Unrest Review: This Revolution Isn’t Televised

Imagine living in a state where the government monitors your every move. Everything you do, eat, and think is controlled by the government. Even a mere thought about rebellion is enough to get you in trouble. 

This is the premise of the Pandasaurus Games’ Unrest board game, where you get to play as either the Rebellion or the Empire. Will the Empire continue its rule or will the Rebellion complete its goal? It’s up to you as players to find out in this head-to-head game. The revolution begins now, as does this Unrest board game review.

Rating:	7
Playing time:	20 to 30 minutes
Number of players:	2
Age:	10+
Complexity:	Light
Genre:	Duel card game
Release date:	2023
Publisher:	Pandasaurus Games

Pros

• Easy to learn, hard to master
• Good quality
• Compact

Cons

• A bit unbalanced
• Apparent lack of molotov coctails

What Is Unrest? 

In this intense, asymmetric struggle for control, players navigate a dystopian world where their every decision carries weight. As a member of the Rebellion, you’ll strive to overthrow the oppressive regime, carefully planning each move to avoid detection. Alternatively, as a member of the Empire, your challenge lies in maintaining control and quashing any signs of dissent among the populace.

The game is published by Pandasaurus Games, the art is done by Jor Ros, and it’s designed by Brendan Hansen, whose former work includes Enchanted Plumes (2021) and Ramen! Ramen! (2021). I haven’t had the chance to play any of them, so this was my first time playing a board game designed by Brendan. At first glance, it reminded me of another Pandasaurus Games release, District Noir, but looks can be deceiving and Unrest is quite different as it turned out.

Playing Unrest

The game has two players face off for control of five districts: the Ministry of Plenty, the Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Peace, the Police Headquarters, and the Capitol. If the Rebels take control of three or more of those key districts, the Empire’s reign is over, but if they fail, the Empire has won.

The Rebellion’s deck consists of agents with various abilities represented in the form of cards: Disruption, Intel, Upheaval, and Supplies. In addition, they have to rely on Misdirection to hide their true intent from the Empire. All of these types of cards form the Rebel deck. Four of them have values ranging from 2 to 6, while the Misdirection cards consist of four cards valued at 0. Each of them is represented by a different color and symbol.

These cards are kept secret at all times, and only the Rebellion player can look at them during the game. All the discarded cards, whether revealed or hidden, remain as they are throughout the game. Both players can go through the discard deck at any time, and given the importance of card counting, they will often do so. However, only the Rebellion player has the privilege of examining all the concealed cards on the board and in the discard deck.

To take over a district, a Rebel player can either stage a revolution in it by stacking cards with a combined value of 21 or complete one of the three available missions, which are drawn randomly for each game. 

The Empire, on the other hand, doesn’t play with cards. That player gets four poker chips, which I really loved. They are not especially beautiful looking, but are very tactile and feel great to the touch. Instead of being made out of cardboard or cheap and light plastic, these are made of… to be honest, I’m not entirely sure from what. At best, I can describe them as quality plastic with a metallic core for weight. 

The Empire player uses them to put an end to the Rebellion player’s scheming. These four tokens are: 

• Surveil: Reveal one of the hidden cards of your choice.
• Reroute: Move one of the rebel cards currently being played to a district of your choice.
• Blockade: No cards can be placed in this district until the end of the round.
• Destroy: Send the chosen Rebel player card to the discard pile.

During each round, a Rebel player plays three cards from their hand, positioning them between two districts. In response, the Empire player deploys two chips, which are then considered used for the next round. After resolving the effects of the tokens, the Rebel player places the remaining cards into one of the two adjacent districts. While the Rebel player replenishes their hand up to five cards, the Empire player only refreshes their tokens once they have all been used. The game continues like that until the Rebel player runs out of cards or manages to capture three city districts, winning the game. 

The Capital Special Rule

The game can be played with an additional Capital special rule, which makes things tougher for the Empire. The Rebel player gets an extra way to win by controlling only the Capital District. This doesn’t mean that the Empire can only defend that one district. Rebels can still win by taking any of the other three districts, but if they seize control of the Capital district, it’s an instant victory for the Rebels. The only difference is that the Rebel player now needs a score of 25 points to do the Revolution mission in the Capital district only.

Unrest: Uprising Expansion

Pandasaurus has already announced an expansion for Unrest called “Unrest: Uprising.” From everything I’ve seen, it seems it will be played as a campaign.

The same factions, Rebellion and Empire, will be present, but now the game will last 3 to 5 rounds, each lasting between 1 and 2 hours (in total). There will be some additional Enhancement cards and unique scenarios, but the overall gameplay should remain mostly the same.

Is Unrest Worth It?

Overall, the game is easy to play and the rules can be explained in 5 to 10 minutes. 

Even though the box suggests a playtime of 10 to 20 minutes, it’s more realistically 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your style of play.

Every game I played felt like chess with cards. As a Rebel, you’re strategically placing your agents from the beginning for the final coup d’état, typically unfolding in the very last round. On the other hand, the Empire mainly reacts to Rebel moves, which isn’t the gameplay that every player looks for – the Empire just doesn’t have much to do actively, unlike the Rebels. Playing as the Empire means merely reacting to the situation without any substantial proactive gameplay. Although I didn’t have issues playing as either side, I can see some people preferring to play only the Rebels because of how the Empire side works in the game. 

My biggest problem with Unrest is balancing. If you play by standard rules, most of the time the Empire player will win, and if you play with the Capital special rule, the odds are heavily stacked in favor of the Rebels. There are no in-between moments and it can feel pretty one-sided at times. I do believe that if certain objectives were removed when playing with the Capital rule, the game would be more balanced, but that’s already getting into the territory of house-ruling the game.

I really do enjoy Unrest, though, regardless of which faction I play as. Despite its flaws, it’s a definite keeper for me and a game I’ll gladly return to whenever I feel like playing a one-on-one board game.

Review copy provided by the publisher Pandasaurus Games.