TIME Stories Revolution: A Midsummer Night Review

TIME Stories Revolution: A Midsummer Night is another instalment in a TIME Stories’ ‘blue cycle’ of standalone missions. It is more compact than the original game, in some instances minimising or altering components to better suit this new format. The board is gone, and so are the dice, replaced by a randomised deck. In fact, as many elements as feasible have been replaced by cards, including tokens, which actually benefits the game as it lets it show off the pretty artwork. 

As for the gameplay, it has retained the core TIME Stories’ principles. Players are time travellers, embodying various characters through the ages attempting to solve a mystery. In this game, they take on the role of fantastical characters in the world where several fairy tales coexist together. The name on the box gives one away – Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Others are better left unmentioned because it is best to dive in as unspoiled on the story as possible. Suffice to say, there are plenty of reference to several well-known fairy tales and – even if it takes a Time Stories fan to spot them – to previous games as well. 

The biggest change for the ‘blue cycle’ games is that they were designed for a single playthrough, rather than several replays as the original TIME Stories were. You don’t need to sit through multiple several hour sessions to see the end of the story, but this comes at the cost of replayability. Yet, it is possible to fail a mission of A Midsummer Night, in which case you will need to return to it anyway. 

As for the story itself – carefully tiptoeing around spoilers here – it suffers from a little aimlessness, especially at the beginning, but is much improved by some clever puzzles throughout the gameplay. A TIME Stories fan is bound to find plenty to like here, whereas for a newcomer, A Midsummer Night is a good gateway option to see if they get a taste for time travelling. 

ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA

PLAY IT: Yes

Designers: Antonin Merieux & Manuel Rozoy

Publisher: Space Cowboys

Time: 90 minutes

Players: 2-4

Ages: 14+

Prices: £29

You can also see more reviews from games in the series: take a look at TIME Stories The Hadal Project.

This review originally appeared in Issue 49 of Tabletop Gaming. Pick up the latest issue of the UK's fastest-growing gaming magazine in print or digital here or subscribe to make sure you never miss another issue.

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