Gloomhaven
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 travelling to this dark corner of the world.
60m - 120m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 12+
414448
Very mechanical, abstract and repetitive, and I wouldn't call it particularly thematic (the strength surely lies in the player card mechanisms), but intriguing nonetheless, as an optimization puzzle. I strongly dislike the limitations on communication; my favorite way of playing cooperatively is to discuss all decisions together, and to come up with the optimal solution as a team. Also, the game looks horrendously uninspiring. The box cover looks deceptively intriguing, but what's inside is incredibly dull. The game needs a MAJOR graphical overhaul. With each play so far, the game feels more and more like an abstract, mechanical, repetitive challenge with a clever system where a few components (your hand of cards) can be combined in multiple ways for many potential solutions, and it feels like the thematic and narrative efforts are just silly. To sum it up: an abstract, tactical puzzle with a clever mechanism at heart. Played again: hopefully this was the last time I had to play Gloomhaven.
46 and 2
This game was a huge disappointment. I cannot understand the throngs of people who praise this game. Leaving aside the weird, NPC-type character races (your choices are quite limited up front) and the badly-organized box (its half-assed attempt to provide some sort of organizational structure for the myriad decks of cards is insulting), my problem with this game comes down to the opening scenario. To say it is brutally difficult is an understatement. It is downright impossible. Changing strategies, characters, skill/spell loadouts, all yielded fast, frustrating death, if not in the first room, soon upon entering the second room of three. Forget trying to meet the (randomly-generated and very, VERY odd character goals) for the scenario. You'll need to seriously ratchet down the difficulty, beyond what the game even allows, basically house-ruling a way to win the first scenario. IE, the only way to win that first scenario is to cheat. What a fun way to play a game. After running into loss after loss on the first scenario, I boxed this game up, sold it, shipped it, and never looked back. There is no reason for a game to punish players who have just started. It's bad game design. A well-designed game can teach as it goes, introducing players to the complexities of gameplay as it progresses. A dedicated gaming group will not tolerate a game that dishes out constant losses, no matter how good it might get later on. There will be the inevitable responses of "get gud," etc, but a game has to have a hook to draw gamers in. This has only disappointment and frustration at the outset. Gloomhaven is not a well-designed game, no matter what may come later on.
1 Family Meeple
[IMG]https://cf.geekdo-static.com/mbs/mb_17587_1.png[/IMG] Gloomhaven (second printing): BASE GAME Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles Expansion Gloomhaven: Removable Sticker Set Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles (Removable Sticker Set) Gloomhaven: METAL COIN UPGRADE