Mass Effect: The Board Game- Priority Hagalaz — A solid experience that is true to Mass Effect

Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz is one of my favorite board games this year. Priority Hagalaz can be played with 1-4 players, but I find it functions as a perfect solo game. As you level up your characters and get ready because in missions your choices matter and are responsive to your actions. Priority Hagalaz runs for 45 minutes to 1 hour per chapter and there are 3-5 chapters per story. 

Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz is a narrative board game so for this review I am going to avoid as many spoilers as possible because if you know what happens it ruins the game a bit. The replay factor is off of the charts for this game because the narrative is reactive to your choices. 

Unboxing 

Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz has the perfect box. There is no way that a board game could ever top this unboxing experience for me, though I do welcome others to try. Inside the box you’ll find: 

• 1 rulebook. 
• 1 narrative book. 
• 1 mission book. 
• 1 campaign map book. 
• 6 squad miniatures that are not painted but detailed. 
• 5 squad sheets. 
• 12 strategy dice. 
• 2 paragon dice.
• 64 hazard cards. 
• 86 enemy tokens. 
• 93 gameplay tokens. 
• 15 tracking cubes. 
• 1 enemy bag. 
• 1 marker pen. 
• Empty baggies to store everything in. This is not mentioned anywhere but they should advertise this because it’s awesome. 

Every component within this box is perfect. I have nothing bad to say about anything but there is a lot to give credit for. For starters, every book in the box can be bent and held without any issues. I have run through and beat this game about 12 times and the books are still functioning like they’re brand new. 

The miniatures are sturdy and can be dropped without breaking. Be aware that they’re small and unpainted, but they have a good amount of detail to them. The enemies don’t have miniatures included in the box but you can buy more miniatures on the Modiphius website; I do not own them and can’t comment on their quality. 

There is an extra set of baggies included to keep track of all the tokens. I wish more publishers would do this for games that have a lot of components because it makes things easier to keep track of. For Project Hagalaz these baggies cut my game set-up time down by over 15 minutes. 

The squad sheets are where you track the health, skills, and shields of you and your teammates. The front of the character sheet features the character artwork, what happens when that squadmate gets downed, and what happens when they’re revived. There is also a space for locked dice here. Importantly, Shephard’s sheet has the male Shephard on the front and the female Shephard on the back. 

The back of the character sheet is where all the magic happens. You have space for your skills and, as you play the game and level up, you unlock more skills to use during your missions. There are slots to place the dice and a space to track Health and Shields. 

Opening the Books 

Priority Hagalaz technically comes with 3 different books, but the mission boards are not anything that you need to read ahead of time. Each one of the books is well made, and the Mission Book is spiral bound and holds together well through multiple play-throughs. 

In this review, I will not cover the narrative in extreme detail because your choices matter. Priority Hagalaz is a fantastic replication of the Mass Effect video game, right down to the narrative. 

My group and I ran into some issues here, but it boils down to conveying the story and choices to the group. Running through this game can become a headache, especially when players can’t agree on what they want to do. Discussing the choices and their implications adds a whole new layer to the game: This new layer is one that I would love to avoid in the future. There is something about running through the game by yourself to experience the story that makes this game better. With that being said, Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz is still very fun. The people who were playing with me had a great time. If you’re someone who wants quick turns, this might not be the game to play with a group; it will all depend on who you’re playing with. 

Moreover, because choices matter, even down to how you move among the map, it can become quite stressful if your group is not capable of making a decision and living with it. Project Hagalaz plays more like a streamlined tabletop roleplaying game to me than a board game. I appreciate that it’s multiplayer, but the importance of having a group on the same page can not be over-stressed.

Rules: Overview  

Project Hagalaz comes with a good-sized rulebook that is covered with rules from page to page. Before jumping into these rules, I highly recommend making sure all of your tokens are properly sorted. 

The layout of the rules is extremely good and well thought out. I recommend that one player read the rules first and be prepared to teach. There are 42 pages of rules here, and, to understand a few of them, you will have to play the tutorial mission. 

The overview chapter breaks down the story’s setup, as well as some information about the squad. Here, you’ll find the rules for victory and defeat as well as information about War Readiness. War Readiness is the points that are scored each time the squad completes a Mission and or a Secondary Objective during that mission. 

Rules: Components 

The components chapter contains information about the game components, information about Tags, Stunned Enemies, Elite Enemies, and Story Paragraphs. The writers also drive home that you have to pay attention to the story to make decisions. 

As you continue down these pages you’ll get information about the enemy tokens: these tokens are clearly marked but should remain as separated as possible because you have to pick specific enemies for each mission.

Finally, this chapter describes how the Mission Book works and what all of the symbols mean. You’ll be referring back to this part of the chapter a lot as you play the game. Once you get the hang of it during the tutorial mission, it becomes easy to apply what you’ve learned for the rest of the chapters. 

Setting up a mission 

This chapter details how you use the Mission Book. Each mission is set up differently, however, everything uses the same tokens for cameras, doors, and the like. The first time I set up the game, it took me 20 minutes to make sure everything was set up right. After making sure I had the tokens organized, the setup permission, including enemy tokens, took me 15 minutes max. 

The setup times are not affected by the number of players. As long as one person knows the signs on the gameboard, everything will move as quickly as possible. Now, each character has a character sheet that has to be set up with health and shields. The setup is included in the 15-minute setup time. As you play the game, the characters will earn skills, the leveling up feels extremely fluid, and each upgrade carries over to each mission. Once you have the character sheets and mission board set up, the last thing you have to do is set up the enemy tokens: simply put the ones required for that mission in the included bag and you’re ready to play. 

Final Thoughts 

Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz is one of my favorite solo games of 2024. I have played through the story twice, and I simply adore how dynamic the game is. Having a board game respond and change because of my actions was new to me and I think Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz handles the narrative extremely well. 

I did not enjoy playing the game with anyone else and that is not the fault of the game. Because Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz has consequences, I found that my playgroup took an extremely long time to take action. 

The box is also one of my favorites. I appreciate that the game comes with extra baggies for organization and all the game components hold up extremely well. The character sheets are beautifully illustrated and work perfectly with the included dry-erase markers. Although the minis are sturdy for the most part, their guns are not. I ran into an issue with the gun tips bending and breaking, even for characters I wasn’t using.