Nemesis Lockdown Review

What horrors await within?

Awaken Realms’ latest addition to the Nemesis franchise delivers a fresh take on tabletop terror!

Awaken Realms’ latest iteration of their survivor horror franchise, Nemesis Lockdown brings more of the familiar thrills, betrayal and fear inducing paranoia that propelled the original Nemesis to the top of gamers lists and adds a little salt, which, depending on your tastes, could be exactly what you needed, or a dash too much.

Nice Mars base you got there, be a shame if something happened to it!

Nemesis Lockdown is a stand alone sequel to the original Nemesis game released back in 2020. (Yeah, I know, BoardGameGeek says its a 2018 title, but this is a crowdfunded game we’re talking about here and since it didn’t reach most gamers hands until 2020, I’m going with that). For those who are unfamiliar, Nemesis is a semi-cooperative survival horror game set aboard the titular space faring vessel. Players take on the roles of crew members abruptly awakened from hibernation to face ship full of corporate deceptions, system malfunctions and unknown horrors, which are often also in the form of corporate deceptions. In Nemesis Lockdown, events follow the original game with a new group of characters on a Mars installation, where, following contact with survivors of the original Nemesis crew, a new breed of alien horrors now lurk in the dark and unnecessarily steam filled corridors of this isolated facility. I like to think that Nemesis Lockdown is to James Cameron’s Aliens what the original Nemesis was to Ridley Scott’s Alien, the action has now moved from a claustrophobic ship in deep space, to an overrun civilian facility on a hostile planet.

So far so good, let’s just stay right here.

If you’ve never played the original, then fear not, there’s no need to have played that title before getting into Lockdown, almost all of the original’s core elements remain unchanged and there are even a few rough edges that have been smoothed over. Additionally, Nemesis Lockdown, being based in a facility, has a number of new challenges to contend with, adding great thematic depth and separates Lockdown from its sibling without over complicating what some feel was already a robust, if not slightly bloated collection of game systems.

I’ll solve this Intruder problem, with science!

I won’t go into too much detail about the existing gameplay, for that I’ll direct you to my original Nemesis review published here at Game Kings. This review will be focusing on the new elements Lockdown adds to the experience. As such, the first and perhaps most significant change is the setting itself. The Mars facility allows for a new environmental threat in the form of Mars’ hostile surface. One of the new avenues of escape is to flee the facility to a bunker on the surface, but to get there requires either taking the rover vehicle or ensuring you have an Enviro-Suit to walk there by foot. As a result, should the rover be unavailable, then players will need to seek out the Enviro-Suit or find make their way to the isolation room, or escape in one of the CSS (Cargo Sending System) pods, providing they haven’t already been launched.

Yeah, of course I’ll keep the engine running, you take your time….

The facility is also multi level, which means player will have to ascend or descend depending on their need, this can be done by using the stairs, which are always considered to be in darkness, which becomes important in regard to noise or the elevator, which, unless you’re the janitor character, requires power to function. Speaking of power, this is another new element in Lockdown, as the base is on emergency power, there isn’t enough to run the entire facility at once, so power will often need to be redistributed to the relevant sections. This can affect other game systems such as noise. In Lockdown, noise tokens are removed from corridors in any powered section where there is not currently a character in a connecting room. This alleviates one of my few complaints of the original Nemesis in that noise tokens quickly became overwhelming, leaving characters stuck with no chance of escape. Now, with a little careful planning, this mechanic can be leveraged to the players’ advantage by redistributing power in order to clear a path to their objective.

How’d they get in? Intruder front door.

Another new feature in Nemesis Lockdown are Contingencies. These are additional hidden information tokens that represent the devious corporate motivations of the mysterious company behind the curtain. Players have the option to attempt to investigate to determine these contingencies during gameplay, but doing so will take valuable time and action space from other more urgent matters of survival. This requires players to strike a careful balance between dealing with an immediate threat now versus a possible threat later.

It’s not much, but it’s honest work.

Characters and creatures from the original Nemesis or the Aftermath, and Carnomorph expansions can be mixed and matched with the content from Nemesis Lockdown so if you have the previous game you can freely play the Captan or the Pilot in Lockdown for example, the latter character has a new deck of cards that make her workable in the Mars facility environment. This ability to expand and try new combinations of creatures, characters and settings offers up an abundance of replay-ability to an already content rich system. Nemesis Lockdown has been described by Awaken Realms as the ‘first’ expansion to Nemesis, but even if a second one never happens, there is already enough content in print to fulfil most players’ desires for fresh adventures.

Amazing detail, you can admire them as they tear you apart.

While Lockdown has managed to add to and refine the original’s gameplay in many ways, I fear that some of the new game systems may end up a little much for many players. There was already a lot to keep track of in the original game, but with several new features being added to the mix, it might be a case of the straw that broke the camels back for those players who were already struggling to keep track of everything. That being said, as with the original, the theme helps to make sense of these new systems. While they might be new to the game, they represent standard sci-fi tropes which most fans of the genre should be able to conceptualise during the game.

We’d like to speak to you about your car’s extended warranty.

No discussion about Nemesis Lockdown would be complete without addressing the elephant Intruder in the room. The creature minis are on par with the previous game’s exceptional quality. Large scale, beautifully detailed pointy boys who seem to be all wings and claws this time around. The flavour text in the rule book describes these leathery beasties as the original Intruders’ final form which they never managed to attain during their time on board the Nemesis. While the create design makes that connection a dubious one at best, as there seems to be little resemblance between the two variants, who cares? The minis look amazing and they add something new to look at (or dread) on the board. Other component are mostly the same with the bright yellow acrylic noise tokens, clear glass trackers, and red cubes representing ammo or charges for weapons and items. One very welcome improvement is the hit point dials for creature damage, no more awkward piles of red cubes scattered about the creature bases, now you simply turn the dial up a notch!

Power generators are fire proof, right?

Thematically, Nemesis Lockdown was the logical next step for the franchise, taking the action from the ship to the facility holds true to the game’s sci-fi horror influences while maintaining the expected level of tension and sense of isolation the original encapsulated so well. Should they create another game in the series, it would be interesting to see where Awaken Realms took things next, aliens planets? Urban earth environments? There are as many possibilities as there are film and pop culture properties to draw from. But if this is the end for now, then it makes for a sequel worthy of the name Nemesis.

Note to self: Science failed, shoulda’ used a gun.

What are your thoughts on the Nemesis games? Do you have a favourite? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below and as always if you have any feedback for me here at Above Board, please get in touch at aboveboardnz@gmail.com. See you out there!