SNAP Review – Unmatched: Jurassic Park – Dr. Sattler vs. T. Rex

This is a SNAP review for Unmatched: Jurassic Park – Dr. Sattler vs T. Rex.

Game

Jurassic Park: Dr. Sattler vs T. Rex is a two-player game in the Unmatched series. It has a lot in common with other games in the Unmatched series – it takes about 20 minutes to play, and is rated for ages 14 and up. This stand-alone game can also be mixed with any other Unmatched set. (Just like all the other Unmatched sets.)

As you can guess from the title, this set pits the iconic T-Rex against Dr. Sattler and her sidekick Dr. Malcolm.

Art

This set comes with a single game board: the T-Rex paddock. It’s darkly colored with touches (like a broken down Jeep and a lit flare) that reminds us of the iconic Jurassic Park movie.

The mini and cards for Dr. Ellie Sattler befit her role as a young but serious scientist, fighting for her life against the dinosaurs. Her sidekick Dr. Ian Malcolm is a bit… less serious.

But that’s not what we’re REALLY here to talk about, is it?

No, the star of this set is in fact, the T-Rex.

The figurine for T-Rex is so large we can’t even call it a “miniature”. It has special rules, because it takes up TWO spaces on the game board. – Just look at that thing!

Mechanics

A quick reminder on how to play Unmatched, in genreal. The goal of the game is to take out the opposing player’s hero by attacking them until their health drops to zero.

On your turn, you normally get two actions. With each action, you may either maneuver (draw a card and then move any or all of your figures), or play a card. If the card is a Scheme, its effect is carried out immediately. If it is an attack, your opponent has a chance to play a defense card. Then resolve any immediate effects, during-combat effects, or after-combat effects on both the attack and defense cards.

In addition to their unique cards, every character also has a special ability that changes some aspect of how they approach the game.

There are a few mechanics that are different in this set. T-Rex is a “large” fighter (“I’d call her an EXTRA LARGE fighter!” “You’re going to make her feel self-conscious!”). She occupies up to two spaces, as shown by the elongated base on the figure. And she has a ton of health. This thing (hit point dial) is huge! 27 hit points!

Since she’s so big, she can attack spaces that are up to 2 spaces away, not just the adjacent spaces. She also draws a card at the end of her turn – but her normal movement is only one space.

Dr. Sattler and Dr. Malcolm can place “Insight” tokens every time they move, up to a max of 5 on the board. These tokens can be activated by various cards for different effects – extra damage to an attack, healing, moving, things like that. It’s a bonus that’s especially helpful in evading and attacking a powerful opponent like T-rex!

Expectations

We love Unmatched (it might be our family’s favorite game), and we’ve enjoyed the other Jurassic Park set, Raptors vs. Ingen. So we were excited to find out what this set held, and try face-offs between the T-Rex and some of our other favorite characters.

This has been a hotly anticipated set, and boy oh boy were we excited. Once we saw the size of T-Rex, she just looks unstoppable!

Is there any way to beat her?

Surprises

I found a strategy with the T-Rex that seemed to work every time. She’s ruthless, right? So play her that way!

Her movement is one, but there’s no restriction on the boosting of her maneuvers and of her movement. So you can actually get anywhere on the board fairly easily. Combine that with her brutal attacks and I’ve never lost with her. I don’t know if it’s broken, but it’s definitely an effective way to play.

T. Rex is awesome, but I was surprised just how much I like playing with Dr. Sattler. The insight tokens can be used really powerfully with the right cards, and the cards were aweseome reminders for me of my favorite moments in the original Jurassic Park movie. “Woman Inherits the Earth” and “The Future Ex-Mrs. Malcolm” make me chuckle every time.

Recommended?

I think people can probably guess, but I’m going to have to ask this question: Do we recommend this Unmatched set?

If you like Jurassic Park, you’ll like this set. If you already love Unmatched, you’ll enjoy exploring new ways to use a large hero. Who hasn’t secretly wanted to be a dinosaur who could bite people’s heads off? – I know, right?

If you’ve never played Unmatched before, we’d bet you’ll immediately pulled in to this struggle between dinosaur and man (ahem, woman).

We are a little concerned that the T. Rex has an edge on existing Unmatched characters, BUT I was able to beat her once.

The original Jurassic Park movie was rated PG-13, and this game is rated 14+. T-Rex is pretty scary, and there’s a lot of reading in the game. But we think most 10 year olds will gleefully jump in if they get a chance to play as a terrifying dinosaur. (Who wouldn’t, right?)

What are we going to rate Unmatched: Jurassic Park – Dr. Sattler vs. T. Rex?

We’re going to rate this one 4 1/2 out of 5 terrifying roars.

And that’s Unmatched: Jurassic Park – Dr. Sattler vs. T-Rex in a SNAP!

(What do you call a blind dinosaur’s dog? A “did-you-think-he-saur-us” rex!)

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Unmatched: Jurassic Park – Dr. Sattler vs. T. Rex from Restoration 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?