Deep Regrets Review

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Deep Regrets Board Game Review

The Cardboard-Based Characteristics

More than a Load of Pollocks!

One of my favourite video games from the last few years is Dredge. While Deep Regrets may not be a direct representation of that game, it certainly brings back the fond memories I had playing it. Deep Regrets is a board game full of uncanny, gruesome things to catch, and while reeling in such monstrosities, you must manage your regrets and increasing madness. Welcome to the Deep Regrets board game Review!

Catch of the Day…… or Week!

Your task in Deep Regrets is a simple one. Choose whether to spend your day fishing the open sea or spending your hard-earned cash on upgrades to be more productive on the water. Your decisions in each location are vital, as is having the right tools for the Job.

You will get points from catching fish and picking your best to mount for point bonuses. Picking what fish to sell and what to keep is entertaining, especially with all the prices fluctuating depending on your madness and the fact that you can eat some of your hard-fought catches for sweet, sweet abilities.

I found the whole gameplay loop rewarding. full of meaningful choices and most important of all, fun!

Cast a Line!

Catching fish is what you will spend most of your time doing. Luckily, the system for fishing is simple. At sea, there are 3 levels to fish at, with increasing difficulty the deeper you sail. As with most things in games, an increase in difficulty comes with a possibility of lucrative loot. Fresh fish are more abundant in shallow waters and foul, horrid fish are more likely found in deeper depths.

Each depth is made up of 3 shoals, these shoals are piles of cards depicting an all manner of water-based goodies. Normally, you will flip a card of your choice and try to catch it. There are ways to mitigate the slight randomness with equipment but usually you can judge what’s in your shoal by a clever bit of card design. Each card has a shadow on its back. This shadow gives a tad of info as to what your prey could be.

While I have seen some players not keen on the randomness, I like how it imitates fishing, and there are things you can do to get around it. Let’s be honest, who wants to fish when you know what you are going to catch? Where’s the fun in that? You fish a boot, you fish a boot, deal with it!

Dicey

All your fishing shenanigans are governed by your dice. At the start of every day and when arriving at port, you get to re-roll your choice of them to try and squeeze out better numbers. You use any die of your choice to move your boat to deeper depths and then you spend dice values to catch your chosen fish. Having more dice is beneficial, as is choosing the right depth and shoal for your needs.

You can also use your ‘Can of Worms’ card or your ‘Lifeboat’ card that every player starts with. The Worms card allows you to peek at a card in the shoal, giving you a bit of choice before you hook a fish. The Lifeboat immediately take you to port so you can spend the rest of the day there. It’s powerful, can get you out of a pinch but will cost you 10 regret. Use it wisely. Only spending a day or two at port can be restrictive, so using your Lifeboat at the right time can be game-changing.

Reel em’ In

If you can discard the amount of dice required by the difficulty of the fish, the fish gets taken into your hand. Otherwise, if you can’t or don’t want to, it remains face up in it’s shoal and you draw a Dink card. The Dinks are small bonuses and special abilities that give you a leg up when fishing or visiting the shops. You also get Dinks when passing and when skipped in turn order, which means you can acquire quite a few of them and they can get you out of trouble when needed.

The fish cards also come with various wacky abilities, some activate on reveal, some when caught and some when eaten. These little boons keep gameplay fresh, give you options and leave a nagging thought in your head after eating fish instead of selling them.

Regrets and Madness

I have spoken briefly about regret and madness. With the game being called Deep Regrets you would be right in thinking this is a mechanism central to the game. There is a small deck of regret cards; these cards have values from 0 to 3 on them and not only affect your madness level, which in turn affects your in-game stats but also, the player with the highest regret level will have to lose one of their prize catches. Ooooooo, tasty!

A number of fish and other mechanics will cause you to draw regret cards and some things, like returning to port, will allow you to discard them. The number of cards you have governs your madness level and will give you access to different fish prices and more dice allowed in your fresh dice pool. You kind of want to go mad but not be the most mad, as you don’t want to get rid of one of your biggest point-scoring fish at games’ end. At the end of the game, it’s the values on the cars that matter and as I said, you don’t want the most regret under your belt.

The Port, Tackle and More Dice Please!

When you’re not out, getting wet and reeling in fish, you’re at port upgrading and spending your Fishbucks. Firstly, there are a few cleanup activities like refreshing your dice, refreshing your Worms, then you can discard a regret card to do, then it’s spendy spendy time. There are 4 shops at Port and you can visit them all once per turn. Here you can sell your fish or mount them, selling gets you cash and mounting your best fish gives them one of the 3 score multipliers on your board. Save these for your high-scoring fish, as the multiplier is more effective with higher fish values.

There’s a shop for reels, a shop for rods, a place to get supplies and a place to acquire more dice. The choices are vast and depending on how much cash you have, you can spend more at each shop to draw more cards to choose from and possibly get more cards to keep. You can only equip one rod and reel per day though, so bear that in mind. Some of the Dinks have a discount in the shops, as does the Life Preserver, which is always helpful. The Life preserver is given away at the start of the day by the highest roller of the dice. It gives a small boost and is always welcome. Normally though, if you have been given it, you’re probably doing rubbish and in last place. Oh well.

End Game, Points and Mounted Fish

After your week of fishing and bartering, it’s time to tot up your scores. Firstly, all the fish in your hand are scored, along with your mounted fish and their multipliers. What you have to be aware of, as with selling the fish, the scores and prices are affected by your madness level. A lower madness gives bonuses to fresh fish and a higher madness level increases the price and points of your foul fish. It’s a quirky little system that always makes you take care where you fish and always has you with an eye on your ever-increasing amount of regret cards. Add to that a point for each 2 Fishbucks remaining and you have your final score.

Whoever manages their madness level and mounts the right fish will leave the fishing trip victorious. There will also be lots of stories about that big one that got away and who did what during your trip. Congratulate your fellow players on a day well spent.

Components

Deep Regrets is a lovely box of goodies. Its artwork is superb, it has a grotesque Saturday morning cartoon vibe that I cannot get enough of. Every time I flipped a fish or when I read through the manual, I was constantly filled with joy. The graphical design and art are top tier. Add to that lovely wooden dice that look like fishing floats, chunky wooden pieces and great component quality and you have a box that, from a component standpoint, is well worth your money.

No Regrets Here!

I adore Deep Regrets, it has a nice mix of luck and strategy that fits well with its theme and narrative. Its art style is amazing, the components are superb and I just enjoy playing it. There’s even a solo mode and a co-op mode to get your gills around. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the deepest game you will play and I can see the randomness of the card draw bothering some but I take things as I see them and talking about this quirky game just makes me want to get it to the table again.

The fact that Judson Cowan designed and did the artwork is truly fantastic, he must be a very talented chap. I will be keeping an eye on the horizon for projects he releases in the future and any future content for Deep Regrets. Right fishing enthusiasts, I am going to grab my rod, grab my can of worms and go catch a monster!

Rapid Reviews Rating

4.5 out of 5

4.5

You can buy Deep Regrets and get more information from the Tettix Store here.