In this review it is our pleasure to tell you about Eat the Reich, one of the most visionary role-playing games currently on the market. Before anything else we want to say thank you Mana Project Studio for sending us a physical copy of the beautiful manual, the result of Grant Howitt’s unbridled imagination. Let’s talk about the creator of Spire and its spin-off Heart, of which you can read our reviews. However, one should not expect anything conventional from the author of a surreal masterpiece like Honey Heist.
Eat the Reich is available on digital store at Mana Project at a cost of 34.90 euros, not including the digital version which costs 12.90. However, the prints of the map of Paris and the vampire cards are included in the price, real gems which alone greatly increase the value of the product.
Review of Eat the Reich: the Manual
Produced in a format that is halfway between large ones and pocket-sized volumes, Eat the Reich is among the most visually impactful role-playing game manuals of recent years. It has a violent and overwhelming aesthetic which not only makes it stand out, but extraordinarily enhances its contents. The illustrations by Will Kirby, acid colors that mix with a layout style that wants to recall the military dispatches of the Second World War. It may not be the most readable manual you can browse, but it has a unique and simply inimitable style. Just thinking about the fuchsia of the spine of the pages and the title which is based on dark colors that replicate a metal coffin should give you an idea of what we are talking about.
From an artistic point of view the level is simply enormous. Kirby manages to bring a comic style with deliberately rough hatching into each illustration. In this way it makes the line stand out without ever making it disharmonious with the rest of the page, even when the use of color contrasts is rather violent. There is very little to say: Eat the ReichIt is an aesthetically stunning volume. The porous surface of the pages, which have a strong feel of paper compared to other more “plasticky” products, is priceless.
Vampires Hunting Nazis
This game contains: death, violence, serious injury to player and non-player characters, blood, vampirism, mind control, weapons, animated corpses, werewolves, occult magic, fascism, Nazism, and Adolf Hitler (possibly dead).
The introduction of the game is quite explicit, but if there was any doubt about it we will be playing vampires thrown into reinforced coffins on Nazi soil during the Second World War. This is the only way to enter enemy-controlled territory, and vampires are the only ones capable of surviving the impact. The goal is only one: to kill the most hated man in history. Simple and linear. The game has a strong narrative imprint: the master presents the scene and the players try to face it, telling how the characters manage or fail to resolve it.
Always keeping in mind that the aim is to massacre Nazis, because killing fascists is an act of self-defense. The game therefore has strong splatter themes, we could talk about ultraviolence. However, it has a very careful section regarding safety rules, both in terms of managing these extreme traits and in terms of inclusiveness. This is perhaps one of the best sections ever, as required by such an extreme game.
Game Engine Review of Eat the Reich
Eat the Reich, as well as a delightful (literally) play on words, is based on the game system Havoc Engine. Each character has available seven attributes (Seek, Deceive, Sneak, Beat, Repair, Shoot and Terrorize). It is quite clear that, compared to the usual characteristics, these are more of a “mode” with which you eliminate enemies. Each success obtained by rolling the pool of d6s composed thanks to them (i.e. results equal to or greater than 4) allows either to cancel the successes of the opponents, or to lower the difficulty of the challenge.
This introduces a tactical component to the game. We can choose how much to advance the plot and how much to limit damage, keeping the math simple and quick. Obviously there is a large amount of equipment, military and/or vampiric, and special abilities whose use consumes the PC’s blood. Not that it’s a big problem: to restore it you just need to feed on Nazis.
Vampire Commando
The characters are all pre-generated, but they are excellent for the kind of fast-paced, stylish, blood-slow gameplay that the game demands.
- Astrid is a former fighter pilot, who manipulates wild spirits and walks around with a machine gun.
- Chuck, a fan of westerns, fights for his freedom with acid spit and revolver shots.
- Cosgrave, on the run from the undead East London mafia, is a fascinating necromancer.
- Iryna, of noble origins for the vampiric kingdom, can leverage enormous wealth and the occult knowledge of her house.
- Nicole is part of the resistance, and seeks a worthy end in battle with explosives.
- Glint is a monstrous half-bat, who may or may not be able to speak (and it may be an ability dictated by mere shyness).
Conclusions of the Review of Eat the Reich
Eat the Reich It’s definitely not a game for everyone. On the one hand it is extreme both in its themes and in its style of play, exaggerated and splatter as well as deliberately inaccurate from a historical point of view. On the other distributes strong narrative authority to the table, requiring imagination and the ability to improvise. Relying on die rolls to drive the narrative forward can be very frustrating, and can only work if everyone is willing to actively tell their story. But at the same time, if we let ourselves be guided by the proposed experience, it becomes an exciting and adrenaline-filled game, with a fast and effective system.
It is certainly an RPG that cannot be missing from collectors’ libraries for its own sake undeniable value from an aesthetic and editorial point of view. But it is also and above all unmissable for lovers of an engaging game that abandons any pretense of realism, putting its foot on a crazy and reckless accelerator. Room for creativity and excess, while taking advantage of one of the best safety nets that a role-playing game has ever offered. And then Eat the Reich reminds us that the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi.
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