Fast & Furious: Highway Heist is a superbly supported with lots of bits and pieces in its box, the most eye-catching of which, are of course, the vehicles. These consist, not just of those driven by the heroes—American Muscle, Import Racer, Street Drifter, and Exotic Supercar—but also a tank, a semi-truck, and a helicopter. All are nicely detailed and look great on the table. There are six Character Boards, one each for Dominic Toretto, Brian O’Conner, Letty Ortiz, Roman Pearce, Tej Parker, and Han Seoul-Oh, and four Vehicle Boards for the vehicles they will drive. The game has three scenarios—‘Tank Assault’, ‘Semi Heist’, and ‘Chopper Takedown’—each of which is supported by its own instruction sheet, Scenario Board, a set of Stunt cards for the players, and a set of Enemy Cards for the opposition’s Actions. Plus, there are Reference Cards, tokens for cargo and certain characters and Boosts to Actions, dice for both the players and the enemy, and pegs for the characters and the enemy which slot into holes atop each vehicle to indicate if a driver is on top of, rather than driving, a vehicle. Which all together means that it both looks a lot and busy as well as complicated. Fortunately, whilst it is a lot, it is actually not as complicated as it looks and it turns out to be quite fun.
The Character Boards and Vehicle Boards slot together and are double-sided. A Character Board depicts the character, his special Action, the standard Actions he can take, and ratings in Speed, Control, Athletics, and Defence. Speed and Control are used when the character is behind the wheel of his vehicle, Athletics is used when he is atop his own or another vehicle, and Defence is used to avoid damage from other vehicles. A Vehicle Board has its own special ability, plus ratings in Speed, Control, and Defence, and a series of slots to indicate how much damage the vehicle can suffer. The combined rating in Speed, Control, or Defence from both Character Board and Vehicle Board indicates how many dice a player rolls, and whilst this will not change for the Character Board, it will change if the character is driving another vehicle and the Vehicle Board is changed. The Character Board is turned over at the end of a player’s turn to indicate that the character is exhausted and can only roll Defence against incoming damage and that the player needs to roll the Enemy die. The Vehicle Board is turned over and used whenever a character is driving an Enemy SUV rather than his own vehicle.
Each of the scenario instruction sheets explains the set-up, additional rules, and winning conditions, as well as giving some strategy tips for the players. Each set of Stunt Cards for each scenario details a manoeuvre that the players can attempt. For example, ‘Chain Reaction’ in ‘Tank Heist’ enables a player to drive into two SUVs which are in a straight line. This causes one SUV to crash into the other, turning it into a Wreck which can be tossed into any direction, potentially hitting the tank and causing damage. It requires a Speed roll. ‘Grappling Hook’ lets a player snare another player’s vehicle, enemy SUV, or wreck and pull it towards his vehicle. It requires a Control roll. ‘Stop Hitting Yourself’ requires a player to be atop an enemy SUV which he forces to swerve into the tank, inflicting damage, and ending with him atop the tank. This requires an Athletics roll.
There is a set of Enemy Cards for each scenario. Each Enemy Card has two sets of effects, one when it is drawn and another when it is in the ‘Activate!’ spot on the Scenario Board. For example, ‘Meat Grinder’ for the ‘Tank Heist’ scenario adds two new Enemy SUVs behind the Tank when revealed, but when activated on the ‘Activate!’ spot on a Scenario Board, each Player Vehicle adjacent to both the Tank and an Enemy SUV is squeezed and suffers damage. The Stunt cards are large, whereas the Enemy Cards are standard size.
The Scenario Board for each scenario is double-sided. One guides the players through the set-up of the scenario, which when done, is turned over to provide the rules for the scenario. Each Scenario Board spots for the Enemy Cards, one of which is the ‘Activate!’ spot, and also a track for the amount of damage the Tank—or other vehicle—can suffer during play. The tracks are actually cut into the Scenario Boards, much like the damage track is cut into the Vehicle Boards. The Character Boards do not have a damage track as the players cannot be killed.
Play of Fast & Furious: Highway Heist—for all three scenarios—takes place on the Road Board. This shows a simple road, marked with a twelve by six grid. Player Vehicles and Enemy SUVs are constantly moving along and manoeuvring back and forth on the road represented by the Road Board, but they do not leave it. In other words, they constantly keep pace with each other. Only when a vehicle is wrecked and becomes undrivable does it get left behind as all of the other vehicles continue moving.
Core play in Fast & Furious: Highway Heist is simple. On his turn, a player can undertake two Actions. There are eight standard Actions. In the ‘Drive’ Action, the player moves his vehicle a number of spaces equal to the combination of his character’s Speed and his vehicle’s Speed. The ‘Leap’ Action lets a player’s character jump from atop his current vehicle onto another player’s vehicle or an Enemy SUV. The target vehicle must be within a number of spaces equal to the character’s Athletics skill. Pegs are used to indicate if a character or an enemy is atop a vehicle. A ‘Ram’ Action is used to destroy an Enemy SUV and turn it into a Wreck; ‘Force’ Action lets a player force another Player Vehicle or Enemy SUV two spaces in any direction; ‘Shake’ forces an Enemy Peg off the top of a Player Vehicle whilst at its wheel; ‘Brawl’ can happen when a player and an Enemy Peg are atop the same vehicle and if successful, the player knocks the Enemy Peg off the vehicle, and the ‘Hijack’ Action lets a player already atop an Enemy SUV take control of the vehicle. The last Action a player can take is Take Boost Token, and this must be done as the second of his two Actions on his turn.
