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Gloomhaven
60m - 120m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 12+
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Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. Players will take on the role of a wandering adventurer with their own special set of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this dark corner of the world. Players must work together out of necessity to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process, they will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make.
This is a game with a persistent and changing world that is ideally played over many game sessions. After a scenario, players will make decisions on what to do, which will determine how the story continues, kind of like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. Playing through a scenario is a cooperative affair where players will fight against automated monsters using an innovative card system to determine the order of play and what a player does on their turn.
Each turn, a player chooses two cards to play out of their hand. The number on the top card determines their initiative for the round. Each card also has a top and bottom power, and when it is a player’s turn in the initiative order, they determine whether to use the top power of one card and the bottom power of the other, or vice-versa. Players must be careful, though, because over time they will permanently lose cards from their hands. If they take too long to clear a dungeon, they may end up exhausted and be forced to retreat.
| Ages | 12+ |
|---|---|
| Designer | Isaac Childres |
| Mechanics | Campaign / Battle Card Driven, Cooperative Play, Grid Movement, Hand Management, Legacy, Modular Board, Simultaneous Action Selection, Storytelling, Variable Player Powers |
| Play Time | 60m – 120m |
| Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
| Publisher | Gém Klub Kft., Albi, Asmodee, Cephalofair Games, Feuerland Spiele, Hobby World, Korea Boardgames co., Ltd. |
| Theme | Fighting, Miniatures, Adventure, Exploration, Fantasy |
AgentDib
Base game 2-4 players 3.7 weight 150 min Upgrade combo pack preordered from Kickstarter, Aug 2017 Second copy preordered from Kickstarter, Aug 2017 MeepleRealty insert
adamredwoods
1 play / 3 players LIKE: Enough strategic decisions to make interesting turns. I also like the secret hidden goals, which helped to add a little tension to the game. The player character asymmetry was really interesting. The dual use of the cards (top and bottom balancing) was well designed. DISLIKE: Lots of randomness. Possibility for player elimination. Fiddly, with little rules and modifications that players need to remember. Lots of shuffling. Not very portable. The gameplay feels like it would get repetitive with it's hack 'n slash gameplay. OVERALL: It's a fun hybrid RPG. It reminded me a lot of Pathfinder TCG, but using miniatures instead. I enjoyed the game, although I am turned off by how much hype this game has gotten. It has a very high 'exploration' game design factor, but lacks strategic depth compared to euro-game design. Still, I found it enjoyable.
AgentOddball
(No Spoilers) This game has been an absolute smash hit with my gaming group. It's everything we wanted, and more. Cooperative games sometimes have trouble with getting the difficulty curve right, many times tuned to make it come down to the wire so much that winning or losing feels random. The difficulty balance in Gloomhaven is top-notch, though! It rewards clever play, and you can sail through a scenario on one or two well-orchestrated turns, or take a terrific beating if you just try to phone it in with hack n' slash tactics. Plus, you can optionally tweak the suggested challenge up or down per scenario, and receive increased/decreased rewards as payment. Fantastic! Without talking about what they actually are, we're all extremely pleased with the unlockable classes. You don't just get more of the same, and the variety of play that comes from the unlocks keeps the game fresh and exciting. We all love our characters so much that we almost don't want to retire them, but the allure of a new discovery always wins. This is my fourth 10-ranking, and Gloomhaven absolutely deserves it. I never want it to end.