Sword & Sorcery – Immortal Souls
Five heroes awoke from the dead and were made immortal to save the kingdom from the rise of darkness. In Sword & Sorcery – Immortal Souls, up to five players control one or more of these legendary characters brought back to life by powerful sorcery, to fight against the forces of evil, controlled by the game itself.
60m - 90m
1 - 5 Players
Ages 12+
Arkham52
Just finished the campaign from the base set and I just have to say: I am thoroughly disappointed. It may come as strange to first say that the actual mechanics in the game are good and interesting but everything else tied to it just does not deliver. TLDR Game mechanic is awesome. But the game lacks content, you need the expansion to finish the game, it has too many working but unecessary parts, story is poorly written, rulebook could've been written better, alignment differences are not substantial and feel artificial. Full list of issues I had with the game: - For such a high price, you only get 6 missions campaign with very little replayability as you will see most of things within your first playthrough. - Very bad intro to the game. The first mission of these kind of games is always light on content and serves as an introduction to the base mechanics of the game. S&S however has the first mission last for hours, throws a ton of content your way (and questions) which takes away from the initial fun.. - Map tiles are badly done. It is confusing what is a wall and what is not and it's not always easy to see at first glance where does one area end and another begin. - The game lacks content. You start out with 5 heroes, that can be different alignments and some different skills, but even different alignments have a LOT of shared skills. Extra heroes can be (of course) bought with hero packs and NONE are included in the expansion. Oh, and YOU NEED the expansion just so you can finish the damn campaign (you get only act 1 out of 2). This is unacceptable when you compare to similar games (even Descent). This is a major issue for me because they place everything behind a hefty paywall even though the development of the game was Kickstarted...Speaking of bad behaviour, I lost my Shaman scroll card and politely asked if I can get the file to print just this one card. To note is that a version already exists online (placed by Ares) but in a poor resolution. No reply. They did show some respect to consumers online, so maybe they missed it. Somehow. So I sent again. No reply. - The game is complex to the point it's difficult to get things right all the time, let alone manage everything. It's very easy to forget even basic things like to apply domination bonus, or if the the enemy is blocked by another. As an owner of the game it was damn difficult to oversee if everything was played according to the rules without checking every little action my teamates did. Because monsters are divided among players it's easy for someone to mess up and don't apply their reaction or passive skill. Every session I had to spend many minutes re-reading the rules and searching for clarifications on the net. This is because: 1) Rulebook is poorly done (there is not even a components list!). The index is categorized by topics rather than names which makes things more difficult to find. 2) There are too many rules and not all of them are really needed. I mean, why do enemy monsters block line of sight, but your heroes don't? Was that necessary? Also, why could not the book of secrets and the questbook be one book? This is a general problem of the game, there is so many things scattered all over the place, but not adding much in return. - The story feels very corny and shallow and your typical run-of-the mill storyline with an initial twist that tries to sound epic. - The only great thing about the game is the combat mechanic which is very interesting, well done and challenging. However, after you finish the combat, depending on the event, you can have same number of ENEMY RESPAWN so now you again have to fight. This can be very exhausting. As a side note, be ready to have ample space ready for all the tokens, books, tiles and hero sheets. This game is hogs as much space as it can. I'm not really happy with my purchase, especially the ACT II being in an expansion. I will definitely think twice before buying anything from Ares again.
ajewo
Cooperative Ameritrash dungeon crawler fantasy game by the designers of Galaxy Defenders. [b]I like:[/b] + A lot of tactical choices available + Story events have different branches depending on the player's decision. + Some unpredictability creates tension and replayability based on (story) events. + Good AI system, context-sensitive, however, AI cannot use its AI due to the tubular level design (no positioning possible) + Leveling up and finding equipment for characters is fun: characters can take evil or good paths (morality), however, difficulty depends on the what equipments you find + Cooldown system from computer games: when you fire a skill, it will need to be rotated back into "readiness" before using it again. + Monsters get special abilities which make them more interesting. + Characters with special abilities play differently + Monsters have different behavior + Adjustable difficulty level [b]Neutrals:[/b] # Artwork and components are okay: look and feel is rather old-school. # Generic fantasy story. # Narrative campaign (scenario-based). # Expansions are really good and provide better scenarios, however, you should reset your character levels. # Scales quite well from 1-4 players. # Dead characters can play as ghost. No permadeath. # Some randomness and luck involved: different event decks, dice rolling # App to help manage character progression across a couple of campaigns if you play with a couple of groups. # Too many simultaneous effects in the end game. # Dice rolls creates tension but also swingyness # Long rulebook (50 pages) [b]I do not like:[/b] - The AI cannot make use of its AI conditions due to the narrow levels. Base game does not make fully use of the game system. - Base game scenarios are rather boring (expansions are far better). No explorations (except for Arance Portal expansion). - Bosses can be pinned down into a corner and thus are easily defeated. - Simple core rules, however, there are a lot of little details that need to be looked up again and again which makes it a complex heavy game. - The combat rules while not complicated add so many modifiers that they slow the game down. - Set-up and tear-down: plenty of tokens to sort and manage. - Balancing problems on higher levels: players become too strong. - Kickstarter exclusives. [b]Similar games:[/b] * Sword & Sorcery: Ancient Chronicles: reimplementation of Immortal Souls by improving the AI and level design to make the combat more dynamic, however, it is also more complex, good scenarios, generic story, tweaked rules. * Galaxy Defenders: Sci-Fi prequel of Sword & Sorcery inspired by XCOM the video game, deeper tactical, faster, and dynamic combat. * Altar Quest: puzzly long hero turns, fun generative exploration. * Chronicles of Drunagor: fun events, weaker tactical combat, cube action system. * Middara: character building with a lot of skills, no events, AI can be exploited. * Descent: Legends of the Dark: app-integration, fun crafting and progression, less tactical options, less complexity, weaker scenario design, weaker monster profiles. * Gloomhaven: hand management game, poor AI, very puzzly, fiddly, repetitive. * Oathsworm: good story, boss battler, however, combat strategies remain rather the same andOka static.
Alecevergreen
Solido comparto regolistico, pochi oggetti fra cui scegliere, mal bilanciato nella fase iniziale. Decisamente influenzato dalla fortuna. Divertente