Twisted, dirty, a barrel full of fun
THUNDER ROAD: VENDETTA
Designer: Dave Chalker, Brett Myers | Publisher: Restoration Games
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗ 4
Command boards
◗ 12 Dashboards
◗12 Cars
◗ 4 Choppers
◗ 16 Movement dice
◗ 5 Road tiles
◗1 Finish Line tile
◗
20 Damage tokens
◗ 26 Hazard tokens
◗ 4 Wreck figures
◗ 1 Road die
◗ 1 Stunt die
◗ 1 Shooting die
◗ 1 Slam die
◗
1 Direction die
Don’t let fun become a dirty word. I did once, po-facedly declaring that games weren’t about anything as facile as fun. My mistake was asserting that fun was one singular thing, beneath the consideration of a great mind™ like mine. Sometimes fun can be silent flow, the fun of a brain pushed to work at its best, or it can be the kind of rambunctious abandon you get when playing Thunder Road: Vendetta:
Raucous, chaotic, cacophonous and full of adrenaline. The healthy dose of the fun that dare not speak its name: Schadenfreude.
Thunder Road harkens back to those wonderful George Miller and Paul Bartel movies: A blighted landscape living on the fumes, both from an environmental and automotive perspective.
Each player controls three-souped up vehicles which are controlled by four dice. Roll the dice and allocate one to each vehicle to show how far they’ll move this turn. The last die is used to access your special powers, such as giving your car a nitro boost, the ability to swerve out of the way of inevitable collisions or send a message up to your pal in the chopper above to take out one of your opponents.
There is a lot of player interaction in Thunder Road, but it’s not just those lowlifes in the other cars you have to worry about; the road itself is full of hidden perils that could blow off a tire or flip you over. If all of your cars end up off the road, you’re out of the game. If you’re the last one standing or cross the finishing line first you can claim victory, as you watch the sun set over mangled wreckage of your opponent’s vehicles.
Every element of the game has been thought through and rigorously tested. The way the tracks are laid out and their variety mean that you can tailor every game you play to what you want at that moment. The collision mechanisms are gloriously chaotic with the way they chain off each other, resulting in crash after hilarious crash, it’s perfectly ludicrous.
There is thought here too though. You can plan your turns, reacting tactically to the machinations of your opponents to exact revenge on the sod who crashed into you last turn.
What really puts this game over the edge though is the story it tells, all of it emerging from the actions of the players. Thunder Road spins wonderfully evocative narratives that all you need is the film reel rolling in your mind’s eye. However, sometimes the dice rolls will go against you and you’ll find yourself unceremoniously dumped out of play, which is why I can’t rate this a ‘Must Play.’ If you are insistent on perfect information, this game will definitely rub you up the wrong way, but for everyone else this game is a chaotic joy.
Don’t let fun become a dirty word. Play Thunder Road and let fun be charred, bruised and slathered in motor oil.
BEN MADDOX
WE SAY
A rollicking good time that is designed so well that you can’t fail but have fun.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED BLOOD BOWL...
Both of these cleverly designed games recognize the sheer, visceral joy that can be had at the roll of the die.