email Distilled is “the first ever strategy game about alcoholic spirits like whisky, gin, and vodka.”
Beck went on to note the game is “a medium-weight, heavily thematic game . . .
“I want people to have a strategic and aesthetic experience when playing, while also perhaps learning something too!”
The box front was clean and inviting.
The art by Erik Evensen is wonderful.
The rule book is nice, with lots of art, and includes a separate booklet ‘First Taste’ a guide for new players.
It all looked so good, but aesthetics are only part of a game’s appeal. It has to be fun to play.
So three Meeple Guilders dove into this one, and it’s safe to say none of us were anyway near being blown away by the game play of Distilled.
It sort of ranged from underwhelmed acceptance to being uncaptured by game play. By mid game the interest in the game was about on a level with Monopoly which resides at the bottom of the list of games.
Now to be fair it can sometimes be that expectations for a particular game are higher than they should be, and it can be difficult for game play to match those expectations. I suspect there is some of that at play here – at least for one Meeple Guilder.
But, game play seemed lacking.
For example, there are some really neat ‘premium market cards’ you can acquire in the game, but generally they seemed too difficult to obtain to add much to the game.
There was also a randomness of losing cards when making a spirit that really took the blush off this game. It is no doubt realistic that you can make a batch of gin and have it go bad, so there is likely some realism to the game play.
However, we have learned overtime that being realistic does not equate to fun game play. There are elements of realism to Stone Age, but it stands out as a poster boy for a game that might reflect reality but is not much fun – at least at our table.
Distilled is sort of joining Stone Age in that regard.
But Beck calls it the best element in the design “taking the top and bottom card from your recipe, to simulate the heads and tails of distillation, that distiller's remove due to them being impure.”
In fact the game was born out of a real experience.
“I was in Scotland, touring lots of distilleries and playing lots of games. One night, I couldn't sleep, and the idea for the central game mechanic came to me as a great thematic tie-in to the games,” said Beck.
This is a great looking game, with all the presentation elements to draw attention and give the hope of a fun experience, but it didn’t quite deliver once on the table for us.
