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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Cult of the Deep in Tabletop Games
Feb 24, 2021
You see that cultist in the foreground of the box art about to dab? If I knew being in a cult was THIS cool… Well, I have never been in a cult. At least not that I am aware. However, if I ever were to be in a cult, I certainly wouldn’t wish it to be one that is intent on reviving or calling upon the scourges of the earth. I would rather be in one of those happy cults that take wisdom from a prophet and make delicious breads or something. But how does the Cult of the Deep operate and would I want to join?
Cult of the Deep is a dice-driven, fantasy horror, hidden role game with similarities to some classic games. In it players will be donning the personas (personae?) of cultists with different roles and agendas. Players will be forming alliances with other cultists of unknown roles and possibly having their character perish and return to play as a Wraith with a totally new agenda. Each cultist’s role will have their own victory conditions to fulfill and the game ends once a player (or players) have fulfilling their victory conditions.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
Setup involves placing out the Altar Boards and Ritual Cards upon them. Players will also receive one Role, Character, Sigil, and Reference Card to use during play. Players will reveal their Character Cards and collect enough Life Tokens to equal what is shown upon these cards. Each set of dice and the coins are to be set on the table within reach. The player who received the High Priest Role Card reveals it, takes extra Life Counters, and becomes the first player. They take five Cultist Dice and the game may begin!
Each turn is divided into four phases: Roll, Commit, Response, Resolve. During the Roll phase the active player will roll five dice, and any dice may be re-rolled another two times. Once all re-rolls are complete or the player decides to stop, they will take each die and Commit them to other players, altars, or themselves. For example, if the player rolls two blood drop icons they may wish to heal themselves by two, so they can commit these dice to themselves. Should this player also have rolled any dagger icons they may commit these dice to other players in order to attack them for one life per icon. If any player has a special ability that can be enacted during the Response phase, they must now use it. One such ability may be turning a one-dagger icon into a two-dagger icon, or other abilities. Once all players have had a chance to activate any abilities during this phase, the dice must now be Resolved in any order of the active player’s choosing. So now the player can regain life counters (or even surpass their starting life total), attack other players’ life points, or activate any Altar abilities if dice were placed on Ritual Cards on altars.
The Resolve phase is where the action happens, and can lead to some serious actions. Players can be killed, Rituals can be activated, and players can be healed. If a Ritual is completed (no more activation slots remaining) during this phase, the active player becomes the Keeper of the Ritual and collects its card from the altar to be used for an immediate effect, or an ongoing effect for the rest of the game. Should a player be slain, they may return to the game as a Wraith, and thus draws a Wraith card (shown below) to now represent their altered state. Wraiths play the game differently, as they will not be able to commit any dice during their turn, but rather have their dice to be used during other cultists’ Response phases.
Play continues in this fashion of taking turns around the table until victory conditions have been met for a player or group of players. The game may be over, but the lasting effects of the results will remain in each player’s heart for some time.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, so not all components are as they will be in the finished version. That said, we received an excellent prototype copy of the game. The cards are great, the cardboard components are equally great, and I know we were provided with examples of the Kickstarter exclusive add-on metal coins, but I certainly would spring for them. These coins are the real deal and just feel amazing to handle. I know the dice will be different upon a successful campaign, as stickered dice simply will not hold up to many plays (and I see on the KS page that the d4s will have numbers ON TOP, which is where they should be). So once all is said and done, I believe this will be a beautiful, if not dark, game with excellent components and art style.
I mentioned in my open that this game reminds me of bits of other classic games. Perhaps you were able to discern these in my description, but here are my thoughts. I enjoy dice-based hidden-role games like BANG! The Dice Game. Cult of the Deep feels similar in that players may suss out roles of other players simply by attacking them until roles are revealed or cultists slain. This is not the ideal strategy, as I have been repeatedly told by my wife, but it certain is effective. What is improved here is that players come back as Wraiths and really are not ever out of the game. This is very good, as I usually am the player who is ganged up on and first to exit any game of this type.
Secondly, rolling dice and then committing them to certain areas of the game feels extremely reminiscent of the classic Biblios. Biblios uses cards and each turn the different areas MUST be committed to, but here again Cult of the Deep improves on this mechanic by allowing the player to choose every location to which they wish to commit their dice. Maybe every turn a player will commit daggers to one player (more than likely the High Priest), or certain dice faces to heal another player, but it is not necessary, and always being aware of what faces the Rituals need to progress will also dissuade players from ganging on one player each turn.
