When I originally saw Mezen at Origins Game Fair 2024, I was drawn in by the striking red, black, and white color scheme of the game. Mezen is a puzzle game that is inspired by Siberian art that was found along the riverside of the Mezen in Russia. Let’s check out what this beautiful yet modern puzzle game is all about.
An Artisans Puzzle
Each player arranges a five-by-five grid of their tiles, randomly, at the start of the game. Your grid will start off on the white tile side of five different animal types in the game. In the center of the table is a central board with scoring track and ten goal cards that were chosen at the start of the game. Players represent artisans who are gaining victory points for meeting the illustration requirements each round.
Mezen is played over ten rounds, with a goal card dictating what symbols/locations score at the end of each round. To ensure balance, goal cards have two symbols at the base of the cards. During setup, you’ll choose a symbol and pull the goal cards of that type.
At the start of the game, the cards for round one and two are face up, with a new goal card being revealed each round. Players will see the scoring goal for the current round and next round throughout the game.
The starting player is given a chunky wooden reindeer token that will get passed each round. This is the active player and the person at the table that is making the symbol choice for the round. The active player names a symbol (fish, horse, chicken, ect.), and all players has to remove a contiguous group of that symbol from their grid. You can remove the smallest group, largest group, or anything in between.
Columns will move down to fill in the empty spaces and the removed tiles are flipped to their opposite side and added to the top of the grid at your discretion. Players then score based on the scoring card for that round.
Amulets
Players start every game of Mezen with 5 amulet tiles. These small tokens are incredibly useful in structuring your puzzle. You can give the active player an amulet to choose a different symbol than the one that was chosen. You can also use an amulet to omit a tile from a contiguous group or bridge over a tile that was in between two matching symbols.
You can skip the scoring step at the end of the round to receive two more amulet tiles. This can be a great consolation prize when things don’t line up for scoring on a goal card. A big part of this game is strategically using these amulets to control your puzzle. It’s a great way to mitigate some of the randomness in the game, but is still limited by the number of amulet tiles you have.
Day and Night
Players will score based on the goal card in each of the ten rounds of Mezen. After the fifth round, players will score all black tiles that are visible. At the end of the game, visible white tiles are scored along with the players largest contiguous group of symbols.
Your puzzle is constantly changing as tiles are flipped and columns collapse. You don’t get foresight into what lies on the other side of the tile before flipping them. Some white tiles will have a small tree icon, denoting that there’s a Spruce tree on the other side. Spruce trees are only found on the black side of tiles and count as a wild when determining connected symbols.
Mezen is a really nice puzzle that feels like it could easily be an app on your mobile device. The color palette is rooted the resources that artisans used in their illustrations. Black representing soot, red representing clay, and the black/white tiles showing both night and day.
Final Thoughts
The simple imagery and contrasting colors are gorgeous. It really sets the game apart and has almost a winter vibe to it. In the end, this is an abstract puzzle game. I think the artistic direction in the game is stronger than the theme itself.
Mezen comes with plenty of goal cards which adds a lot to the replayability. My only complaint with the game is the random luck factor that is present. Since each players grid is randomly laid out, it’s possible for a player to have a fantastic start in meeting the first or second goal card. That can be a little annoying if someone jumps out to an early lead just because of luck.
In our plays of the game, we’ve definitely seen players come back after a couple good rounds of scoring. Games have been tight and amulet tiles are a big help in manipulating your grid. Mezen does a great job of being challenging without being confusing or difficult to understand.
I really enjoyed Mezen and believe this is going to connect with players who like abstract puzzles like Azul, Ingenious, or Reef. The game is visually beautiful and I can see it being a big part of our winter gaming for years to come.
Mezen is available at your local game store, the Arcane Wonders webstore, or online through Amazon.
This game was provided to us by the publisher for review. Read more about our review policies at One Board Family.
Highs
- Striking and bold Siberian artwork that stands out
- Engaging puzzle that is constantly shifting
- 36 different goal cards add to the replayability
Lows
- Tile positions can randomly favor some players
Complexity
Time Commitment
Replayability
