Cardboard Corner: Review of Burgle Bros

As with so many of my favorite books and games, I’ve put off writing this review for some time. Irrationally worried about putting into words the reasons why a game is good, I don’t want to “destroy” it. In an attempt to put irrationality aside, here is my review of Burgle Bros (2015).

I suppose the label is “thematic”, but whatever you want to call board games which pave the way for players to imagine themselves in the scenario, that’s what Burgle Bros is. More than just an experience, however, the game also nails the sweet spot of fun. I distinguish because, Russian Railroads might be a great stock simulator (for the right audience), but damn is it complex. Not too heavy, not too light, not 1:1 to reality but certainly capturing the sentiment, Burgle Bros is a great way for 2-4 players to cooperatively throw off the day to day burden of being a virtuous and nice person and do what they’ve always wanted to do: be a high class thief and rob high-rises.

Possessing an Ocean’s Eleven/Mission Impossible feel, in Burgle Bros players must dodge guards, avoid alarms, crack safes, steal loot, and escape. If the players are able to do this without being caught by the guards, they win. If just one, however, is busted, everybody loses. The board tiles and walls modular, every game resolves itself uniquely, just as there is a variety of fun and funny loot to be stolen. Couple this with the eight different character choices (each with unique powers), as well as the relevant tools and equipment (donuts!) to help make your heist a success, and you’ve got a recipe for teamwork and fun.

The “board” actually three 4x4 grids of tiles representing three floors of a building, players have four action points to spend on their turn. Capable of being repeated as often as the player wants, it’s possible to peek (turn over) at an adjacent tile—an important action given some tiles have varying types of alarms. It’s possible to move into another tile, which sometimes means satisfying the conditions of the tile. And it’s possible players can have a go at cracking the safe—as long as they’ve located it and the combination. And if players find the stairs, they can ascend to the next floor and begin trying to loot it.

Between each player’s turn, the guard has their turn. His movement based on a card system which identifies a point in the grid, the guard moves there, and a new card with a new destination is identified. If the guard crosses paths with at least one of the players three times, the whole team loses.

If there were a negative about Burgle Bros, I would say component quality is inconsistent. Having a 1950s Americana comic book feel, the artwork is simple but effective. The tokens, wooden meeples, and cards are all first class. Some people complain that it takes some work to get all the components back into what is indeed a tight box, but I would complain: why are there so many games on my shelf whose boxes are half or less full? Why can’t publishers modify that approach? Anyway, box size is not an issue. What is an issue is the quality of the board tiles. While thick and strong at heart, they are delicate and scratchable on the surface. I’m not an expert on the board game making process, but I can say there are numerous games in my collection which have better quality tiles. Despite having played Burgle Bros only a couple dozen times, several tiles show significant wear—and I consider my family relatively good at keeping games clean and shiny. Playing on a very smooth, very clean surface away from liquids is important.

So what makes Burgle Bros so good? For me I would say it’s the tactical puzzle of working together to stay within the static parameters of the room tiles while avoiding the dynamic threat of the guards, all to achieve the game’s objective. The rooms thematic, the rules easy to pick up, the aesthetics engaging, setup highly variable, gameplay likewise variable, the game difficult but not impossible, a nice sense of teamwork, a palpable sense of tension avoiding the guard—a number of factors combine to make Burgle Bros one of my favorite coop games. It’s like Forbidden Desert with an added layer of satisfaction…