I didn’t mention it in my description, but each player is also given a Sigil card that can be used once per game, and they are especially powerful. Having so many choices available during a turn, or even during other players’ turns makes this game unique and incredibly enjoyable.
If you are looking for a game that has that Cthulhu-esque theme, hints of other classic game mechanics, and a deluxe look, then Cult of the Deep is certainly highly recommended. It is a notch more difficult than BANG! The Dice Game, and utilizes Biblios’s resource allocation mechanic better, thus creating a great blend of each. I do think you should check out the Kickstarter campaign ending Wednesday, March 3, 2021 to back it and add it to your collection. Obviously, this isn’t for everyone, but if you have read this far, I will assume at least a small measure of interest. I believe it will be a great game to have available for the right group of people who can handle the theme and don’t mind dying and becoming a character in Lord of the Rings.
Cult of the Deep is a dice-driven, fantasy horror, hidden role game with similarities to some classic games. In it players will be donning the personas (personae?) of cultists with different roles and agendas. Players will be forming alliances with other cultists of unknown roles and possibly having their character perish and return to play as a Wraith with a totally new agenda. Each cultist’s role will have their own victory conditions to fulfill and the game ends once a player (or players) have fulfilling their victory conditions.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
Setup involves placing out the Altar Boards and Ritual Cards upon them. Players will also receive one Role, Character, Sigil, and Reference Card to use during play. Players will reveal their Character Cards and collect enough Life Tokens to equal what is shown upon these cards. Each set of dice and the coins are to be set on the table within reach. The player who received the High Priest Role Card reveals it, takes extra Life Counters, and becomes the first player. They take five Cultist Dice and the game may begin!
Each turn is divided into four phases: Roll, Commit, Response, Resolve. During the Roll phase the active player will roll five dice, and any dice may be re-rolled another two times. Once all re-rolls are complete or the player decides to stop, they will take each die and Commit them to other players, altars, or themselves. For example, if the player rolls two blood drop icons they may wish to heal themselves by two, so they can commit these dice to themselves. Should this player also have rolled any dagger icons they may commit these dice to other players in order to attack them for one life per icon. If any player has a special ability that can be enacted during the Response phase, they must now use it. One such ability may be turning a one-dagger icon into a two-dagger icon, or other abilities. Once all players have had a chance to activate any abilities during this phase, the dice must now be Resolved in any order of the active player’s choosing. So now the player can regain life counters (or even surpass their starting life total), attack other players’ life points, or activate any Altar abilities if dice were placed on Ritual Cards on altars.
The Resolve phase is where the action happens, and can lead to some serious actions. Players can be killed, Rituals can be activated, and players can be healed. If a Ritual is completed (no more activation slots remaining) during this phase, the active player becomes the Keeper of the Ritual and collects its card from the altar to be used for an immediate effect, or an ongoing effect for the rest of the game. Should a player be slain, they may return to the game as a Wraith, and thus draws a Wraith card (shown below) to now represent their altered state. Wraiths play the game differently, as they will not be able to commit any dice during their turn, but rather have their dice to be used during other cultists’ Response phases.
Play continues in this fashion of taking turns around the table until victory conditions have been met for a player or group of players. The game may be over, but the lasting effects of the results will remain in each player’s heart for some time.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, so not all components are as they will be in the finished version. That said, we received an excellent prototype copy of the game. The cards are great, the cardboard components are equally great, and I know we were provided with examples of the Kickstarter exclusive add-on metal coins, but I certainly would spring for them. These coins are the real deal and just feel amazing to handle. I know the dice will be different upon a successful campaign, as stickered dice simply will not hold up to many plays (and I see on the KS page that the d4s will have numbers ON TOP, which is where they should be). So once all is said and done, I believe this will be a beautiful, if not dark, game with excellent components and art style.
I mentioned in my open that this game reminds me of bits of other classic games. Perhaps you were able to discern these in my description, but here are my thoughts. I enjoy dice-based hidden-role games like BANG! The Dice Game. Cult of the Deep feels similar in that players may suss out roles of other players simply by attacking them until roles are revealed or cultists slain. This is not the ideal strategy, as I have been repeatedly told by my wife, but it certain is effective. What is improved here is that players come back as Wraiths and really are not ever out of the game. This is very good, as I usually am the player who is ganged up on and first to exit any game of this type.
