Last week I wrote about one of my favourite cooperative games, Burgle Bros by Tim Fowers. This week, I want to talk about the follow-up, Burgle Bros. 2: Casino Capers.

Burgle Bros. 2: Casino Capers retains a lot of what made Burgle Bros great, but also directly addresses some of the criticisms. In Burgle Bros. 2: Casino Capers, there’s only 2 floors instead of the default 3. The guards now always move 3 spaces during each of their activations, and when their deck runs out, they enter ‘hunt mode’, where they target characters specifically. The is now only one safe in the game, and in order to get dice on the safe, players need to seek out the moles, then move the dice from the Owner’s Office on the first floor up to the safe on the second floor, making it valuable and necessary to have characters on both floors.

Speaking of moles, there’s 16 poker chips littering both floors that provide a variety of effects. Some of those chips will be the aforementioned moles, but some will contain crowds, giving you a space to lie low from oncoming guards. Some chips like the drunk and saleswomen only take effect when you move onto the tile without peeking first, and with either send you flying into the next tile, or hold you hostage until someone rescues you. Similarly, the prima donna and undercover tokens only trigger when you peek into the tile, and will either pull you or the guard onto the tile you just peeked at.

The characters have changed too, now, each character has 3 gear cards that require an action to be prepped, but offer different effects. Some can be used multiple times, while others have a more powerful one time use. This makes each of the characters more varied flexible, which is an amazing change to the game. I’m much more likely to use a character multiple times in a row to see what kind of situations they can get out of, instead of just picking the hacker for every game like I used to.

The real big change is how players win the game. Once the safe is revealed on the second floor, all the tiles in the X and Y axis are revealed, the moles have sent their dice to the owners’ office on the first floor, AND someone has shifted the dice from the owners’ office to the safe, then a player can spend an action to roll all the dice to try and crack the safe. Every roll does send one die back to the owners’ office, giving a reason for some players to hang out on the first floor. Once the safe is cracked, the finale begins. Burgle Bros. 2 includes 8 finales, each one giving out specific instructions on how to win the game. In one, you need to find two Prima donnas and escape without a bouncer catching sight of them. In another, the safe contained a car that you can use to blow through walls, pick up your co-conspirators, then blast out the second story window. Players don’t know how to win the game until the safe is cracked, which adds a real exciting twist to the late stages of the game.

I’m of two minds for Burgle Bros. 2. On one hand, I dig the new tiles, the new heat system, the flexibility of each character’s gear card, it’s all great improvements on the base system, which was already rock solid. What I don’t like are the poker chips littered about the board. Half of them trigger when moved onto, while the other half trigger when peeked at, and cause just a bit more mayhem than I prefer. For a game as tight as Burgle Bros, the added randomness and risk just makes my buttocks clench.

Another complaint is the bigger box. Burgle Bros. 2 has this amazingly fancy insert and comes with plastic legs that you can jam into the corners of the box to create a 3D space. That second floor is now actually above the first one! While this creates an amazing visual, it’s not terribly functional. During our plays, we found it hard to see all the tiles on the first floor, and had to be ducking often to make sure we were reading the small text correctly, which was made more difficult from the shadow of the box looming over the tiles. Eventually, we chose to go back to the way that Burgle Bros managed multiple floors, just having them side by side. I applaud the efforts of the box design, even if that aspect ultimately was a miss.

I think the conclusion is thus: If you liked Burgle Bros, you’ll probably like Burgle Bros. 2. Maybe more so, if you enjoy the flexibility of the gear cards, and enjoy the tension that the randomness of the poker chips introduces. But if that randomness gets under your skin, Burgle Bros. 2 won’t be an improvement for you. Personally, the theme is better implements in this sequel, and the variety of the finales has hooked me and keeps me reaching for Burgle Bros. 2 over its beloved predecessor. I would never turn down a game of either, but given the choice, at the moment I prefer to play Burgle Bros. 2. We’ll have to wait and see if it can manage to stand the test of time.