New Corp Order is an unusual game. Created by the minds at 2 Tomatoes, New Corp Order was initially Kickstarted in 2018. At the UK Games Expo, it was available for general purchase and somewhat captured our imagination. Although there will be a review coming in due course, as we actually ended up buying a copy, I thought it would be good to take a few minutes just to explore the game and the concept that made us part with our hard earned cash.

This article started with the words “New Corp Order is an unusual game” and so it is only fair to explain that in a bit more detail. Everything about New Corp Order is unique – from a beautiful block colours artwork aesthetic, to the actual gameplay itself. New Corp Order takes a series of well-established mechanics and adapts them in such a way that the end product doesn’t resemble any other game I can think of on the market.

This is what is so intriguing about New Corp Order as a game, and 2 Tomatoes as a game design company.

So, what is New Corp Order?

New Corp Order stylises itself as a game of marketing and manipulation. The whole concept is that the world governments are doing a terrible job, so much so that large private corporations are looking to take over the world, and they do that through marketing.

This means that New Corp Order is a game of layers. The playing area is set up with a 4×4 grid (or 3×4 in a two player game) of marketing companies. Corporations then place agents within certain marketing companies, and you, as the player, play investors who have stocks in those corporations. What this means is that, as a player, you will most likely end up with stocks in several corporations.

During the game you can then take three actions – you can take stocks and shares, infiltrate a business, and then take over an advertising company. The concept is brilliant and completely different to anything out that. This could explain why it did well on Kickstarter.

Once you take over a company, you get to perform actions depending on the type of company you land on. A social media company allows for you to discard an opponent’s cards. A guerrilla marketing company allows for you to exhaust opponent’s cards. Ambient advertising allows you to ready your own. You get the idea.

This makes New Corp Order a really high stakes game of tug of war in which you are invested in both sides. It’s fascinating.

New Corp Order is, at its heart, an elaborate puzzle. We have now played it since the expo (we played a two player game yesterday) and I can confirm that it requires a lot of brain power. New Corp Order involves a fair amount of player interaction, as well as laterally thinking quite a few turns ahead, and trying to bluff your opponents. It is an easy game to learn, but I imagine it is a difficult game to master. It is one game this blogger can’t wait to sink his teeth into from an analytical perspective.

At the UK Games Expo press preview on the Thursday before the expo, we met the guys at 2 Tomatoes. They introduced us to New Corp Order plus another one of their games called Peak Oil. Both sounded really interesting and unique; however, we only ended up leaving the Expo with New Corp Order. There will be a review for it coming up in the not too distant future once we have had a chance to play it a bit more.

Published by Luke

Board game nerd, comic book geek, Rubik's Cube solver, Splendor player, and Blogger. View all posts by Luke