Arkham Horror: Black Stars Rise

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 5 out of 10

   DrunknKnight

   This one just tried to cram in too much. Even if you play it right it can end in an instant which is a shame to have such a brutal round so close to the end of the campaign. Just wasnt much fun.

2. 7 out of 10

   CortexBomb

   This is an exceptionally confusing first play-through, as the game has a very strange pace because it is set-up with 2 Agenda decks and no real guidance as to how to proceed in the game. Major first play spoiler: once you play through it once, you realize that the pre-game set-up will randomly determine that one of the 2 B Agendas will have a backside that gives the Investigators an actual act card to work towards. In essence, you have to work on gathering clues and keeping the numerous monsters at bay while advancing the Agendas strategically to maximize the amount of time you have to fulfill the Act deck when you can actually get it to spawn. For us, the double Agenda set-up made this one play longer than normal, as the Investigators can conceivably pace the 2 relatively evenly and that can make the game last at least twice as long as a more normal length scenario. The challenge of this mostly is created by this length, as we were having a reasonable time keeping things under control, but the chip shot damage will eventually wear you down in a longer story like this. That said, once you know how it works, the length is much more normal as there are locations that you can prioritize that indicate which of the 2 Agendas is the target one, and you can then aggressively speed the deck and the game turns back into a more normal Act / Agenda set-up from that point on. Overall, I like the challenge on offer here, but would have liked it being a bit more apparent what we were actually looking for for that initial play-through as I was concerned we were playing something wrong for most of that game. Once you know how it works, it seems to function pretty well though, and I don't dislike most of what there is on offer here, definitely above average and much less likely to kill off investigators than Dunwich's Where Doom Awaits once you know how it works. The set-up is kind of a pain in the butt, which is really my only rag on it at this point. In terms of player cards: I haven't found a lot of use for most of what is on offer here. My favorite right now is probably Stick to the Plan which is an obvious powerhouse card for Guardians as it means you can basically start with a larger hand with 3 cards (from a subset) of your choosing which is very powerful with the right build. Ward of Protection (2) isn't bad, as having ways to mitigate treachery cards can be worth the price that this one costs. The Arcane Initiate (3) also seems like it is a pretty solid upgrade for Mystics as well, as it is now more versatile and can help dig for whatever you need. Aside from these, I'm not overly fond of the rest of the card mix here.

3. 8.5 out of 10

   Abizan

   #3 Путь в каркозу - 5 Очень атмосферное приключение. Со второй попытки далось. В первый раз вообще не понятно что делать, куда идти. В итоге в первый раз как по итогу оказалось сначала делали все как надо для победы, но потом отвлеклись и пошли по "не верному" пути. Со второго раза проходится легче.