Alternatively, a player can take a ‘Stunt Action’. These are represented by the Stunt Cards and there are always three in play at any one time. Each has specific conditions which have to be fulfilled and are much more effective than the standard Actions. The Stunt Cards are constantly changing, moving off the end of the Road Board, and the players have three rounds in which to perform before it is replaced. A Stunt can also only be performed once or twice, as indicated by the number of Boost Tokens on its Stunt Card. After successfully performing it, a player receives the Boost Token on the Stunt Card and when there are no more Boost Tokens on the Stunt Card, it is exhausted and cannot be performed. However, it remains on the Road Board until it moves off the end, reducing the number of possible Stunt Actions available until replaced. Stunt Cards come in three levels for each scenario and get progressively more spectacular and effective.
The ‘Ram’, ‘Force’, ‘Shake’, ‘Brawl’, ‘Hijack’, and most of the ‘Stunt’ Actions all require a roll of the Effort Dice to succeed, using the Skills from both the player’s character and his vehicle, as necessary. A player can use Boost Tokens to either improve his roll on the Effort Dice or to assist another player and increase the number of Effort dice he has to roll.
Once a player has taken his two Actions, he rolls the Enemy Die. The results on this die can activate all of the Enemy SUVs, which either move closer to or slam into the player vehicles; activate the Enemy Pegs which either damage or hijack the player vehicles; and move the Main Enemy—which is different depending on the scenario—and then move the Enemy Cards on the Scenario Board and resolve the one in the ‘Activate!’ spot.
Once a player has taken his turn, he flips his Character Card over to its Exhausted side. When every player’s Character Card is exhausted, the round is over. On the Road Board, all of the Wrecks move back, possibly off the Road Board, as the Player Vehicles and the Enemy Vehicles speed forward. If a vehicle, including a Player Vehicle, is behind a Wreck, it will crash and also become a Wreck! Both the Enemy Cards and the Stunt Cards are moved along their respective boards and new ones added. This ends the round.
Play continues like this until the game is either won or lost. Fast & Furious: Highway Heist is won by achieving the objective in a scenario or performing the Level 3 Stunt Action that will win the game. However, it is lost if the players do not achieve the winning conditions in a scenario or the Level 3 Stunt Action for the scenario moves off the Road Board, meaning there are no Stunt Actions for the players to attempt.
The three scenarios in Fast & Furious: Highway Heist all vary in terms of their objectives and complexity. ‘Tank Assault’ is the simplest and should be played first. The players have to destroy the tank before it can get away. This is done by manoeuvring Enemy SUVs and Wrecks into it and inflicting damage. In ‘Semi Heist’, the players must get atop the trailer of a semi-truck and open its cargo door—this actually opens on the model of the semi-truck!—to throw stolen cargo to waiting Player Vehicles below. The Player Vehicles need to be in the right position to receive the cargo and whilst this is happening the driver of the semi-truck is taking shotgun blasts at the character atop his trailer. ‘Semi Heist’ adds ‘Reactive Stunts’, which can be performed even when it is not a player’s turn. ‘Chopper Takedown’ is the most complex. The players are trying to get a hacker to safety, but there is a helicopter which can pick up her computer on radar. The stronger the radar signal, the more damage the helicopter’s missiles will do. The players win by destroying both the main villain’s vehicle and the helicopter. The latter is done by a player launching his vehicle into the air via a wreck and performing a mid-air ram attack! It is possible to transfer the hacker from one vehicle to another if the one she is in is damaged. Where in the earlier scenarios, the players have to track the damage suffered by the Tank and the shotgun shells fired, here they have to track the Radar signal strength, the damage done to the villain’s vehicle, and the damage done to the helicopter.
Physically, Fast & Furious: Highway Heist is very well presented and designed. The rules are well explained, the vehicles nicely detailed, and whilst the art does not use photographs from the films, it is still very good, capturing their high-speed action.
For a family or younger audience, Fast & Furious: Highway Heist is probably a bit too complex, both in terms of the number of options a player has and co-operative play. That though, can be alleviated with the help of a more experienced player and the online guides to play video. Also, being scenario-based means that once the three scenarios in Fast & Furious: Highway Heist have been played through two or three times and won, the longevity and replayability of the game is greatly diminished.
Fast & Furious: Highway Heist is another fine adaptation of an intellectual property by Prospero Hall. In fact, the designers have taken an intellectual property that would seem not to lend itself to adaptation as a board game and actually turned it into one that is exciting and fun. It has physicality to its play as the vehicles manoeuvre back and forth across the road, speed up and slow down, brake to avoid wrecks, and the drivers jump from atop one vehicle to another to brawl each with other and hijack vehicles, which you can all visualise as you play. Yet that is only the standard play. Add in the Stunt Cards and the action of the play goes up, getting more and more spectacular. In doing so, it captures the action of the Fast & Furious films and there can be no doubt that fans of the franchise will enjoy game. For more general board game players, the attraction is of another good adaptation by Prospero Hall of mechanics to fit the game’s theme. Ultimately, whilst it may not offer long term play, Fast & Furious: Highway Heist captures the speed and action of the films, bringing their physicality to the table in a solid design.
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