Will You Be the Last One Standing? A Kickstarter First Look

With the success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite, battle royale games have been sweeping through the video game industry, with more and more games including this mode. Even Red Dead Redemption 2 is expected to feature some battle royale multiplayer action. Now the genre is coming to board games in Last One Standing, currently on Kickstarter.

Gameplay

The game board is randomly created with the use of multiple land tiles and loot crates are distributed throughout. Land tiles feature several different types of terrain: plains, water, forest, towers, and walls. Players cannot move through water unless equipped with scuba gear and cannot move through walls unless equipped with climbing gear. Players can also not shoot through walls, since they block the line of sight. Standing on a tower tile adds one to your range, while standing in the forest makes you harder to hit. Forests also take two movement points to move through rather than one.

Turn order is determined each round by weight. Players carrying less weight will go before players carrying more weight, with different equipment weighing different amounts.

At the start of each round, a land tile is removed from the game and a card is drawn that marks which land tile will be removed next round, then a loot token is added to the map.

Each player then takes a turn, performing one of three actions. You can shoot at an opponent in range who is in line of sight. Line of sight is determined by drawing an imaginary line from the center of your tile to your target's tile. If half or more of the tile is visible, it is in line of sight. If that tile is also within your weapon's range, then you can shoot. If a target is hard to hit (due to being in a forest, for example) you must roll a die — if you roll three or higher it hits, and the opponent takes damage. Other actions you can take on your turn are to play a one use item card, or to move up to five spaces. If you end your movement on a loot token, you draw loot cards equal to the number written on the token. If you currently have any empty equipment spaces on your character mat, you may place loot cards you draw onto it, otherwise it goes into you hand. After each player has taken an action, each player takes a second action following the same turn order.

Equipment cards are placed on your player mat facedown, and when you use them you turn them face up to show that they cannot be used a second time this round. At the end of the round, players 'reload' their used equipment cards by flipping them facedown again and can also switch out equipment on their player mat with those in their hands.

Each player starts the game with ten health. Once you hit zero, you are out of the game and drop all your loot where you died, other players can come and pick it up. The last player left alive, wins.

First Impressions

Last One Standing does a great job of including all the staples we’ve come to expect from battle royale games: the game area slowly shrinks, you can pick up loot from the bodies of other players, and even the game’s story has you parachuting onto the board.

Having your weight determine your turn order is a really clever idea that should make choosing which loot to equip a much tougher decision than just taking whichever weapons are the most powerful. With 136 loot cards included in the game, there should also be a nice variety.

The rules actually seem to be pretty straightforward, and something that could have been a complicated tactical fighting game, seems accessible for casual board game fans while the unique theme is appealing in itself. Line of sight rules seem like they could lead to some ambiguous moments, but for the most part the game should be easy to learn, while offering some tough strategic choices.

The game also offers a rule variant for when you have an even number of players, where you are in teams of two, and can revive each other once during the game if you’re killed (but only if the dead player hasn’t been looted yet). You can also exchange loot cards when adjacent to each other. This should offer a new layer to the gameplay.

Last One Standing has a fun look to it, both in its rules and in its art. It’s introducing a fun new idea into board games, an idea that’s been a hit for video games, and it should be interesting to see how the battle royale genre transfers to a new medium. Check it out on Kickstarter and judge for yourself.

Discosure: this preview is based on our first impressions of a draft of the rulebook and game components, which are subject to change prior to publication. We received a modest payment for this article and clicking on the links included here may earn us a small commission.