Frankenstein’s Bodies

Frankenstein’s Bodies is a fun game where you are playing as a surgeon, trying to be the first to put together two bodies made from random body parts. Your aim? To try and get the attention of Baron Frankenstein.

But you will have to watch your fellow surgeons as they might tamper with your bodies, by stealing pieces or infecting them. If you can match gender and serum colour, this will help you gain bonuses at the end of the game.

Components

I have mixed views on the components for Frankenstein’s Bodies. I do like the cards you use for the body parts and they are the best quality components in this game, as they are detailed pictures of body parts without being overly grotesque and they all go well together.

The qualitly of the cards are good but the other components in this game let it down. The score sheet and the player mats are made of thin cardboard that bend easily and give off a cheap feel, but the artwork on them does take your mind of that while you are playing the game.

The tokens are nice and of a bit higher quality with bright colours and clear pictures on them, but the backs are a plane cardboard. It would be nice if they had a finish on the back as well. Even the rule book looks underwhelming as it just looks like several pieces of paper stapled together with no front cover.

Gameplay

Once you have chosen your operating theatre the starting player will draw two cards from the ‘daily delivery’ pile, either two blind or one of the face up cards and one blind card. These cards can be a body part or an action card.

The body part cards come in male and female and four different colours (red, blue, green and yellow.) The more you match gender and colour the more points there worth at the end. The action cards will either assist you in helping you make your bodies or hinder your opponents whilst making their bodies.

There are master surgeons cards that will allow you to protect any body parts you remove on your table or an opponent’s table from becoming infected. Other cards within Frankenstein’s Bodies include:

• The Deflection Card – This can stop another player from stealing a piece of your body, or from giving you an infected body part.
• The Surgery Card – This allows you to remove a specific body part from your own table or from an opponent’s.
• The Body Quality Card – This will earn you more points for that body part when scoring.
• The Carbolic Spray Card – This removes the infection from a single body part.
• The Relocate Surgeon Card – This allows you to move one of your master surgeon cards to another body part.

The raid disposal pit (discarded cards) allows you to search for a specific card of your choice. They can help you or help to sabotage another player. You can either keep the cards in your hand for later or place them on your board to start assembling your body, once everyone has done this the round ends and you begin the next round.

You will keep going placing body parts or playing action cards until someone has two complete bodies or the card deck has run through twice.

Final Thoughts on Frankenstein’s Bodies

Frankenstein’s Bodies is a fun game to play. I enjoy that you can mess with your opponent’s bodies while trying to build your own. It’s good that you don’t need to have the bodies perfectly matching, but if you do you get bonus points at the end.

I do wish some of the components were of better quality and that the rule book was easier to understand, but all in all Frankenstein’s Bodies is a good game. You can pick this game in our onlne store.