Secondly, rolling dice and then committing them to certain areas of the game feels extremely reminiscent of the classic Biblios. Biblios uses cards and each turn the different areas MUST be committed to, but here again Cult of the Deep improves on this mechanic by allowing the player to choose every location to which they wish to commit their dice. Maybe every turn a player will commit daggers to one player (more than likely the High Priest), or certain dice faces to heal another player, but it is not necessary, and always being aware of what faces the Rituals need to progress will also dissuade players from ganging on one player each turn.
I didn’t mention it in my description, but each player is also given a Sigil card that can be used once per game, and they are especially powerful. Having so many choices available during a turn, or even during other players’ turns makes this game unique and incredibly enjoyable.
If you are looking for a game that has that Cthulhu-esque theme, hints of other classic game mechanics, and a deluxe look, then Cult of the Deep is certainly highly recommended. It is a notch more difficult than BANG! The Dice Game, and utilizes Biblios’s resource allocation mechanic better, thus creating a great blend of each. I do think you should check out the Kickstarter campaign ending Wednesday, March 3, 2021 to back it and add it to your collection. Obviously, this isn’t for everyone, but if you have read this far, I will assume at least a small measure of interest. I believe it will be a great game to have available for the right group of people who can handle the theme and don’t mind dying and becoming a character in Lord of the Rings.
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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Marvel's Spider-Man in Video Games
Jan 15, 2019 (Updated Jan 15, 2019)
The best web swinging has felt in any Spiderman game ever. (3 more)
Good presentation in all of the cutscenes.
Enjoyable orchestral backdrop to swing around Manhattan to.
The parts of Manhattan that are in the game look great.
A lot of Manhattan has been left out or vastly downsized. (2 more)
The other 4 boroughs have been ignored.
Although the presentation is great, the graphics are slightly sub par.
Thwip!
Marvel's Spider-man was one of the biggest games of last year. Developed by Insomniac and following an original story, not tied in to the recent MCU movie, this was the most exciting superhero game since the Arkham series for a lot of people. Thankfully, Insomniac did manage to deliver a brilliant game, but not a perfect one.
The game's opening fantastically sets up the tone and energy of what's to follow and it's probably one of the best video game opening's I have ever played in that respect. Once the rush and momentum of that first mission wears off, you are introduced to the open world that you will be exploring for the next 20 or so hours. Manhattan does look good here, possibly the best it ever has done in a game. Landmarks like the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden are rendered extremely accurately to their real life counterparts.
The stuff that they chose to include in the game's version of Manhattan is great, but the issue is all of the parts that they left out. Battery Park is has halved in size, the One World Trade Centre has changed shape and everything above mid Harlem has vanished, making the district feel stumpy. Hopefully some of this stuff is amended for the sequel, along with the addition of at least a couple of the other boroughs.
Although the environment looks good graphically, as do Spidey's various suits that can be unlocked during the game, the human character models aren't the best and are fairly ugly when compared to character models in other 2018 games such as God of War, Red Dead 2 and Detroit: Become Human. Usually, in cutscenes etc, the game presents these character model well enough that it isn't too noticeable, but there were a good few times during gameplay that I would catch a glimpse of MJ's or Miles' weird faces and scratch my head wondering why they don't look better.
I have heard a few reviews moaning about the orchestral score that plays in the background as you swing around the city, but I personally really enjoyed it and it made me feel even more like a superhero than I already do when swinging through the middle of Times Square. I felt that all of the musical choices were well implemented and matched the story beats aptly to add impact in the right places.
Let's finish on a positive, the web swinging mechanic in this game is extremely satisfying and comes out on top of any other Spider-man game's web swinging system. Again, it's not flawless, there are moments that it will frustrate you and you will web to the opposite side of what you were aiming for. Also, for some reason the wall crawling mechanic is really slow and finicky and can often break the fast paced momentum of the web swinging/zipping/wall running combo that you have going. Most of the time though, it works fantastically and feels extremely fluid and immersive and it is probably one of the most satisfying game mechanics of 2018, along with Kratos' axe in GOW.
Overall, Marvel's Spider-man is great, but not perfect. There is definitely room for improvement, but this could be the start of a potentially incredible series of Marvel superhero games and hopefully the sequel, (that Insomniac is undoubtedly working on,) can improve on some of the flaws present in this game and deliver something incredible.
The game's opening fantastically sets up the tone and energy of what's to follow and it's probably one of the best video game opening's I have ever played in that respect. Once the rush and momentum of that first mission wears off, you are introduced to the open world that you will be exploring for the next 20 or so hours. Manhattan does look good here, possibly the best it ever has done in a game. Landmarks like the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden are rendered extremely accurately to their real life counterparts.
