BoardGame Verdict
83

Nemesis is a semi-cooperative science fiction horror game where players are crewmates aboard a spaceship infested with hostile alien organisms. Players must survive while fulfilling conflicting secret objectives, creating tension between cooperation and betrayal as they desperately fight to make it back to stasis pods before the ship auto-jumps.

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83

The Verdict

based on 27 reviews

Positive 0%
Mixed 0%
Negative 0%
Exceptional miniature quality, components, and strong table presence create an immersive aesthetic.
High thematic immersion and consistent tension, successfully creating a cinematic survival horror experience.
Strong replayability due to a modular board, random events, and distinct character abilities.
Generates memorable emergent stories, including moments of paranoia and potential betrayal through hidden objectives.
High complexity and a steep learning curve, making it less suitable for casual game nights.
Lengthy setup and teardown times due to the numerous components.
Player elimination can lead to significant downtime for some players, particularly in higher player counts.
Can feel highly dependent on luck and sometimes unfair, with events that can quickly lead to player deaths or ship destruction.
100
Board Game Rundown, Tim Aberli and SpencerVideo

The reviewer highly praises Nemesis as an excellent and engaging semi-cooperative game, highlighting its exceptional components, immersive theme, and significant replayability that consistently delivers a tense and exciting experience. They consider it one of their top board games, appreciating how it consistently creates unique and memorable gameplay moments.

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98
GamesRadar+, Ian StokesArticle

“Nemesis is a modern classic that perfectly captures the sci-fi horror magic of Alien, delivering a magical sense of tension, drama, and betrayal through its emergent storytelling, making it the reviewer's favorite board game of all time.”

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95
Board Game Hangover, Janis G. and Janis T.Video

The reviewers enthusiastically recommend Nemesis as a fantastic and must-have game, praising its thrilling and unique sci-fi horror experience that consistently generates memorable stories, despite its niche appeal and potential for player elimination.

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95
Unfiltered Gamer, Unfiltered GamerVideo

The reviewer highly praises Nemesis Retaliation for its excellent story, engaging style, and compelling betrayal and cooperative mechanics, giving it a strong recommendation as one of their games of the year, despite some minor frustrations with in-room combat.

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95
The Discriminating Gamer, Cody CarlsonVideo

The reviewer highly recommends Nemesis, calling it a fantastic and immersive thematic game that excels at building tension and delivering a thrilling sci-fi horror experience.

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95
Tabletop Games BlogArticle

“Nemesis is just an amazing game. It’s the closest to a role-playing game in board game format that I’ve seen to date.”

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95
Rolling Solo, Adam SmithVideo

The reviewer highly praises Nemesis, consistently placing it among his top five favorite games, despite its challenging and punishing nature.

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90
The Board Game CollectionArticle

“Nemesis is a beast of a game, in both a good and a bad way. For lovers of action games and sci-fi in general, this is tailor-made for you.”

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90
Man vs Meeple, Jeremy Salinas and David WaybrightVideo

The reviewer expressed enthusiastic praise for Nemesis, highlighting its intense and immersive sci-fi horror theme. They noted the game's effectiveness in building tension through its noise mechanic and the challenging gameplay where players are often on the defensive against powerful alien threats.

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90
Dale the Casual Gamer, Dale the Casual GamerVideo

The reviewer enthusiastically praises Nemesis as a fantastic, must-have, and must-play game, describing it as a thrilling experience from start to finish where every action feels exciting and death can occur at any moment. While acknowledging it's a niche game where elimination can be frustrating for some, he considers it an excellent sci-fi horror adventure.

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90
Not Bored Gaming, MarkVideo

The reviewer highly praises Nemesis for its immersive theme, evoking a strong sense of desolation, isolation, and impending doom in space, delivering a truly nail-biting and tense experience despite its close thematic resemblance to the Alien franchise.

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90
The Dice Treasures, The Dice TreasuresVideo

The new Bioenhancement Expert character, introduced through the Nemesis: Retaliation Stretch Goals expansion, adds significant intrigue and a fresh twist to the gameplay, proving very useful in both cooperative and competitive scenarios by offering unique strategic options.

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