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What do you get when you combine the world's most incompetent thieves, average security guards and poorly secured Museum filled with priceless artefacts? Museum Rush; the press your luck, race against the clock board game, where your hope is to please your buyer by pilfering the the largest haul.
Initial Reactions
Museum Rush, by Room 17 Games, has a light-hearted, fun flavor with a comical appearance. As you open the box you'll see that the neatly packed cards, minis and board tiles fit the box well. Browsing the components extends the theme with humorous quotes and images sprawled all across all items.
Components
The box contains the following items:
- A rule book.
- Six thief miniatures.
- Nine guard miniatures.
- 28 room tiles.
- 82 cards used for various purposes.
- 16 unlock tokens.
- Three unique dice.
The thief miniatures represent the player characters. The guard miniatures represent the game characters. The room tiles are used to build the museum (the board). The unlock tokens are green coins with additional game aspects. The dice are labelled 0-5 and are utilised when attempting to unlock secured rooms.
Museum Rush - Playing the Game
To win the game you will need to have the largest amount of stolen loot, each with a dollar value when the time runs out. Once the board and cards have been set-up as instructed play will begin. Each player will "break into" the museum by placing their miniature on the edge of the board. The last person that stole something will then begin play.
Your turn starts by drawing a card from the search deck, which will contain various trick cards that can be used to keep your thief safe (hand limit is seven). There are also six clock cards which will cause the end of the game when a specified number are drawn based on the amount of players.
You then have the ability to move up to three spaces (not diagonally). If you move into a room with a booby trap, camera or guard you need to first process the action for that specific room before continuing to move.
If your player engages a camera without being able to disable it or moves into a room with a booby trap, the closest guard will move two spaces closer to the thief. If there is a guard in the room you are entering you will need to have a way to disable the guard or face being caught. If you have no cards to deal with the guard you have one last ditch attempt to slip away. This can be achieved by rolling a number on a single dice which is higher than the number of loot items you have.
If you are caught you get to keep one card from your hand (item or loot), whilst the balance of the confiscated cards are placed into the vault or lost and found rooms based on type. On your next turn you can re-enter the museum and play your turn accordingly.
The actions you can perform once your movement is complete are as follows:
- Steal loot.
- Attempt to crack a lock.
- Steal from another thief.
- Steal from the vault or lost and found.
All actions, with the exception of stealing from another thief, will move the closest guard two spaces closer. Cracking a lock is achieved by using the dice provided and will more often than not require multiple turns to achieve. Be careful when cracking complex locks.
At any point in the game you can decide to escape and keep the loot that you have already stolen. You cannot re-enter the museum but all of your loot is safe.
Once the final required clock is drawn, all thieves need to escape through various exits created during the game, or risk losing some or all of the loot they have acquired.
Museum Rush - Final Thoughts
There are some cute additional aspects to the game that provide a certain depth, like a hidden stashes and specific interested buyers. Alternate Museum layouts to mimic real life locations are also quite a fun aspect for changing the way the game plays. These help to round out the theme and provide some unique play opportunities.
Museum Rush varies on each play-through, allowing you to press your luck and be rewarded or press your luck and fail miserably. Sometimes it feels as if "dodge the guards, steal the loot" just cannot be done, but this is what provides a fairly good element of replay-ability.
After all is said and done, some incompetent thieves manage to slip past some equally incompetent guards, other times the guards rush and protect their loot. Museum rush is fun and fairly quick to play which makes it an ideal games night starter or finisher.