The stuff that they chose to include in the game's version of Manhattan is great, but the issue is all of the parts that they left out. Battery Park is has halved in size, the One World Trade Centre has changed shape and everything above mid Harlem has vanished, making the district feel stumpy. Hopefully some of this stuff is amended for the sequel, along with the addition of at least a couple of the other boroughs.
Although the environment looks good graphically, as do Spidey's various suits that can be unlocked during the game, the human character models aren't the best and are fairly ugly when compared to character models in other 2018 games such as God of War, Red Dead 2 and Detroit: Become Human. Usually, in cutscenes etc, the game presents these character model well enough that it isn't too noticeable, but there were a good few times during gameplay that I would catch a glimpse of MJ's or Miles' weird faces and scratch my head wondering why they don't look better.
I have heard a few reviews moaning about the orchestral score that plays in the background as you swing around the city, but I personally really enjoyed it and it made me feel even more like a superhero than I already do when swinging through the middle of Times Square. I felt that all of the musical choices were well implemented and matched the story beats aptly to add impact in the right places.
Let's finish on a positive, the web swinging mechanic in this game is extremely satisfying and comes out on top of any other Spider-man game's web swinging system. Again, it's not flawless, there are moments that it will frustrate you and you will web to the opposite side of what you were aiming for. Also, for some reason the wall crawling mechanic is really slow and finicky and can often break the fast paced momentum of the web swinging/zipping/wall running combo that you have going. Most of the time though, it works fantastically and feels extremely fluid and immersive and it is probably one of the most satisfying game mechanics of 2018, along with Kratos' axe in GOW.
Overall, Marvel's Spider-man is great, but not perfect. There is definitely room for improvement, but this could be the start of a potentially incredible series of Marvel superhero games and hopefully the sequel, (that Insomniac is undoubtedly working on,) can improve on some of the flaws present in this game and deliver something incredible.
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Akward (448 KP) rated Terraforming Mars in Tabletop Games
May 24, 2018 (Updated May 27, 2018)
Theme (1 more)
Mechanics
The Hottest Game of The Year
Terraforming Mars is one of the most refined games that our group has ever played. One of the problems that plagues so many games is that once you find a winning strategy, you basically just play that strategy until you get bored of the game and movie on. In Terraforming Mars, there are a significant number of strategies that can win the game. We have had people win by focusing on playing the board, building up actions, focusing on production, or focusing on money. There does not appear to be one central strategy that trumps the others. A lot of people will complain about the randomness of the cards that you receive, but this helps guide you in to a strategy that you may not otherwise play.
There are enough mechanics to keep the game interesting. But all of the mechanics are simple enough that explaining the game to new people is not challenging. You would also expect a game of this type to take a long time to play, but once everyone is familiar with the rules, games can be as short as an hour.
I will agree with other reviewers that the default mats to manage resources do not do a good job, and aftermarket solutions make life easier (although not required). The expansions are also nice, after you've played a few games. Hallas & Elysium adds two additional boards that change the game slightly, and also provide different awards that keep you on your toes. Venus Next adds a few additional mechanics, and also introduces the World Government rule, making games faster.
Other people have mentioned that they do not like the artwork, and that they have had issues with the resource cubes wearing out. I don't really have a problem with either one of those things, but I may just be lucky. My cubes still look great after 50+ games.
There is a reason that Terraforming Mars has exploded in the last year. I would highly recommend everyone try it. Even my wife, who isn't traditionally a fan of more complicated games, likes it.
There are enough mechanics to keep the game interesting. But all of the mechanics are simple enough that explaining the game to new people is not challenging. You would also expect a game of this type to take a long time to play, but once everyone is familiar with the rules, games can be as short as an hour.
I will agree with other reviewers that the default mats to manage resources do not do a good job, and aftermarket solutions make life easier (although not required). The expansions are also nice, after you've played a few games. Hallas & Elysium adds two additional boards that change the game slightly, and also provide different awards that keep you on your toes. Venus Next adds a few additional mechanics, and also introduces the World Government rule, making games faster.
Other people have mentioned that they do not like the artwork, and that they have had issues with the resource cubes wearing out. I don't really have a problem with either one of those things, but I may just be lucky. My cubes still look great after 50+ games.
There is a reason that Terraforming Mars has exploded in the last year. I would highly recommend everyone try it. Even my wife, who isn't traditionally a fan of more complicated games, likes it.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) Feb 25, 2021