What really makes the game shine, though, is what happens between missions. As with previous games in the series, you’ll run through a deck of cards introducing dramatic new plot elements. You’ll add stickers to the board representing ever-tightening Soviet surveillance, making certain cities more dangerous to visit. But what’s most interesting is the ability to upgrade your characters over time. Each comes with a passport booklet with pages for three different identities, all with their own abilities. Over time you’ll add new powers, letting you fine-tune each agent for tasks like hunting down enemies, sharing information with teammates, or recruiting local operatives.
Choose your secret identity.
Choose your secret identity.
The components.
The full board.
You’ll be able to switch between identities as you play to adapt to the changing situation on the board, and in an inspired touch the game lets you customize your characters’ appearance using layers of stickers. It has no effect on gameplay, but the idea of slapping on a wig and a false mustache to sneak behind the Iron Curtain is undeniably fun.
As you delve deeper into the campaign, the game ramps up its difficulty, and while it’s impossible to go into detail without giving away some important surprises, you can expect to deal with ever-intensifying Soviet schemes and pencil-pushing superiors who seem intent on getting in your way. What begins as a moderately more complicated version of Pandemic morphs into something far meatier and more demanding.
The incremental process of change means you never feel overwhelmed. There are some occasions, though, where it becomes clear midway through a session that you aren’t going to win, and it’s here that Season 0 feels flat, with players aimlessly wandering around the board chasing unobtainable objectives. It feels like going into the second half of a soccer match with your team losing 8-0, although in our campaign it only happened once.
Even when you lose, you’ll progress through the plot. This might mean missing out on some vital intelligence, however, and obtaining and interpreting information can be just as important as what actually occurs on the board. There are smuggled documents, secret plans, eyewitness testimonies, and other clues which you’ll aim to piece together to form a complete picture of what your adversaries are up to.
