Nemesis Review

Intro

When Awaken Realms unleashed Nemesis in 2018, they created something that feels like directing your own Alien movie. This is sci-fi survival horror at its purest: you're crew members aboard a damaged spaceship crawling with deadly organisms, and everyone's trying to get home alive. The catch? Not everyone shares the same definition of "alive" or "home."

This beast accommodates 1-5 players and typically runs about 3 hours, though don't be surprised if it stretches longer when the tension ramps up. With an 8.25/10 rating online, it's earned serious respect in the hobby. The complexity sits comfortably in the middle ground—not brain-melting, but definitely not something you'll master in your first game. Think of it as semi-cooperative survival where teamwork keeps you breathing, but personal agendas might determine who actually makes it to the escape pods.

How It Plays

Each player picks a crew member with unique abilities: the Scientist excels at research but crumbles in combat, while the Soldier brings the firepower but might struggle with technical tasks. You start with personal objective cards that define your win conditions—maybe you need to scan alien eggs, or perhaps you're supposed to destroy the ship's engines. Here's the kicker: you don't know what objectives other players have, and some might directly conflict with yours.

The ship itself is modular, built from room tiles as you explore. Every action you take generates noise tokens, and noise attracts the Intruders—that's what the ship's AI calls these nightmare creatures. When enough noise accumulates, you draw from the Intruder bag. Sometimes you get lucky with a blank token. Sometimes you spawn a larva. Sometimes you pull out a fully-grown adult that immediately starts hunting.

Combat uses dice, but it's brutal and unpredictable. Getting wounded isn't just a health penalty—you draw contamination cards that might give you infections, broken bones, or worse. The Intruders evolve throughout the game too, getting stronger and nastier as time passes. Meanwhile, the ship's systems are failing, fires are spreading, and that escape pod is looking more tempting by the minute.

Highlights

The atmosphere in Nemesis is absolutely unmatched. Every decision drips with tension because making noise might doom everyone, but staying quiet means objectives go unfinished. The sound of Intruder tokens hitting the table creates genuine dread. I've seen grown adults hold their breath during bag draws.

The emergent storytelling is phenomenal. Games naturally create those perfect movie moments: the Captain sacrificing themselves to seal a breach while Intruders swarm the corridor, or discovering your trusted ally has been working against you all along. These aren't scripted events—they grow organically from the mechanics.

Component quality deserves major praise. The miniatures are gorgeously detailed, and the modular ship tiles feel substantial. Everything from the custom dice to the player boards screams premium production. This won the 2019 Board Game Quest Award for Best Production Values, and it shows.

The variability keeps every game fresh. Different crew combinations, random ship layouts, varied objectives, and unpredictable Intruder spawns mean you'll never play the same game twice. Add in the multiple character decks and equipment options, and replay value goes through the roof.

What really shines is how the semi-cooperative structure creates paranoia without requiring a dedicated traitor role. Everyone might start with good intentions, but when that final escape pod powers up and there's only room for two people, friendships get tested real quick.

Criticisms

The length can be genuinely problematic. Three hours is the average, but games frequently run longer, especially with new players or when analysis paralysis kicks in. The tension that makes Nemesis brilliant can also make it exhausting. Some sessions feel like they overstay their welcome, particularly if the Intruder spawns don't cooperate early on.

Player elimination stings in a game this long. Die in hour one, and you're watching for potentially two more hours. The game does offer some spectator engagement through event cards, but it's not enough to keep eliminated players truly invested. This is especially rough in a game where death can come suddenly from bad dice rolls or contamination draws.

The randomness factor frustrates some players. You can plan perfectly and still get wrecked by terrible bag draws or brutal contamination cards. While this randomness feeds the horror atmosphere, it can feel unfair when your carefully crafted strategy crumbles because of pure luck. The dice combat system amplifies this—sometimes your soldier whiffs completely against a larva, sometimes your scientist somehow one-shots an adult.

Conclusion

Nemesis delivers if you want thematic immersion over mechanical precision. This is for groups who appreciate emergent narratives, don't mind significant randomness, and have the time commitment for longer sessions. If you love horror movies, enjoy games that create genuine tension, or want something that generates amazing stories, Nemesis belongs on your shelf.

Skip it if you prefer tight, predictable gameplay or hate player elimination. The randomness and length make it a tough sell for some gaming groups. But for those willing to embrace the chaos, Nemesis offers one of the most atmospheric and memorable experiences in modern board gaming. Just don't get too attached to your character—space is a dangerous place.