Deep Regrets Preview

Review by Lincoln Hoppe: The Game Bard

Deep Regrets is a brilliant, wickedly twisted, deeply strategic game, drenched in theme, with unsettling creatures and salty mechanics lurking under the briny surface. Was I hooked from the beginning? I shore was. Let’s sea why. 

Deep Regrets is the fishing game I didn’t even know I needed. And believe me. I need it.

But is it just a Fishing game? No, I promise you that. the creatures that lurk in the water range from a few of your everyday expected sea dwellers, to unspeakably lovecraftian monsters that are just as hard to rip your eyes away from,  as they are to look at. Each beautiful card seems to be a paradox in and of itself. You can’t tear your eyes away, but the longer you look, the more you regret it.

And that, is delightful.

The name Deep Regrets describes one of the game’s core mechanics. When you catch or sell certain sea creatures of a foul nature, your regret increases on the regret tracker. This has the strategic up-side of increasing how many dice you can roll to take more actions and catch more fish while at sea, but it has the down side of lowering the exchange price of fair catches, while on the upside increasing the price of foul catches. But if you get too much regret, all is not well in the end.

On the surface, it’s got really great mechanics seamlessly woven into the them that keep you coming back for more, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

At the beginning of each round you have to make a choice. You can go to sea and catch some really weird stuff,  or you can go to port and sell those sea creatures to buy rods, reels, supplies and dice. And either way, you’ll regret it. Just kidding. It’s awesome.

You’re building an engine here, but as you do, you have to manage your regrets… because regrets affect all of your catching, selling, and engine building choices.

See, regrets are bad. Or good. Depending on your strategy. And you can bounce back and forth between accruing regrets or getting rid of them. It’s up to you.

And by the way, each regret card has flavor text that you must not overlook. I beg you, for your own enjoyment, read them.  In the end you can string your  flavor text regrets together to tell the dark compelling story of your salty sailor.

There’s a really interesting puzzle of balancing when to take on regrets, when to get rid of them, and when to risk being the most regretful of all the Anglers at the table. Because having the most regrets at the table in the end does not go unpunished.

Because at sea, no one can hear you scream. That doesn’t sound right.

There are some creatures that have instant effects when flipping them over.

And these multi-use sea creature cards can also give you an instant bonus for eating them, instead of selling them. Not that you’d want to. But yeah, you’ll want to.

And each creature is unique. Which means you’ll probably never even see them all in any single game.

You score end game points by the total monetary value of all creatures caught at sea , modified by your regret tracker, and you get score multipliers for any permanently mounting creatures in one of three slots above your player board. Yeah, I’d show that baby off!

And let’s not overlook the Kraken in the room.

The art of Deep regrets is gorgeous, yet so delightfully slightly  disturbing . This is not  Everdell. This is not Wingspan. The only warm fuzzies you’ll get come from the pit in your seafaring stomach from all the regrets. And from the shear fun of playing this game.

From theme and mechanics, to art and flavor text. It’s a sea that I didn’t know I wanted to swim in. But I do! I really do.

I’ve played this game at 1, 2, 3 and 4 players, and it’s always a deeply rewarding experience… full of regrets. I swear, I can’t help it.

The truth is, the regrets in this game are so fun. And it’s the immersion in the theme that makes these regrets so fun and rewarding. They don’t stick out as tacked on. They are so woven into the mechanisms of this game and fundamentally part of the joy of the experience. 

Deep Regrets is craziest combination of delight and regret I’ve every experienced. The delight is real. The regret is thematic. And fun is baked in.

Deep Regrets. It’s a beautifully thematic, mechanically tight, playfully unsettling, sea voyage of a lifetime.

Because… (reads from Regret cards)..

“I pushed a shipmate overboard, Never apologized, Goaded an angry Walrus, and never learned to whistle.”

by Lincoln Hoppe

Prototype copy provided by Tettix Games

Publisher: Tettix Games

Designer: Judson Cowan

Art: Judson Cowan

Board Game Geek Page: Deep Regrets

My Board Game Geek Page: Lincoln Hoppe