Why is that? Descent: Legends of the Dark is essentially a “Kickstarter board game,” but without Kickstarter or any other crowdfunding platform. The famous board game company is trying to create something of the same scale and success as crowdfunding at Gloomhaven. If this were a commercial success, we might see more of these big, expensive and complex board games produced with traditional funding than crowdfunding. At the very least, it would go above and beyond what the company believed in in terms of the price of the board game and the quantity and quality of components in a box.
How does Descent: Legends of the Dark Gloomhaven compare? Actually, this is not a simple comparison. For those who don't play a board game, the two big squares can be similar. But they fell on opposite sides of the Eurogame division against Ameritras . Gloomhaven is basically a European game where you anticipate three moves depending on the cards in your hand. Descent is an American style game with more options and more story surprises. Both types of games can be good. American-style games are all about style, so Descent has beautiful miniatures and 3D land while Gloomhaven has a cardboard pedestal and flat tokens. Fall is much more accessible in gameplay mode. At least initially, you follow fairly simple rules of moving a few squares and striking the dice. The original Gloomhaven had no tutorials at all, so I always advise new players to buy the cheaper and more accessible version of Jaws of the Lion, which uses the same combat system.
Is Descent: Legends of the Dark a good game? I thought that was it. I learned to play on apps and watch people play whole games on YouTube . And American style play is much more spectacular than European games, where most of the action is only in the minds of the players. Also, a game with lots of little squares gets really impressive when the little squares are colored. Paint your thumbnail and turn Descent into a stunning gaming conference screen (sorry I can't draw it). But apart from being impressive, Descent is also an incredibly deep tactical fighting game with some pretty interesting game mechanics. As the game progresses, more parts of the game will be explained to you. And when you have a full set of weapons, armor, skills and consumable upgrades, and you participate in a powerful attack dance, when you load your cards with fatigue counters, and then flip the cards over to clear the counters, Descent be a game. mechanical beauty.
Descent: Much of the controversy and hate surrounding Legends of the Dark is based on the game app. Critics say this is a video game. Unfortunately, that wasn't my case. I would definitely buy the video game Descent: Legends of the Dark on Steam if it was available. I bought the Gloomhaven video game on Steam even though I own the board game. But for single player games, running everything on a computer is much faster. But while I don't hate apps, I don't think Descent is the best board game. Imagine a table with 4 players sitting on 4 sides: how do you make sure everyone gets the most out of the story told by the phone or tablet app? The obvious solution is to sync all narrations, but this is not available in the Descent app. Instead, he writes clickable interviews. This works great for single player, partially for two players next to each other, but for 3 or 4 players you basically need additional hardware to stream apps to nearby TV screens. And it's not just a story. Quests include buying and selling crafting materials, spending money on recipes, using recipes and materials to work on weapon parts, and then supplying them. Everything works so well in one interface that one player can make all the decisions, but there's no mechanism for different players wanting different things.
The Descent: Legends of the Dark app uses “hidden information”. You don't know what kind of damage a weak monster has until you hit it with such damage for the first time. You don't know how many achievements it takes to open this box. You don't know what will happen after you complete the first task in the plot. You don't know how long the plot is. I think that's a bit too much. In the video playback above, players are amazed by the duration of the first story and get a 7 hour video. Sure, showing the game on YouTube adds hours, but regular players also need to spend at least 3 hours to finish a story. This is not a game that can be played quickly for an hour, unless you have a dedicated table to finish the game. There is no mechanical "save" in the middle of the scenario, you can only stop playing between stages. And unlike Gloomhaven, the app won't let you repeat the scenario unless you restart your entire campaign. This fits the American style of play, where many scenarios are based on surprises and the second part will be much easier.
But despite all that, I'm going to buy the "lite" version of Descent: Legends of the Dark and play it without the miniatures and 3D scenery for the price of typical board games like Fantasy Flight Games like Lord of the Rings - Journey in Mid. -Earth (which I hate) is now $80 on Amazon or $70 on Madness Mansions. I wouldn't buy the real game Descent: Legends of the Dark for $175. Basically for paying a hundred bucks more for tiny landscapes and 3D graphics. And yes, the miniatures of Descent: Legends of the Dark HIPS are high quality compared to other board games. It's just that I don't really like miniatures and I like the low resolution material I can print with my 3D printer. Mainly because I don't draw miniatures.
But that's just me. While I've sponsored a few games on Kickstarter, I've never sponsored Little Box. And I've stayed away from some very expensive Kickstarter games with lots of miniatures, like the $400 Kingdom Death: Monster. Instead, I helped the Lands of Galzyr with wooden meeps for 70 euros. But hey, more than five thousand people have helped Kingdom Death: Monsters and other mini games have received more support. So I think fall could do well. Kickstarter has advantages, but also disadvantages, for example in terms of the usability of games after Kickstarter. Some went to the game store and ended up buying Descent because the game was available and on display. I'm sure an expert game shop owner could get someone to paint a thumbnail and put up a Descent screen that will surprise every player they see. And luckily, those who fall in love with minifigures also get a pretty decent board game. For people who don't like miniatures, the $175 price tag is a bit off limits.
