Them Bombs

It’s a budget KTANE, but one cool thing is that each successful or unsuccessful defusal leads to a website newspaper clipping for that event. The majority of the modules are simple to communicate and solve, depending on the combined brainpower of those involved. That said, the chemistry module sucks. Other than that, it’s a nice alternative and is usually on sale.

TL;DR: Great game for mobile, falls a bit short on PC compared to KTANE. This is another case where a yes or no review limits my true opinion on the whole game, but given there are no negative reviews so far, I'll prefer to balance it. This is a good game that has solid gameplay on its own, having a good variety of modules, and even including an interactive version of the manual that, for computers, works better than the plain PDF. Now, the main issue for this game here is the fact that Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes exists. That is ironic, given KTANE was made in 2015, while this one released in 2017 for mobile, hitting Steam on 2019. Even the devs acknowledge they got inspiration from KTANE, which is a good thing, since that's the motor for innovation. But innovation wasn't enough to grant Them Bombs enough content to differ it substantially from KTANE in a compelling way. I'll elaborate. For starters, gameplay options are way more limited in TB compared to KTANE. Sure, TB has that little storytelling before each bomb, that's a nice touch, but the novelty wears off quickly, and that doesn't weight substantially in gameplay. KTANE, on the other hand, not only has a campaign mode with an adequate progression in difficulty, but also has a mode that allows for custom bombs, adding replay value and control to the experience. About the modules, KTANE has the lead again, with a bigger variety of modules. TB has its own merit, nonetheless, bringing new and fresh modules to the gameplay, with the Pizza one being the closest to one of KTANE’s originals (Simon Says). Now, here’s where thing get a bit complicated (quite literally): while KTANE’s modules have their complexity, the difficulty rarely lies on communication problems, because even when you need to describe different symbols, few symbols are similar enough to cause confusion. In TB, the two modules that require symbol description have a lot of similar (or almost identical) symbols, one of them using symbols from electrical diagrams, and the other using music notation. While a nice nod to electricians and musicians, this design choice impacts a lot the gameplay for the Average Joe, increasing the difficulty in a frustrating way rather than a challenging one. Furthermore, the modules’ novelty also wears off relatively quickly, given the fewer modules from TB, and TB has no workshop support, which KTANE has. At least TB has different distractions that are on par with the ones in KTANE (I particularly liked the anxiety one, but I believe a bigger button could help a bit with it). In conclusion, I feel that Them Bombs is a good game, if you consider it was originally a mobile game and worked within mobile limitations to provide a fun alternative to KTANE while still accessible to mobile devices. But translating that to PC in an overall simplistic way, with few improvements, makes it a shallow competitor to KTANE, even more if you consider the prices for both being similar. For the devs, don’t take this review as me being overly critical, since I enjoyed playing this, having bought 2 copies myself, but rather take it as feedback for future games, even more if you ever plan on doing a Them Bombs 2 or a Them Bombs VR. Even if KTANE is a more complete option, overall, having more competitors is important for innovation to keep flourishing in the market.

really fun game, i enjoy playing this with my friends. especially when they upset me so i can make them blow up the bomb. Joking aside, its a lot of fun, and makes for a great time killer with friends.