Episode 292: Unconscious Mind

In Unconscious Mind, designed by Laskas, Jonny Pac, Yoma, and Antonio Zax, and published by Fantasia Games—with compelling art by Andrew Bosley and Vincent Dutrait—you play as a member of the Wednesday Psychological Society, a group of Sigmund Freud’s supporters. Your goal? To become the best darn psychotherapist this side of Vienna.

By curing patients, publishing studies, and gaining reputation. Now look—this game is deep and heavy, like the subconscious, so here’s just a taste of what to expect.

On your turn, you’ll either treat a patient, which requires spending resources to heal various levels of their malaise. These resources are tracked on a circular resource board, made up of three colors representing parts of the human psyche. Each resource has three levels and is spent in different combinations to treat multiple layers of emotional doldrums—through some genuinely clever design.

The other option is to deploy a worker onto a grid to take actions. These actions let you gather resources, upgrade your player board (with upgrades potentially activated based on your worker’s placement), collect cards to build sets, and publish those sets as books. You’ll also be able to move around Vienna—or move Freud himself—to claim bonuses from the city’s various districts.

There’s a reputation track, and each time you advance on it—either by completing in-game objectives or by putting a marker out in a district first—Freud also advances. When Freud reaches the end of the track, the endgame is triggered. Players finish the current round, take one final turn, and then scoring begins.

Endgame points come from multiple areas: how well you upgraded your player board, your position on the reputation track, your presence in various districts of Vienna, and there are tags you score that are found all over the place and collected through the game. Additionally, the two players highest on the reputation track (1st and 2nd) score extra points for treated patients and published books. Some patients grant endgame bonuses and you can even squeeze out a few points from leftover supplies.

Now, let’s head back to the studio to find out if this game is of sound mind—or still working through its mommy issues.