This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames.
Game: Unfathomable
Expansion: From the Abyss
Designer: Tony Fanchi/Alexandar Ortloff-Tang
Year: 2021/2024
Country: U.S.A.
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Unfathomable is a reimplementation of the boardgame Battlestar Galactica which I played recently as part of this study project. With Battlestar Galactica, it looks like the publisher had the problem of having an excellent game design tied to a difficult or expiring IP license. Unfathomable is much the same game, but with an Arkham Horror -style pulp Cthulhu theme.
In Unfathomable, the SS Atlantica is braving the high seas, menaced by the Deep Ones and other aquatic monstrosities from the Cthulhu Mythos. The players each have a character on the ship, seeking to stave off the monsters and make it to the port before essentials such as fuel run out. To complicate matters, some of the players are actually playing hybrids, traitors who are actually trying to get them to lose the game.
Social deduction is an important part of the experience, with players trying to figure out who among them are the traitors so that they can be thrown into the brig. Did someone make a suspiciously dumb move, failing to deal with the Deep Ones coming aboard? Maybe they are a hybrid?
I was playing one of the traitors and had the ability to reset the travel track when I revealed myself. Because the travel track measures the progress towards victory for the other players, I tried to time my reveal to a moment when it was as close to the end as possible to maximize the damage. However, the rhythm of the turns was such that it took me a long time to finally find a good moment, in the end revealing myself as we entered the endgame. I’d become worried that I’d made myself too useful by taking out threats because I wanted to look like a dependable, non-traitorous crew member.
Because I’d played Battlestar Galactica so recently, at first Unfathomable felt like a reskin. I was on Galactica which for some reason was dressed in a 1920’s costume. However, as play progressed, the theme of Unfathomable started to feel more real. The wonderful physicality of the monster figures was very helpful. The bigger ones, such as Dagon, look like they’re made to scale with the ship board.
In the end, it felt like we were struggling to stay afloat in a ship that had very unwisely set out to sea in the world of Lovecraft, where that never ends well. Ongoing rituals purge the decks at a regular basis and passengers panic all over the place, making the whole game feel like the climactic final session of a Call of Cthulhu roleplaying campaign.
The implementation of the theme in Battlestar Galactica is so good that it’s almost impossible to beat but Unfathomable made an honorable effort. I’ll single out one mechanic in particular because it was so consistently fun. Every time we gunned the engines and the ship moves faster, all enemies in the sea start to fall behind. Physically, it means their figures are pushed one area towards the rear of the ship. So simple, so effective!
We played with the From the Abyss expansion but since it was my first time playing Unfathomable, I don’t have a clear idea of what the game would have been like without it. The expansion introduces allies, new monsters, new playable characters, items and skills. Only the new monsters, particularly the Drowned Spirit, felt like they made a significant impact on the game, but again that’s probably because a lot of what was new went unnoticed by me.