Thebes: The Tomb Raiders

The original Thebes by Peter Prinz is still one of my all-time favourite games. Thebes: The Tomb Raiders falls far, far short of the brilliance of the original game. There is a small board in this game and the theme is still the same but it's really more of a card game version of the original. If you've never played the original and you like the theme then you might want to give this one a try. There are some interesting elements to this game that are in the original (the museum cards are fun and I like the way the exhibition cards stay available for use during the game). However much of the game just fell flat for me. I lost the feeling of "gearing up" for the dig sites with schooling and knowledge - that still exists in the game but now it just feels like collecting cards and not doing your research. The new thief and grave robber cards are okay but they felt more like a balancing mechanism than a thematic choice. But for me the biggest flaws in this version where the omission of some the key elements in the original game that made it so unique, including: a) the new time track is just a time track with numbers - it's no longer 52 weeks of the year. b) instead of consulting the wheel to find out how many chances at treasure you get, you now consult a chart and c) instead of digging in the bag for the treasures you now shuffle a deck of cards and take the specified cards off the top. I will pass on this inferior version of a great game in the future.