Above And Below is an inoffensive game that gets by mostly on charm. Its few unique qualities (and they are few) are at best cute and at worst irrelevant. Nevertheless, there is an endearing auteur-like quality to the game due to it being entirely the product of Mr. One-Man Band Ryan Laukat — a game designer, illustrator, publisher, many-hat-wearing ultra-talent. Its whimsical art style, young adult fantasy theme, and storytelling elements are all clear constituents of a broader artistic vision, something rare and highly welcome to see in the board game space. But even so, Above And Below is really nothing special. I can think of no compelling argument in its favor that would elucidate its qualities in a way that gives it an edge against the dozens of equal or better games in its mechanical wheelhouse. In fact, its brief popularity has already been eclipsed by a sequel that came out a mere two years after: Near And Far. However, just because this is a game that may soon be sent adrift amongst the tides of time doesn’t mean it’s not a perfectly pleasant way to spend 60-90 minutes around the dining room table with a friend or two.
No one would ever accuse Ryan Laukat of not doing his homework; he is very evidently a diligent student of modern game design. The mechanical net Above And Below casts is wide and varied, encapsulating an action point system, tableau-building, storytelling, and resource collection into a straightforward game about building villages and exploring caves. Each player guides a small group of workers through seven rounds, assigning them to important tasks such as constructing new buildings, harvesting resources, recruiting new villagers, laboring for coin, and venturing into the dangerous underground caverns for treasure and locations for village outposts. Bear in mind, not all workers are created equally and only select among them have the skills necessary for building or recruiting. Additionally, each has unique dice-roll values which determine their chances of success when exploring the caves below. Explored caves and constructed buildings and outposts form the player’s tableau, providing them with a plethora of benefits such as beds for workers to rest in to be made available for future tasks, goods that can be harvested, additional income and resources, and other standard fare. Players are evaluated at the end of the game on the diversity and quantity of goods they have acquired, buildings they have constructed, and their “Reputation” — a stat primarily determined by the level of success they’ve had adventuring underground.
These adventures are by far the most unique aspect of Above And Below. Every time a player takes the explore action, they send two or more of their brave villagers into a mini choose-your-own-adventure sequence of sorts that is read aloud to them by another player. After the scene is set, they are presented with a choice — typically between some noble action and a cowardly or callous one. The player then rolls some dice to determine if they successfully perform the choice they’ve made, their goal being to use their villagers to generate a number of “Lanterns”, or successes, required by the action. Each villager contributes an amount of lanterns based on their die roll (as eluded to earlier, the amount of lanterns and the minimum roll required differ from villager to villager), and if their collective lanterns meet the stated requirement the player earns some kind of reward. The inclusion of this thematic storytelling system in an otherwise run-of-the-mill euro strategy game is the central selling point of Above And Below. Unfortunately, it’s also a shallow gimmick that in practice has extremely limited mileage and is largely incompatible with strategy game design. The most obvious issue with it is that these storytelling sequences are determined 100% randomly and are completely disconnected from both each other and the rest of the game. Beyond the potential discovery of a new cave it is completely impossible to predict the outcome of any of these adventures, so strategizing or planning around them is widely infeasible. There is a modicum of tactical consideration in trying to optimize whatever it is you do end up getting from these subterranean sojourns, but it’s not particularly rewarding to have the spectrum of your potential success be parameterized by arbitrary benefit payouts than by a proper information system or the actions of other players.
The incongruity between the game’s elements creates a number of other problems as well: weird pacing, shallow decision spaces, gaps in player agency, etc. I’ve seen players waste three of their toughest adventurers by sending them underground only to be met with a scenario where two of the three options didn’t require a single lantern, and the third required very few. It’s hard to commit much thought to operating within the bounds of a construct where such things happen; it quickly saps your motivation. It doesn’t help that outside the choose-your-own-adventure bits the rest of the game feels like a rudimentary worker placement game without the shared board — loosely reminiscent of an extremely watered down take on Caverna. Even still, I don’t mind the game at all. I’d even say I find it enjoyable. It’s a placid, almost meditative experience, reading out the stories to see what happens and slowly watching your village grow. The only way players can even interact with each other is by offering up goods for sale (the inclusion of which feels like the result of some late-stage criticism from play-testers), and the only reason their choices impact each other at all is because buildings and workers are purchased from common pools. Limitations such as these have debased many a game experience to monotony and listlessness, but here, through a charming combination of ease of play and call to adventure, Above And Below manages to escape a similar fate, if only just.
Above And Below is maximum chill, perfect for genre newcomers and those who like to relax, do their own thing, and compare notes at the end. Many of its design decisions don’t hold up well under scrutiny, and it’s not a game I imagine ever having a resurgence in popularity (at least not without a pretty significant overhaul). But if what it’s selling is pleasantness, then it definitely functions as advertised. Its idyllic artwork and inviting theme compliment its tranquil tone, together proving Laukat’s abilities as an all-around tabletop talent. What remains to be seen are his capacity to innovate, push boundaries, redefine standards, challenge his players in exciting new ways, and all the other qualities that separate the good designers from the great. Because while Above And Below definitely gets by on its charm, it’s a far cry away from actually thriving on anything.
Above And Below gets a rating of THREE out of FIVE, indicating it is WORTHWHILE.