Bomb Busters – First Impressions
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First Impressions – Design & Components
Right from the start, the game's production quality stands out. The components are sharp, visually striking, and well-organized. Even elements that could have been messy or unclear are designed in a way that makes everything feel intuitive and polished.
Gameplay Overview
Bomb Busters is a cooperative deduction game, reminiscent of Hanabi, where players work together to defuse bombs. The core mechanic revolves around hidden information, logical deduction, and careful communication.
The game includes 66 missions, with the first eight serving as a tutorial. The later missions introduce new twists and challenges through sealed "surprise" boxes that players unlock as they progress.
We played four missions: Three from the tutorial (Missions 1, 4, and 7) Mission 9 (because we really wanted to open that first surprise box!). As the board game adepts that we are, we defeated every one of those missions. And while I do think that playing with 2 players is probably easier, we had a great time trying to get the right guesses and reveals.
Game Flow & Design
The core mechanics of the game are excellent. The first 19 missions mainly introduce small twists to the base game, similar to how
What I love about Bomb Busters is that it isn’t a campaign game in the traditional sense—there’s no ongoing story or character progression. Instead, the game's evolving mission structure keeps things fresh while maintaining a rock-solid core experience.
The only real downside I noticed is the long setup time. The game requires careful sorting and shuffling of components, and I often accidentally knocked over and revealed pieces while setting up. This can be a bit frustrating, but it's acceptable if you take into account that each round in Bomb Busters can take 10+ minutes. that is a nice improvement comparing to The Crew where setup can take a minute or two and some of the rounds might take less than a minute.
Player Count & Experience
We played with two players, and the game worked very well. However, I can already tell that playing with 4-5 players will feel very different, and I’m excited to try it at higher player counts!
Final Thoughts
Bomb Busters is fun, clever, and beautifully designed. It delivers a challenging yet rewarding deduction experience, with just enough surprises to keep things engaging. If you enjoy cooperative puzzle-solving games, this one is highly recommended!
Got a 9 from me, and might be a 10 depending on how cool the rest of the content will be.
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