SNAP Review – Obelus

There is something simply elegant about the obelisk. It stands tall against the sky, a simple form, yet weirdly noble.

Are you okay? They’re just giant carved rocks.

Yes, but… When you look at them, aren’t you filled with wonder?

I’m filled with a crick in my neck from trying to look up to the top of them. Unless you have the tabletop version.

This is a SNAP review for Obelus.

Game

Obelus is an abstract strategy game for two players, ages 8 and up. It was designed by Chris Williams and published by Phase Shift Games.

The box says it’s “Shifting strategies in a timeless realm”… but, it actually plays in under 15 minutes!

Art

This little box packs a big punch when it comes to the art. As hinted at on the box cover, there are these really pretty four-sided obelisk dice, in both black and white.

There are also eight Conflux cards. These are a really unusual irregular octagon shape and they have a cool holographic finish on them.

Lastly, there are also eight Rift tokens. These kind of remind me of cherry cough drops, with a swirl of darker red inside.

Mechanics

So the pieces are all really nice. But what do we do with them? Let’s go over the mechanics of how to play the game.

Set out the Conflux cards in a rough circle, and place a Rift token on just one of them. Then one player takes the black Obelisk dice, and the other takes the white.

There are actually two modes to play once everything is set up; we’re going to describe Chaos mode first.

Both players roll all their dice, re-rolling any 4s. Place all the dice in the center of the circle. Then the player with the higher total chooses who will go first.

On your turn, you either summon an obelisk, or shift one.

To summon, take one of your obelisks from the center and place it on an unoccupied Conflux card – that means no other obelisk and no rift token. Leave the obelisk at the same value it had when it was in the center.

To shift an obelisk, move it around the circle – in either direction – exactly as many cards as the value on the die. You may pass over obelisks of your own color, but not land on them. You may land on an obelisk of your opponent’s color, but you cannot pass over one.

And you MUST always take the full movement. If you can’t move the full amount, you can’t move this obelisk.

After finishing the movement, change the value of this obelisk to any other value – even a 4.

There are special rules for a obelisk with value 4 – each player can only have a maximum of one of these at a time, and they can’t be landed on or banished, except by another 4.

Banishing and Re-Forming

Speaking of banishing… If you landed on an opponent’s obelisk, you banish it. Move the banished obelisk above, or outside, the Conflux card. It’s out of play unless it can be re-formed.

So.. how do we re-form it?

Re-form an obelisk by either summoning or shifting one of your obelisks to the conflux card where it was formerly banished. Then take the banished obelisk, re-roll it, and place it in the center.

When you re-form an obelisk, you also place a Rift token on that Conflux card. If you can’t place it there, place it on the next closest available card. A Rift token means that obelisks can no longer be summoned to that location.

End Game

Keep taking turns until one player cannot either summon or shift an obelisk on their turn. Their opponent wins the game!

That’s the CHAOS game. The PURE game has no rolling of the obelisk dice. Instead you set them to any value you want when you summon them.

Expectations

What did we expect from Obelus?

We have a good number of smaller two-player abstract games, and I expected to enjoy taking this one on dates or any other situation where you and I actually get to spend time together.

I really like small box games for two players. But I knew nothing else about this one except that it had pretty dice.

Surprises

Did this game surprise you?

I was surprised at just how beautiful this game was, and how timeless it feels. This really feels like a much bigger abstract game. It has a lovely presence on the table, and the rules are fairly simple, but they leave a lot of room for strategy.

I was surprised at just how easily you can lose if you’re not paying attention. The rules are relatively simple, but you do need to stay engaged and pay attention to what’s happening around each of your dice. It is a little bit of a head smacker when you do get pinned down quickly, because you always know – I – you should have known better than that.

It surprises me, that I think I’d put Obelus in the same category as games like Quarto, or Deblockle, or Shobu – games that look just gorgeous on the table, and that we keep coming back to over and over again because of the simple rules and the really satisfying feel of moving the pieces around.

But in some ways it actually wins out because this box is small enough that you can put it into a purse or a handbag, or I could throw it into a backpack, with no problems.

Recommended

If you like two player abstract games, we highly recommend Obelus. It’s fast moving, it’s beautiful, and you’ll want to play it over and over again.

We’re going to give Obelus 4½ obelisks out of 5.

And that’s Obelus – in a SNAP!

Find Obelus on Amazon, direct from Phase Shift Games, or at your friendly local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Obelus from Phase Shift Games for this review.

This post contains affiliate links, which do not change your price, but help support The Family Gamers.

SNAP review music is Avalanche, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors?