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Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Genshin Impact in Video Games
Apr 6, 2021
Free to play (2 more)
Gorgeous world full of beauty
Good story and fun to play
"Gacha" game, to unlock new characters and weapons the game utilizes in game currency that you can buy with real world money (1 more)
Multi-player/Co-op mode needs work
Another Example of Free to Play Done Right, Loads of Fun!
https://youtu.be/BFdBTc-vscg
Genshin Impact is a 2020 action RPG game developed and published by miHoYo and produced by Hugh Tsai. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Android and IOS on September 4th 2020 and backwards compatible for Playstation 5 in November 2020. Genshin Impact is a "gacha game" featuring an open-world environment, action based battle system utilizing elemental magic and character switching. There have been no updates as of late as to when or if the game might release for Nintendo Switch or Xbox. The game has been considered a commercial success due to it's large fan base and grossing over $1 billion dollars within 6 month of it's release.
Taking place in the fantasy world of Teyvat, Genshin Impact, is home to seven different nations, each of which is tied to an element and ruled by a god associated with it. Such as the city-state nation of Mondstadt, whose element is Anemo, the air element and worships Barbatos, the Anemo Archon and the nation of Liyue whose element is Geo, the rock/earth element and worships Rex Lapis (Morax), the Geo Archon. The main story follows a set of twins not from this world, which you can choose to be either the male or female version of. They become the one referred to as the Traveler, which is the main character of the game. They have traveled across many worlds with their twin but have become separated from them by an unknown god in Teyvat. The Traveler travels across Teyvat in search of their lost sibling with their companion, a child-like "fairy" named Paimon and becomes involved in the affairs of the other nations, gods, and the world.
This is a really great game with it's beautiful anime inspired graphics and a bunch of fun. I've been playing since around December and have probably logged in over 80 hours and I still find this game a lot of fun. . It's an open world RPG so you can pretty much go wherever you want although certain locations are going to have enemies you encounter that might be too difficult for you to fight depending on the level of your characters. Notice how I said characters, not character. You're able to have a party of four characters at one time and be able to actively switch between characters in the middle of battle to be able to utilize different attacks and combinations of skills and elements. There are 7 different elements such as Anemo (air), Geo (earth, Pyro (fire), Cryo (ice), Hydro (water), Electro (lightning/electricity), and Dendro which hasn't been revealed yet but is speculated to be nature related since the name has Greek origins and a loose meaning of "tree". The characters all use weapons in fighting and have a couple of different types like archers who use bows, mages or magic users who don't use weapons but only use magical/elemental attacks, spear users, and two different kinds of sword users, a regular size ones and a claymore or bigger sword users. You can press the attack button a couple of times for your character to do their attack action or combo or hold down the button to do a charge attack. Each character also has two unique combat skills based on their element, an elemental skill and a elemental burst. One of them, the elemental skill has a cool down period but can be used again right after and the other, the elemental burst needs to gather energy you get from defeating enemies to charge up before you can use it. Your character has a lot of freedom and can perform a lot of different actions such as running, jumping, climbing, swimming and gliding and these actions are all limited by your stamina. You can even use your elemental abilities to do things like freeze water and walk on top of it and other environment altering actions. The game is really easy to learn but has a lot of different aspects to it that can be a little complicated. For one, characters can have their strength increased with items such as artifacts that have different perks and additional ones for combining similar ones together, they can also get different weapons that also have different perks which can increase in effect by being "refined". You are able to level up your character by using items you get from completing missions and challenges as well as defeating enemies and bosses. Bosses and challenges that reward highly valuable resources are scattered throughout the world and while some bosses can be challenged weekly some challenges can only be completed once. There are also different types of dungeons that can be challenged but the bosses and dungeons take a currency called "Resin" to attempt and you only have so much of it a day until it regenerates. As your characters progress and you complete more of the story and game your Adventure Rank increases unlocking new quests, challenges, and raises the World Level, which is a measure of how strong the enemies in the world are and the rarity of rewards you get from defeating them. There are some good things that make the game a little easier or help you along the way alot too. Like the many teleportation nodes scattered throughout Teyvat that once you find and unlock you can use whenever you want to fast travel to places you have already been and also the Statues of the Seven where you can heal and revive characters. Your characters can die if their health becomes too low and they will still be in your party/group but you won't be able to use them until you revive them and you can also revive and heal your characters by giving them different food items. You can find food all over the place from hunting animals, gathering fruit and vegetables or purchasing them from a store and there is even a little mini-game type thing where you can make dishes yourself around campfires. Ingredients can even be cooked into meals that regenerate health or boost statistics like attack or defense. Items are also dropped from defeated enemies and found in treasure chests that can be used in increasing a character's strength and ore that can be used to refine and enhance weapon strength or create weapons is usually found scattered around too. There's a multiplayer mode that's pretty much a co-op mode and is useful in teaming up to defeat certain bosses and helping out your friends or maybe showing them the ropes but it's definitely lacking and needs some polish. By completing quests you can unlock five additional characters by completing the story but more characters can only be unlocked by the game's "gacha" mechanic and in-game events. This is another part that gets very complicated in my opinion. There are several premium in-game currencies obtainable by playing the game and also by in-app purchases (real money) that can be used to obtain characters and weapons through the "gacha" system. Something most people would say is very similar to the concept of loot boxes or others would say closer to gambling. There is a pity system that guarantees the player will receive rare items after a set number of draws but I hear it can be pretty ridiculous and there are plenty of people who have spent hundreds of dollars or more to get characters or weapons that they really wanted. I just stick with whatever is free and I've had no complaints but they know what they are doing because as I mentioned above this free to play game has made over $1 billion dollars in 6 months since it was released. There are characters and weapons that are only available for a limited time and if you miss out on getting them while they're available you might not get another chance to ever get them again. So like I said this game is super fun and a really great game, I definitely give it an 8/10 and it gets my "Must Play Seal of Approval especially if your a fan of Zelda Breath of the Wild or anime or "gacha" games in general.
Genshin Impact is a 2020 action RPG game developed and published by miHoYo and produced by Hugh Tsai. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Android and IOS on September 4th 2020 and backwards compatible for Playstation 5 in November 2020. Genshin Impact is a "gacha game" featuring an open-world environment, action based battle system utilizing elemental magic and character switching. There have been no updates as of late as to when or if the game might release for Nintendo Switch or Xbox. The game has been considered a commercial success due to it's large fan base and grossing over $1 billion dollars within 6 month of it's release.
Taking place in the fantasy world of Teyvat, Genshin Impact, is home to seven different nations, each of which is tied to an element and ruled by a god associated with it. Such as the city-state nation of Mondstadt, whose element is Anemo, the air element and worships Barbatos, the Anemo Archon and the nation of Liyue whose element is Geo, the rock/earth element and worships Rex Lapis (Morax), the Geo Archon. The main story follows a set of twins not from this world, which you can choose to be either the male or female version of. They become the one referred to as the Traveler, which is the main character of the game. They have traveled across many worlds with their twin but have become separated from them by an unknown god in Teyvat. The Traveler travels across Teyvat in search of their lost sibling with their companion, a child-like "fairy" named Paimon and becomes involved in the affairs of the other nations, gods, and the world.
This is a really great game with it's beautiful anime inspired graphics and a bunch of fun. I've been playing since around December and have probably logged in over 80 hours and I still find this game a lot of fun. . It's an open world RPG so you can pretty much go wherever you want although certain locations are going to have enemies you encounter that might be too difficult for you to fight depending on the level of your characters. Notice how I said characters, not character. You're able to have a party of four characters at one time and be able to actively switch between characters in the middle of battle to be able to utilize different attacks and combinations of skills and elements. There are 7 different elements such as Anemo (air), Geo (earth, Pyro (fire), Cryo (ice), Hydro (water), Electro (lightning/electricity), and Dendro which hasn't been revealed yet but is speculated to be nature related since the name has Greek origins and a loose meaning of "tree". The characters all use weapons in fighting and have a couple of different types like archers who use bows, mages or magic users who don't use weapons but only use magical/elemental attacks, spear users, and two different kinds of sword users, a regular size ones and a claymore or bigger sword users. You can press the attack button a couple of times for your character to do their attack action or combo or hold down the button to do a charge attack. Each character also has two unique combat skills based on their element, an elemental skill and a elemental burst. One of them, the elemental skill has a cool down period but can be used again right after and the other, the elemental burst needs to gather energy you get from defeating enemies to charge up before you can use it. Your character has a lot of freedom and can perform a lot of different actions such as running, jumping, climbing, swimming and gliding and these actions are all limited by your stamina. You can even use your elemental abilities to do things like freeze water and walk on top of it and other environment altering actions. The game is really easy to learn but has a lot of different aspects to it that can be a little complicated. For one, characters can have their strength increased with items such as artifacts that have different perks and additional ones for combining similar ones together, they can also get different weapons that also have different perks which can increase in effect by being "refined". You are able to level up your character by using items you get from completing missions and challenges as well as defeating enemies and bosses. Bosses and challenges that reward highly valuable resources are scattered throughout the world and while some bosses can be challenged weekly some challenges can only be completed once. There are also different types of dungeons that can be challenged but the bosses and dungeons take a currency called "Resin" to attempt and you only have so much of it a day until it regenerates. As your characters progress and you complete more of the story and game your Adventure Rank increases unlocking new quests, challenges, and raises the World Level, which is a measure of how strong the enemies in the world are and the rarity of rewards you get from defeating them. There are some good things that make the game a little easier or help you along the way alot too. Like the many teleportation nodes scattered throughout Teyvat that once you find and unlock you can use whenever you want to fast travel to places you have already been and also the Statues of the Seven where you can heal and revive characters. Your characters can die if their health becomes too low and they will still be in your party/group but you won't be able to use them until you revive them and you can also revive and heal your characters by giving them different food items. You can find food all over the place from hunting animals, gathering fruit and vegetables or purchasing them from a store and there is even a little mini-game type thing where you can make dishes yourself around campfires. Ingredients can even be cooked into meals that regenerate health or boost statistics like attack or defense. Items are also dropped from defeated enemies and found in treasure chests that can be used in increasing a character's strength and ore that can be used to refine and enhance weapon strength or create weapons is usually found scattered around too. There's a multiplayer mode that's pretty much a co-op mode and is useful in teaming up to defeat certain bosses and helping out your friends or maybe showing them the ropes but it's definitely lacking and needs some polish. By completing quests you can unlock five additional characters by completing the story but more characters can only be unlocked by the game's "gacha" mechanic and in-game events. This is another part that gets very complicated in my opinion. There are several premium in-game currencies obtainable by playing the game and also by in-app purchases (real money) that can be used to obtain characters and weapons through the "gacha" system. Something most people would say is very similar to the concept of loot boxes or others would say closer to gambling. There is a pity system that guarantees the player will receive rare items after a set number of draws but I hear it can be pretty ridiculous and there are plenty of people who have spent hundreds of dollars or more to get characters or weapons that they really wanted. I just stick with whatever is free and I've had no complaints but they know what they are doing because as I mentioned above this free to play game has made over $1 billion dollars in 6 months since it was released. There are characters and weapons that are only available for a limited time and if you miss out on getting them while they're available you might not get another chance to ever get them again. So like I said this game is super fun and a really great game, I definitely give it an 8/10 and it gets my "Must Play Seal of Approval especially if your a fan of Zelda Breath of the Wild or anime or "gacha" games in general.
Paul Kellett (118 KP) rated Lifeform in Tabletop Games
May 1, 2019
I demoed this at Fan Boy 3 in Manchester during the Kickstarter campaign and was really excited to get to try this out.
So, what is the game?
Basically, it is Alien: The Board Game. A highly thematic one against many survival game where some of you play the crew of the mining ship Valley Forge trying to escape the clutches of an unknown alien killer before the ship self-destructs. Sound familiar? You bet, and it captures the tension of that well-known film perfectly.
I arrived part way through a game and Tristan kindly gave up his seat to let Me jump in. I basically new nothing about how to play, having only watched a couple of demo videos earlier in the week but with a crib sheet in front of Me explaining the card icons and a quick run down of what you can do in a turn, it didn't feel overwhelming and I was able to take over quite seamlessly. The game was close to the end and the alien player had already taken out most of the crew and was set up very nicely to ambush the rest of us. It wasn't long before the ship was adrift with just one deadly occupant...
How does it work?
We played a basic game, so some of the more meatier options were not included and we just had the simple task of gathering enough equipment and escaping in the shuttlecraft.
In the full game, players will be assigned personal objectives like downloading the ship's log from the data core or gathering specific equipment. This will add much more depth to the game as each player will be striving to achieve these goals as well as trying to avoid the alien and reaching the escape shuttle.
In the simple game however, we just had to focus on escaping. To do this, you need to collect the equipment tokens that are arranged in various rooms on the board. These are then placed on a track at the side of the board in various slots for coolant, energy cells, weapons, space suits and halon canisters. Most of these tracks have a minimum number of tokens needed before you can attempt to escape and any extra will grant bonuses like drawing extra cards or gaining a flame thrower.
In your turn, you get to perform one action so the downtime is minimal and the turns fair zip around the table, often before you've had a chance to take a breath and plan your next move.
All the actions are played from the cards you have in your hand, so you feel the tension of needing to get somewhere but having to wait until you draw a card that lets you run through multiple rooms.
Drawing cards. Now there's a thing. The ship's self destruct has been activated (naturally) and you only have 30 minutes until the ship blows up. Each time you choose to draw more cards into your hand, you slide the marker up the track, closer to the big bang.
I can't say too much about what the alien player can do as I didn't get to study that side of things too much but it certainly has some devious tricks up it's sleeve.
The alien player starts with two standees on the board. They look identical besides a little coloured sticker (this will be a set of symbols in the final game). He also has a corresponding set of tokens next to his player board and he will choose one of these to be the alien. The other standee (or standees, as later in the game there is the chance to get a third standee out) is a decoy so the crew, essentially seeing these as blips on their trackers, never know which is the real threat until it's too late.
There is a nice twist here, as, after making a kill, the alien player get's to reset his tokens and choose again which one will be the decoy and which will be the real killer. The alien player can also choose whether the kill was silent, offing the victim quickly and cleanly, or whether it is a nasty, brutal affair with lots of screaming. If the latter, then the other crew members hear this and all have to make a panic move into an adjacent room. This can be really useful if the crew are about to pick up equipment or possibly achieve an objective (I'm not sure if the personal objectives will be common knowledge or not sat this point).
The alien has various little trackers it can use from hatching more eggs letting it increase the amount of cards it holds, to taking control of the android on the crew which will then get placed on the board and follow a programmed track, killing any crew in it's way until it gets to the escape shuttle where it will start sabotaging various systems.
The alien also gets to place terror tokens and power out tokens on the board. If you enter a space with a terror token, you have to draw a card from the terror deck and these are always bad. A room with a power outage is dark and you can't run through it, you must stop your movement there. Other bad things can happen in the dark too.
What if I die?
Another neat thing this game does is avoid player elimination by cycling the crew. In our game, there were two of us controlling two characters each and when both of My characters died, I took one from the other player so we had one each. When that character was also killed (yes, I was not doing well...), rather than being forced to sit out the rest of the game, I could choose one of two secondary roles to play.
I could take control of the ship's mainframe computer which would allow me to do things like open and close bulkhead doors, slowing the alien down, allow the other players to draw more cards and various other useful things.
Or I could play the ship's cat. This was the option I went for and it was great. I could distract the alien, destroy some of it's eggs (so reducing it's hand size), place additional equipment tokens on the board or assist the other crew by letting them draw more cards.
It was this that that actually gave us the win as it was looking pretty bleak towards the end, but the cat actually managed to guide the last remaining crew member to a flamethrower and distract the alien long enough to make our escape.
What do I think?
This game is superb. Easy to pick up, but very thematic and definitely very tense. The decisions can be easy at times, but then you will hit a situation where the alien has you cornered and you must make some hard choices.
As I said, the theme just drips off every part of this game like a slightly corrosive drool. Our game started off really well - we managed to quickly gather a massive chunk of the equipment we needed to escape but the alien had been cutting the power and placing terror tokens closer to the escape shuttle ready for our eventual arrival and by the mid-game, we were feeling trapped and the alien was using the ventilation ducts to spring out and take us down one by one.
We were down to one surviving crew member and the ship's cat who, as I already mentioned managed to lead the human to the safety of the shuttle and espace.
Just getting to the shuttle isn't the end, however, there is one last twist (as in all good stories). At around the mid-point of the self destruct track, the alien get's to pick a card which is his estimate on what point prior to the ship blowing up we will reach the shuttle. If he has guessed correctly, then as we leave the stricken mining vessel, we find out that the shuttle has one extra occupant...
We were lucky and the alien player had guessed incorrectly, but had he been right, then there would have been a final battle aboard the escape shuttle and we may have been sending some deadly cargo back to Earth...
I can highly recommend this game and best of all, there is an expansion that adds an AI deck and a whole other set of objectives for solo play. I had a quick look at this and it looks like it will make for a very tense and really exciting solo game as well as a cool multiplayer experience.
So, what is the game?
Basically, it is Alien: The Board Game. A highly thematic one against many survival game where some of you play the crew of the mining ship Valley Forge trying to escape the clutches of an unknown alien killer before the ship self-destructs. Sound familiar? You bet, and it captures the tension of that well-known film perfectly.
I arrived part way through a game and Tristan kindly gave up his seat to let Me jump in. I basically new nothing about how to play, having only watched a couple of demo videos earlier in the week but with a crib sheet in front of Me explaining the card icons and a quick run down of what you can do in a turn, it didn't feel overwhelming and I was able to take over quite seamlessly. The game was close to the end and the alien player had already taken out most of the crew and was set up very nicely to ambush the rest of us. It wasn't long before the ship was adrift with just one deadly occupant...
How does it work?
We played a basic game, so some of the more meatier options were not included and we just had the simple task of gathering enough equipment and escaping in the shuttlecraft.
In the full game, players will be assigned personal objectives like downloading the ship's log from the data core or gathering specific equipment. This will add much more depth to the game as each player will be striving to achieve these goals as well as trying to avoid the alien and reaching the escape shuttle.
In the simple game however, we just had to focus on escaping. To do this, you need to collect the equipment tokens that are arranged in various rooms on the board. These are then placed on a track at the side of the board in various slots for coolant, energy cells, weapons, space suits and halon canisters. Most of these tracks have a minimum number of tokens needed before you can attempt to escape and any extra will grant bonuses like drawing extra cards or gaining a flame thrower.
In your turn, you get to perform one action so the downtime is minimal and the turns fair zip around the table, often before you've had a chance to take a breath and plan your next move.
All the actions are played from the cards you have in your hand, so you feel the tension of needing to get somewhere but having to wait until you draw a card that lets you run through multiple rooms.
Drawing cards. Now there's a thing. The ship's self destruct has been activated (naturally) and you only have 30 minutes until the ship blows up. Each time you choose to draw more cards into your hand, you slide the marker up the track, closer to the big bang.
I can't say too much about what the alien player can do as I didn't get to study that side of things too much but it certainly has some devious tricks up it's sleeve.
The alien player starts with two standees on the board. They look identical besides a little coloured sticker (this will be a set of symbols in the final game). He also has a corresponding set of tokens next to his player board and he will choose one of these to be the alien. The other standee (or standees, as later in the game there is the chance to get a third standee out) is a decoy so the crew, essentially seeing these as blips on their trackers, never know which is the real threat until it's too late.
There is a nice twist here, as, after making a kill, the alien player get's to reset his tokens and choose again which one will be the decoy and which will be the real killer. The alien player can also choose whether the kill was silent, offing the victim quickly and cleanly, or whether it is a nasty, brutal affair with lots of screaming. If the latter, then the other crew members hear this and all have to make a panic move into an adjacent room. This can be really useful if the crew are about to pick up equipment or possibly achieve an objective (I'm not sure if the personal objectives will be common knowledge or not sat this point).
The alien has various little trackers it can use from hatching more eggs letting it increase the amount of cards it holds, to taking control of the android on the crew which will then get placed on the board and follow a programmed track, killing any crew in it's way until it gets to the escape shuttle where it will start sabotaging various systems.
The alien also gets to place terror tokens and power out tokens on the board. If you enter a space with a terror token, you have to draw a card from the terror deck and these are always bad. A room with a power outage is dark and you can't run through it, you must stop your movement there. Other bad things can happen in the dark too.
What if I die?
Another neat thing this game does is avoid player elimination by cycling the crew. In our game, there were two of us controlling two characters each and when both of My characters died, I took one from the other player so we had one each. When that character was also killed (yes, I was not doing well...), rather than being forced to sit out the rest of the game, I could choose one of two secondary roles to play.
I could take control of the ship's mainframe computer which would allow me to do things like open and close bulkhead doors, slowing the alien down, allow the other players to draw more cards and various other useful things.
Or I could play the ship's cat. This was the option I went for and it was great. I could distract the alien, destroy some of it's eggs (so reducing it's hand size), place additional equipment tokens on the board or assist the other crew by letting them draw more cards.
It was this that that actually gave us the win as it was looking pretty bleak towards the end, but the cat actually managed to guide the last remaining crew member to a flamethrower and distract the alien long enough to make our escape.
What do I think?
This game is superb. Easy to pick up, but very thematic and definitely very tense. The decisions can be easy at times, but then you will hit a situation where the alien has you cornered and you must make some hard choices.
As I said, the theme just drips off every part of this game like a slightly corrosive drool. Our game started off really well - we managed to quickly gather a massive chunk of the equipment we needed to escape but the alien had been cutting the power and placing terror tokens closer to the escape shuttle ready for our eventual arrival and by the mid-game, we were feeling trapped and the alien was using the ventilation ducts to spring out and take us down one by one.
We were down to one surviving crew member and the ship's cat who, as I already mentioned managed to lead the human to the safety of the shuttle and espace.
Just getting to the shuttle isn't the end, however, there is one last twist (as in all good stories). At around the mid-point of the self destruct track, the alien get's to pick a card which is his estimate on what point prior to the ship blowing up we will reach the shuttle. If he has guessed correctly, then as we leave the stricken mining vessel, we find out that the shuttle has one extra occupant...
We were lucky and the alien player had guessed incorrectly, but had he been right, then there would have been a final battle aboard the escape shuttle and we may have been sending some deadly cargo back to Earth...
I can highly recommend this game and best of all, there is an expansion that adds an AI deck and a whole other set of objectives for solo play. I had a quick look at this and it looks like it will make for a very tense and really exciting solo game as well as a cool multiplayer experience.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Space Kraken in Tabletop Games
Jul 22, 2021
The overall story is not unfamiliar. Scientists create a genetically-modified creature to help solve a global problem, creature is somehow mutated through radioactive exposure, creature poses a threat to mankind, mankind must eliminate the creature. Now take that monster to space and BAM – we’ve got the origins on Space Kraken. Humanity has been forced to space in search of a new inhabitable planet. But alien races await you in the vast unknown, and the Space Kraken is always lurking…
Disclaimer: We were provided with a demo version of Space Kraken. The gameplay is that of the full version, just with a shorter storyline and fewer variations. What you see pictured below may not be identical to what will be received in the finalized version. Also, the game can be played solo or with multiple players – this preview will be covering the solo-only mode of play. I do not intend to cover the entire rulebook, but rather provide an overview of the mechanics and gameplay. -L
Space Kraken is a sci-fi dungeon crawler encompassed in a spiral-bound book. The only additional components you need are 2d6, 1d20, and a pencil with a decent eraser. To start a new game, you will first get set up for the campaign. There are 6 Flights (game modes) to choose from and you select one with which to play. Different Flights affect the start of game conditions, which will affect the overall gameplay. For example, one Flight might offer bonuses to your ability scores, while another could give you stronger weapons right from the start. Once you’ve selected your Flight, you will then set up your Story Lines. These will help dictate the story of your overall campaign, and will be influenced by your strategies and decisions along the way. From crucial plot points to opportunities for ‘side quests,’ the Story Lines work to drive the narrative. The next step is to create your crew. You choose 3 heroes to start with, and will ‘build’ them by giving them attributes, equipment, and skills. The specific parameters are detailed in the rules. After the crew is created, the game is officially ready to begin!
A game of Space Kraken is played over a series of turns, broken down into 5 phases. The first phase of a turn is to Activate Story Lines. These are tracked across a series of 4 tables of coordinates. Find the coordinate on the appropriate table for your Story Line, and proceed as necessary. Some coordinates link to Events that require you to make decisions, roll dice, execute commands, while other coordinates will just link to a new coordinate to be used next turn. Once you have Activated and resolved all your Story Lines for the turn, the game moves to the Ship Construction phase. At the start of the game, you will most likely skip this phase, but as the game progresses and you earn funds, you will be able to upgrade and modify your spaceship during this part of the turn.
The third phase of a turn is to Perform Your Own Action. You can choose to either: Initiate Space Flight, Land at an Already-Discovered Location, or Activate a Story Line Again. Initiating space flight gives you the opportunity to explore different regions of space, discover/explore new locations, and sometimes even engage in space combat. You could choose to land at an already-discovered location, which allows you to visit many of the ‘dungeons’. Or you can activate a story line again, which lets you advance one of your story lines forward. After you perform your own action, phase 4 begins – Quick Visit a Shop, Ammo Dealer, or Quest Master. This one is pretty self-explanatory. You can trade or purchase goods from locations you have visited, or you could visit the Quest Master for ‘side quests.’ And then finally the last turn phase is Quest Timer. Any quests you have that were not advanced in this turn get a mark for Lost Time – after 5 marks they are erased! So prioritize wisely when it comes to your quest completion. A new turn now begins, following the same phase structure as detailed above. The game continues until either you have defeated the Space Kraken, or your entire crew and/or ship has perished.
At first glance, Space Kraken is kind of daunting and intimidating. There’s a bit of a learning curve as you figure out this gameplay system before you can really dive in to play. That being said, once you understand how the different aspects work – Space Flight, Combat, Story Lines, Dungeon Exploration, etc. – it will all click together. This isn’t a game you just pick up and decide to play on a whim, it’s one that takes focus and dedication to complete a play-through. Just something to keep in mind! As with most campaign-style games, the question of replayability is always in the forefront, and I think that Space Kraken really handles it very well. The Story Lines alone offer a range of variability that ensures no two games will be the same. How you build your crew and ship could influence decisions made with regards to Story Lines, which in turn leads you down a unique path with a plethora of opportunities. The mechanic for generating new locations to explore (the dungeon crawling element) also provides a variety of places to explore, alien races to interact with, and physical elements like atmosphere. The chances for generating the exact same location more than once are pretty slim, I would say. All of these elements just add to the replayability of Space Kraken and keep it fresh and unique for each play-through.
Guiding the overall gameplay are your dice. Some Story Lines offer 2 solutions, and you will roll the dice to see with which one you end up. To generate a new location, you roll the dice a number of times, looking at the corresponding tables in order to build the map for your current foray into space. Obviously, combat, either in ships or on the ground, will use dice to help dictate the flow of battle and the outcomes of said fights. That is how you can get so much replayability from this game – dice rolling. The range of Story Lines and locations coupled with dice rolls really create a one-of-a-kind gameplay experience, no matter how many times you play through. You’ll never play the same game twice….well, unless your dice results are the exact same for every roll as they were the previous game.
Let’s touch on components for a minute. As stated above, this is only a demo version of the game. That being said, the game is encompassed in a spiral-bound book, and that is what the complete game will be like too. The only things you need to play besides the book are a couple of d6, a d20, and a pencil! I think it’s neat that so much gameplay can be packed into a single book. Between sessions if you’re not able to leave the book on your table, simply mark your page, fold everything back into the book, and you’re good to go! What do I mean by fold everything back into the book? Several of the pages in this game have fold-outs of additional materials to be pulled out when necessary. I really like that if you don’t currently need a page, it doesn’t need to be showing. It helps keep the game a little more focused, visually, in my opinion. My only complaint is that a couple of times, a fold-out section may overlap another fold-out section, meaning that you have to end up flipping pages anyway. A small price to pay for an all-in-one game book! My other qualm is that as you play, you will write in the book. After you complete a play-through, you can go back and play again – just erase everything and start over. My concern is that with repeated erasing on the pages, the quality will wear down and could be unusable after a certain number of plays. Maybe that’s not a problem for other gamers, but that is something that jumped into my head when playing this.
Overall thoughts? Space Kraken is pretty cool. There is a bit of a learning curve as you delve into the new system, but once you’ve got the general mechanics/gameplay down, the rest is pretty straight-forward. The fact that the entire game is encompassed in one book is a neat element too. It allows you to ‘save’ your progress and come back to it without the hassle of setting up a million components. Having only played the solo version of the game, I’m curious to see how the multiplayer side works, so that may just be my next play-through! If you’re in the market for a campaign-style game, without requiring tons of table space and eons of time to play through, consider checking out Space Kraken. It successfully funded on Kickstarter and the late pledges are now open!
Disclaimer: We were provided with a demo version of Space Kraken. The gameplay is that of the full version, just with a shorter storyline and fewer variations. What you see pictured below may not be identical to what will be received in the finalized version. Also, the game can be played solo or with multiple players – this preview will be covering the solo-only mode of play. I do not intend to cover the entire rulebook, but rather provide an overview of the mechanics and gameplay. -L
Space Kraken is a sci-fi dungeon crawler encompassed in a spiral-bound book. The only additional components you need are 2d6, 1d20, and a pencil with a decent eraser. To start a new game, you will first get set up for the campaign. There are 6 Flights (game modes) to choose from and you select one with which to play. Different Flights affect the start of game conditions, which will affect the overall gameplay. For example, one Flight might offer bonuses to your ability scores, while another could give you stronger weapons right from the start. Once you’ve selected your Flight, you will then set up your Story Lines. These will help dictate the story of your overall campaign, and will be influenced by your strategies and decisions along the way. From crucial plot points to opportunities for ‘side quests,’ the Story Lines work to drive the narrative. The next step is to create your crew. You choose 3 heroes to start with, and will ‘build’ them by giving them attributes, equipment, and skills. The specific parameters are detailed in the rules. After the crew is created, the game is officially ready to begin!
A game of Space Kraken is played over a series of turns, broken down into 5 phases. The first phase of a turn is to Activate Story Lines. These are tracked across a series of 4 tables of coordinates. Find the coordinate on the appropriate table for your Story Line, and proceed as necessary. Some coordinates link to Events that require you to make decisions, roll dice, execute commands, while other coordinates will just link to a new coordinate to be used next turn. Once you have Activated and resolved all your Story Lines for the turn, the game moves to the Ship Construction phase. At the start of the game, you will most likely skip this phase, but as the game progresses and you earn funds, you will be able to upgrade and modify your spaceship during this part of the turn.
The third phase of a turn is to Perform Your Own Action. You can choose to either: Initiate Space Flight, Land at an Already-Discovered Location, or Activate a Story Line Again. Initiating space flight gives you the opportunity to explore different regions of space, discover/explore new locations, and sometimes even engage in space combat. You could choose to land at an already-discovered location, which allows you to visit many of the ‘dungeons’. Or you can activate a story line again, which lets you advance one of your story lines forward. After you perform your own action, phase 4 begins – Quick Visit a Shop, Ammo Dealer, or Quest Master. This one is pretty self-explanatory. You can trade or purchase goods from locations you have visited, or you could visit the Quest Master for ‘side quests.’ And then finally the last turn phase is Quest Timer. Any quests you have that were not advanced in this turn get a mark for Lost Time – after 5 marks they are erased! So prioritize wisely when it comes to your quest completion. A new turn now begins, following the same phase structure as detailed above. The game continues until either you have defeated the Space Kraken, or your entire crew and/or ship has perished.
At first glance, Space Kraken is kind of daunting and intimidating. There’s a bit of a learning curve as you figure out this gameplay system before you can really dive in to play. That being said, once you understand how the different aspects work – Space Flight, Combat, Story Lines, Dungeon Exploration, etc. – it will all click together. This isn’t a game you just pick up and decide to play on a whim, it’s one that takes focus and dedication to complete a play-through. Just something to keep in mind! As with most campaign-style games, the question of replayability is always in the forefront, and I think that Space Kraken really handles it very well. The Story Lines alone offer a range of variability that ensures no two games will be the same. How you build your crew and ship could influence decisions made with regards to Story Lines, which in turn leads you down a unique path with a plethora of opportunities. The mechanic for generating new locations to explore (the dungeon crawling element) also provides a variety of places to explore, alien races to interact with, and physical elements like atmosphere. The chances for generating the exact same location more than once are pretty slim, I would say. All of these elements just add to the replayability of Space Kraken and keep it fresh and unique for each play-through.
Guiding the overall gameplay are your dice. Some Story Lines offer 2 solutions, and you will roll the dice to see with which one you end up. To generate a new location, you roll the dice a number of times, looking at the corresponding tables in order to build the map for your current foray into space. Obviously, combat, either in ships or on the ground, will use dice to help dictate the flow of battle and the outcomes of said fights. That is how you can get so much replayability from this game – dice rolling. The range of Story Lines and locations coupled with dice rolls really create a one-of-a-kind gameplay experience, no matter how many times you play through. You’ll never play the same game twice….well, unless your dice results are the exact same for every roll as they were the previous game.
Let’s touch on components for a minute. As stated above, this is only a demo version of the game. That being said, the game is encompassed in a spiral-bound book, and that is what the complete game will be like too. The only things you need to play besides the book are a couple of d6, a d20, and a pencil! I think it’s neat that so much gameplay can be packed into a single book. Between sessions if you’re not able to leave the book on your table, simply mark your page, fold everything back into the book, and you’re good to go! What do I mean by fold everything back into the book? Several of the pages in this game have fold-outs of additional materials to be pulled out when necessary. I really like that if you don’t currently need a page, it doesn’t need to be showing. It helps keep the game a little more focused, visually, in my opinion. My only complaint is that a couple of times, a fold-out section may overlap another fold-out section, meaning that you have to end up flipping pages anyway. A small price to pay for an all-in-one game book! My other qualm is that as you play, you will write in the book. After you complete a play-through, you can go back and play again – just erase everything and start over. My concern is that with repeated erasing on the pages, the quality will wear down and could be unusable after a certain number of plays. Maybe that’s not a problem for other gamers, but that is something that jumped into my head when playing this.
Overall thoughts? Space Kraken is pretty cool. There is a bit of a learning curve as you delve into the new system, but once you’ve got the general mechanics/gameplay down, the rest is pretty straight-forward. The fact that the entire game is encompassed in one book is a neat element too. It allows you to ‘save’ your progress and come back to it without the hassle of setting up a million components. Having only played the solo version of the game, I’m curious to see how the multiplayer side works, so that may just be my next play-through! If you’re in the market for a campaign-style game, without requiring tons of table space and eons of time to play through, consider checking out Space Kraken. It successfully funded on Kickstarter and the late pledges are now open!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Mutants in Tabletop Games
Mar 11, 2022
Boy, we have some crazy ideas when it comes to what the world will look like in the future. Flying cars? Probably. Robot house butlers? Maybe. Mutant fighters that can be formed immediately and placed into battle seconds after “birth?” Now, that’s a stretch. But, embrace the stretch here, because Mutants is all about it.
Mutants is a crazy-themed deck building, hand management, fighting, card game for one to four players. Usually in this instance I would put together a Solo Chronicles review, but I wanted to first get the multiplayer rules down and then delve into solo. In any case, this game pits players against each other in a royal rumble where controlling mutants to fight one another most effectively and efficiently will earn the player riches galore. Come check out the world of Mutants.
To setup, well, there are many steps. The biggest and perhaps most confusing step is creating the decks of mutants that will be used by players throughout the game. I will recommend you follow the rulebook for drafting your team, or simply use one of the provided pre-constructed team suggestions. Otherwise, place the main board on the table, along with the power and scoring tokens for each player. Players choose their player board according to color chosen, take their starting deck, and divide their Advanced Mutant deck into three piles, with the top card flipped face-up. Players draw a hand of six Basic Mutant cards (one of each type initially) and the battle may begin!
Mutants is played over five rounds, tracked on the main board. Each round encompasses three phases: Crush the Competition, Move Active Mutant, and Take Action. As the game progresses, the power tokens for players will be moving up and down the Power Track. If, at the start of the current player’s turn, an opponent’s power token is located in one of the last three Power Track spaces (named the Dread Zone), and the current player’s token is on the Fury Space (furthest along the Track), then the current player will score immediate bonus points by Crushing the Competition.
The first turn will not utilize the Move Active Mutant phase, but on subsequent phases, this will need to be resolved. A player’s board consists of three main slots: Left Mutant, Active Mutant, and Right Mutant. Mutants may only enter the Active Mutant slot in the middle, so if a Mutant is currently placed in that slot, it will need to be moved either to the Left or Right slot, at the player’s discretion. Should all slots be filled, one of the Mutants will need to be moved off the board to make room for the new one. Once this happens, the Mutant’s Leave Ability (at the bottom of the Mutant’s card) will activate. This could give the player more Power, some Attacking abilities, or other unique abilities. Once a card leaves their slot and applies their Leave Ability, it is placed in the Discard space at the bottom of the player board.
Now that the Active Mutant slot is available, the current player may choose from one of the Take Action choices: Deploy Mutant, Breed, or Incubate. To Deploy Mutant, simply play a card from hand to the Active Mutant slot, activating the Deploy Ability once placed. These Deploy Abilities could range from cycling (draw a card from the deck and discard a card from the hand), gaining Power, or even reactionary abilities. Breeding Mutants requires the player to discard two cards from hand whose type icons match those of one of the face-up Advanced Mutant cards atop the player board. Discarding these cards allows the Advanced Mutant to enter play on the Active Mutant slot. Finally, the player may instead choose to Incubate an Advanced Mutant from one on offer by discarding one card (and it does NOT need to match icons) and placing the chosen Advanced Mutant on the Incubator slot on the left side of the board. These incubated Advanced Mutants will be placed atop the draw deck at the end of the round, so it will be drawn during the next round.
If at any time a player needs to draw a card from their draw deck and there are no cards remaining, they will first choose a card from their Discards to Freeze, by placing it in the appropriate Cryo Freezer on the right side of the player board. Frozen cards will be scored at game end, and can really boost a final score.
At the end of the round players will perform a few more tasks and setup for the next round. First, the Power Tokens are scored according to which is in first place along the Track and so on, using the red and black VP numbers printed on the main board. The round marker is advanced one level, and each Mutant in Incubation is moved to the players’ draw decks. Players then draw a new hand of six cards, and Power Tokens are reset according to the previous round’s placement, in reverse order. The player whose Power Token is now furthest behind will be the starting player for the next round.
Play continues in this fashion of moving Mutants around, taking actions, and jockeying for supremacy along the Power Track until the end of the fifth round. At that time, the final VPs are awarded for the Power Track placement, and all cards in the Cryo Freezer are tallied. The player with the most VP at the end of the game is the winner of Mutants!
Components. Okay, I have some thoughts here, and more than just, “oh hey, they are nice.” The game comes with a bevvy of cards, some wooden tokens, and a couple “boards.” I used quotations because only the main board is an actual board. The player boards are slick cardstock and, while functional, feel a little cheap. The cards themselves are all super great and the artwork is appropriate and quite excellent. I have a couple issues with some other components, however. The Power and Score Tokens are the only wooden components in the box and I just do not understand them. They look like Sauron/Spartan helmets, or someone who is crying because they just shoved a fork into the power outlet. Now, there are four of each type in different colors, and though the colors aren’t the primary colors we have grown to accept for our player colors, they have swapped out the green for purple, and I think the game is colorful enough to include more exciting colors. So I’m not a fan of the Power and Score Tokens. Similarly, I don’t really understand the insert that comes with the game. I see that it is setup to hold TONS of cards, and maybe there were/are plans for many many expansions, but the base game can be housed in two of the 14 total card slots provided. Also, I have no idea what is going on in the middle of the insert, but I also don’t own any of the expansions yet, so hopefully those molded spots are actually meant to hold something. Everything else, though, is great!
For me, art and components are very high on my list of items that affect how much I enjoy a game. Now, I can live with the wonky Power and Score Tokens, and I suppose I don’t mind carrying around a giant box of cards, when the game could ALMOST fit inside a box the size of Bohnanza or Point Salad or the like. That said, I have definitely enjoyed my plays of Mutants. The rulebook is a little daunting at first, mostly because the theme is unique and the game style is similarly different to me. Once the game gets into the thick of it, though, strategy and tactics take over so strongly. Each card is carefully considered for its usability as either a card to be played or discarded for varying effects. I love that about this game.
This is certainly more than a “deck builder,” even though deck building and hand management are at the forefront of the mechanics here. You aren’t necessarily building your deck and cycling through it quickly enough for me to consider this a true deck builder alone, but using each card for different purposes certainly increases the replayability with Mutants. When is the best time to freeze a card versus keeping it in the deck for its abilities? Do I move off the Left Mutant or keep it around for another turn? Why did I pick these Advanced Mutants during the draft, when I have crappy supporting cards? Every play of Mutants has been a wonderful challenge of maximizing my deck and choosing just the right opponents to attack with my monstrous creations. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a horrifically delightful 5 / 6. I hate having to bling out my games, but I think I will probably try to find replacements for the Power and Score Tokens (though maybe a little spray paint will help?), and look into grabbing one or all of the expansions so that I may be able to fill up that confusing insert. I look forward to my next games of this, and to getting the word out on this little gem I finally tried.
Mutants is a crazy-themed deck building, hand management, fighting, card game for one to four players. Usually in this instance I would put together a Solo Chronicles review, but I wanted to first get the multiplayer rules down and then delve into solo. In any case, this game pits players against each other in a royal rumble where controlling mutants to fight one another most effectively and efficiently will earn the player riches galore. Come check out the world of Mutants.
To setup, well, there are many steps. The biggest and perhaps most confusing step is creating the decks of mutants that will be used by players throughout the game. I will recommend you follow the rulebook for drafting your team, or simply use one of the provided pre-constructed team suggestions. Otherwise, place the main board on the table, along with the power and scoring tokens for each player. Players choose their player board according to color chosen, take their starting deck, and divide their Advanced Mutant deck into three piles, with the top card flipped face-up. Players draw a hand of six Basic Mutant cards (one of each type initially) and the battle may begin!
Mutants is played over five rounds, tracked on the main board. Each round encompasses three phases: Crush the Competition, Move Active Mutant, and Take Action. As the game progresses, the power tokens for players will be moving up and down the Power Track. If, at the start of the current player’s turn, an opponent’s power token is located in one of the last three Power Track spaces (named the Dread Zone), and the current player’s token is on the Fury Space (furthest along the Track), then the current player will score immediate bonus points by Crushing the Competition.
The first turn will not utilize the Move Active Mutant phase, but on subsequent phases, this will need to be resolved. A player’s board consists of three main slots: Left Mutant, Active Mutant, and Right Mutant. Mutants may only enter the Active Mutant slot in the middle, so if a Mutant is currently placed in that slot, it will need to be moved either to the Left or Right slot, at the player’s discretion. Should all slots be filled, one of the Mutants will need to be moved off the board to make room for the new one. Once this happens, the Mutant’s Leave Ability (at the bottom of the Mutant’s card) will activate. This could give the player more Power, some Attacking abilities, or other unique abilities. Once a card leaves their slot and applies their Leave Ability, it is placed in the Discard space at the bottom of the player board.
Now that the Active Mutant slot is available, the current player may choose from one of the Take Action choices: Deploy Mutant, Breed, or Incubate. To Deploy Mutant, simply play a card from hand to the Active Mutant slot, activating the Deploy Ability once placed. These Deploy Abilities could range from cycling (draw a card from the deck and discard a card from the hand), gaining Power, or even reactionary abilities. Breeding Mutants requires the player to discard two cards from hand whose type icons match those of one of the face-up Advanced Mutant cards atop the player board. Discarding these cards allows the Advanced Mutant to enter play on the Active Mutant slot. Finally, the player may instead choose to Incubate an Advanced Mutant from one on offer by discarding one card (and it does NOT need to match icons) and placing the chosen Advanced Mutant on the Incubator slot on the left side of the board. These incubated Advanced Mutants will be placed atop the draw deck at the end of the round, so it will be drawn during the next round.
If at any time a player needs to draw a card from their draw deck and there are no cards remaining, they will first choose a card from their Discards to Freeze, by placing it in the appropriate Cryo Freezer on the right side of the player board. Frozen cards will be scored at game end, and can really boost a final score.
At the end of the round players will perform a few more tasks and setup for the next round. First, the Power Tokens are scored according to which is in first place along the Track and so on, using the red and black VP numbers printed on the main board. The round marker is advanced one level, and each Mutant in Incubation is moved to the players’ draw decks. Players then draw a new hand of six cards, and Power Tokens are reset according to the previous round’s placement, in reverse order. The player whose Power Token is now furthest behind will be the starting player for the next round.
Play continues in this fashion of moving Mutants around, taking actions, and jockeying for supremacy along the Power Track until the end of the fifth round. At that time, the final VPs are awarded for the Power Track placement, and all cards in the Cryo Freezer are tallied. The player with the most VP at the end of the game is the winner of Mutants!
Components. Okay, I have some thoughts here, and more than just, “oh hey, they are nice.” The game comes with a bevvy of cards, some wooden tokens, and a couple “boards.” I used quotations because only the main board is an actual board. The player boards are slick cardstock and, while functional, feel a little cheap. The cards themselves are all super great and the artwork is appropriate and quite excellent. I have a couple issues with some other components, however. The Power and Score Tokens are the only wooden components in the box and I just do not understand them. They look like Sauron/Spartan helmets, or someone who is crying because they just shoved a fork into the power outlet. Now, there are four of each type in different colors, and though the colors aren’t the primary colors we have grown to accept for our player colors, they have swapped out the green for purple, and I think the game is colorful enough to include more exciting colors. So I’m not a fan of the Power and Score Tokens. Similarly, I don’t really understand the insert that comes with the game. I see that it is setup to hold TONS of cards, and maybe there were/are plans for many many expansions, but the base game can be housed in two of the 14 total card slots provided. Also, I have no idea what is going on in the middle of the insert, but I also don’t own any of the expansions yet, so hopefully those molded spots are actually meant to hold something. Everything else, though, is great!
For me, art and components are very high on my list of items that affect how much I enjoy a game. Now, I can live with the wonky Power and Score Tokens, and I suppose I don’t mind carrying around a giant box of cards, when the game could ALMOST fit inside a box the size of Bohnanza or Point Salad or the like. That said, I have definitely enjoyed my plays of Mutants. The rulebook is a little daunting at first, mostly because the theme is unique and the game style is similarly different to me. Once the game gets into the thick of it, though, strategy and tactics take over so strongly. Each card is carefully considered for its usability as either a card to be played or discarded for varying effects. I love that about this game.
This is certainly more than a “deck builder,” even though deck building and hand management are at the forefront of the mechanics here. You aren’t necessarily building your deck and cycling through it quickly enough for me to consider this a true deck builder alone, but using each card for different purposes certainly increases the replayability with Mutants. When is the best time to freeze a card versus keeping it in the deck for its abilities? Do I move off the Left Mutant or keep it around for another turn? Why did I pick these Advanced Mutants during the draft, when I have crappy supporting cards? Every play of Mutants has been a wonderful challenge of maximizing my deck and choosing just the right opponents to attack with my monstrous creations. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a horrifically delightful 5 / 6. I hate having to bling out my games, but I think I will probably try to find replacements for the Power and Score Tokens (though maybe a little spray paint will help?), and look into grabbing one or all of the expansions so that I may be able to fill up that confusing insert. I look forward to my next games of this, and to getting the word out on this little gem I finally tried.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Destinies in Tabletop Games
Jan 29, 2022
I can recall so many instances of my board game purchases being based on either the designer, artist, or publisher. Surely I am not alone here. Josh will probably always be a Stonemaier Games fanboy. Laura has aligned herself with Daily Magic Games and Button Shy Games. While I am a big fan of the Valeriaverse, I think my current preferences put me on teams Weird Giraffe Games, Blue Orange Games, and Lucky Duck Games. Speaking of the latter, LDG have come through with some seriously excellent hybrid app-driven games that just wow me every single time. I was definitely a hybrid game naysayer when the first Chronicles of Crime came out, but the more I play them, the more I appreciate the accomplishments. Destinies has now come along to me and it has been some time since I have been this jazzed to play a game over and over and over and over.
Destinies is a hybrid app-driven adventure board game for one to three players. In it, players will be choosing their characters and how to play them, along with the path of their individual destinies across several campaign scenarios. When playing multiplayer, the player who completes their destiny first will win. When playing solo (which is also amazing), the player wins when they successfully complete their destiny.
DISCLAIMER: We are using the Kickstarter version of the game. We do have the expansions from the KS campaign, but will not be using those for this review. Also, we do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy from the publisher directly or from your FLGS. -T
Usually I list out the steps to setup a game in this section, but there are so many little items and steps to be taken that I will simply show you, the reader, how a scenario may look once setup. The app will instruct players how to create their character’s stats and which map tiles should be placed out initially. Typically, though, each player will receive a player board, Destiny card (with their character headshot on one side and their Destiny choices on back), two main dice, three effort dice, and one gold coin. Once setup, the app will drive the story along and the players will be rolling dice and making choices in order to win the game or scenario.
Each player will be given their Destiny card with two distinct Destiny paths on the backside. These paths correlate with the current scenario, and the player will be able to choose one of the two given paths to help move their games forward. However, sometimes players will switch their Destiny mid-game due to several factors including successes on previous tasks or current inventory. The only way to win the game is to complete a Destiny, so staying on track is paramount in this open sandbox game – it is incredibly easy to become sidetracked and lose sight of specific tasks to be performed.
Each turn a player may move to a new tile, to previously-explored tiles, or points of interest on specific map tiles. These points of interest could be unique characters to be visited, or more general spaces on the tile represented by tokens. Sometimes visiting a POI (point of interest) will have the player rolling dice to complete tests, initiating trade with the POI NPC, revealing information about their distinct Destiny, or even issuing side quests. Players take their chances by visiting a POI because only one may be visited on a turn. Once a player has moved and visited a POI, their turn is over and the next player’s turn begins.
The most interesting aspect of this game is the experience tracker and results of tests. Player stats are divided between Intelligence, Dexterity, and Power (Strength for my D&D readers). These stats are constantly in flux due to tests and experience, and levels range from 1-12+ on the player board. A player will roll both main dice and any effort dice they wish on each test, and the total result is compared to the discs present on the main player board. One success is counted for each disc’s value equal to or below the rolled result. For example, if the roll is a 6, and the player has a disc on 3 and another on 6 the player counts two successes. Effort dice add values to the rolled result, and one side of these dice depict a star, which counts as one success. Throughout the game players will be moving their skill marker tokens (discs) up and down the tracks. Sometimes this is due to a test being failed or succeeded, but sometimes experience tokens are earned. A player may improve their skill levels by two total values on the tracks for each experience token discarded. Players may choose which tracks, and may maximize their character’s skill or spread out the experience across multiple skills.
Play continues in this fashion of referencing the app for story and plot items, players working toward completing their Destinies, and adventuring across the land rolling tests and improving skills until one player finishes their Destiny and wins the game!
Components. As always, I am going to be honest here by stating I believe that Destinies packs the box with the best components I have seen in a game. The multi-layered insert is perfectly formed and well-thought out, all the cardboard tokens are super-thick, the dice are so fun to handle and roll, the cards and other components feature incredible artwork, and did I mention there’s about a thousand minis in this game? I am reluctant to even call some of these things minis as they are large and in charge for SURE. I have zero complaints or comments on the components present in Destinies. Lucky Duck knocks it out of the park once again. Incredible.
I actually backed this one on Kickstarter just because it comes from Lucky Duck Games. I had played Chronicles of Crime and loved it, and just wanted to try something different but using a similar system. Typically I don’t keep up with the comments and updates to a game I have backed because I enjoy being surprised by the product that arrives at my door. Destinies was certainly a surprise to me, and I have been kicking myself in the butt for not getting it to the table the very first day I received it.
Destinies is my favorite Lucky Duck Games title, and that is saying a ton, as I rave about every game of theirs I have played. I hope you all back me up here, and if you haven’t yet tried this one, I hope you visit your closest friend or board game cafe that owns it. The tutorial scenario is great, and the campaign scenarios have been awesome so far. Okay, yes, when I first played it with Laura, my wife made several comments about it being a 3 hour game, but once that first one is completed, the subsequent plays run much smoother.
What I love so much about this is how indefinitely expandable it is. Most of the components are multi-use (akin to all the character cards in the Chronicles of Crime games), and can be used in campaign after campaign. The drawbacks I see for this, though, is any sort of waning interest in it forcing designers to abandon plans to create more scenarios. Could a new scenario pack be an acceptable expansion versus a large expansion box with oodles of new components and minis? I think so, but I am no designer. Could the Millennium Series treatment be given to Destinies? Absolutely! This system does not need to be played in a medieval fantasy world. It could be molded to almost anything, and that gives me excited shivers over the future of this game.
If you are anything like me and have now embraced the hybrid gaming trend, I highly recommend Destinies. I plan to also review all the expansions in the near future, so do look out for those, but please do yourself a giant favor and pick up Destinies. The excellent storytelling, great components, and just amazing fun helps Purple Phoenix Games give this one a perfectly deserved 12 / 12, and a Golden Feather Award! I can’t stop thinking about it and how I would play it differently next time, and hopefully after I have played through the expansion material I will be able to restart from the very beginning with different characters and choices. It’s a sign of a great game when I can’t stop thinking about it, and I do believe Destinies currently is knocking at the door of my Top 10 Games of All Time. No, it’s there. It’s totally there. TOP 10 BABY!!
Destinies is a hybrid app-driven adventure board game for one to three players. In it, players will be choosing their characters and how to play them, along with the path of their individual destinies across several campaign scenarios. When playing multiplayer, the player who completes their destiny first will win. When playing solo (which is also amazing), the player wins when they successfully complete their destiny.
DISCLAIMER: We are using the Kickstarter version of the game. We do have the expansions from the KS campaign, but will not be using those for this review. Also, we do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy from the publisher directly or from your FLGS. -T
Usually I list out the steps to setup a game in this section, but there are so many little items and steps to be taken that I will simply show you, the reader, how a scenario may look once setup. The app will instruct players how to create their character’s stats and which map tiles should be placed out initially. Typically, though, each player will receive a player board, Destiny card (with their character headshot on one side and their Destiny choices on back), two main dice, three effort dice, and one gold coin. Once setup, the app will drive the story along and the players will be rolling dice and making choices in order to win the game or scenario.
Each player will be given their Destiny card with two distinct Destiny paths on the backside. These paths correlate with the current scenario, and the player will be able to choose one of the two given paths to help move their games forward. However, sometimes players will switch their Destiny mid-game due to several factors including successes on previous tasks or current inventory. The only way to win the game is to complete a Destiny, so staying on track is paramount in this open sandbox game – it is incredibly easy to become sidetracked and lose sight of specific tasks to be performed.
Each turn a player may move to a new tile, to previously-explored tiles, or points of interest on specific map tiles. These points of interest could be unique characters to be visited, or more general spaces on the tile represented by tokens. Sometimes visiting a POI (point of interest) will have the player rolling dice to complete tests, initiating trade with the POI NPC, revealing information about their distinct Destiny, or even issuing side quests. Players take their chances by visiting a POI because only one may be visited on a turn. Once a player has moved and visited a POI, their turn is over and the next player’s turn begins.
The most interesting aspect of this game is the experience tracker and results of tests. Player stats are divided between Intelligence, Dexterity, and Power (Strength for my D&D readers). These stats are constantly in flux due to tests and experience, and levels range from 1-12+ on the player board. A player will roll both main dice and any effort dice they wish on each test, and the total result is compared to the discs present on the main player board. One success is counted for each disc’s value equal to or below the rolled result. For example, if the roll is a 6, and the player has a disc on 3 and another on 6 the player counts two successes. Effort dice add values to the rolled result, and one side of these dice depict a star, which counts as one success. Throughout the game players will be moving their skill marker tokens (discs) up and down the tracks. Sometimes this is due to a test being failed or succeeded, but sometimes experience tokens are earned. A player may improve their skill levels by two total values on the tracks for each experience token discarded. Players may choose which tracks, and may maximize their character’s skill or spread out the experience across multiple skills.
Play continues in this fashion of referencing the app for story and plot items, players working toward completing their Destinies, and adventuring across the land rolling tests and improving skills until one player finishes their Destiny and wins the game!
Components. As always, I am going to be honest here by stating I believe that Destinies packs the box with the best components I have seen in a game. The multi-layered insert is perfectly formed and well-thought out, all the cardboard tokens are super-thick, the dice are so fun to handle and roll, the cards and other components feature incredible artwork, and did I mention there’s about a thousand minis in this game? I am reluctant to even call some of these things minis as they are large and in charge for SURE. I have zero complaints or comments on the components present in Destinies. Lucky Duck knocks it out of the park once again. Incredible.
I actually backed this one on Kickstarter just because it comes from Lucky Duck Games. I had played Chronicles of Crime and loved it, and just wanted to try something different but using a similar system. Typically I don’t keep up with the comments and updates to a game I have backed because I enjoy being surprised by the product that arrives at my door. Destinies was certainly a surprise to me, and I have been kicking myself in the butt for not getting it to the table the very first day I received it.
Destinies is my favorite Lucky Duck Games title, and that is saying a ton, as I rave about every game of theirs I have played. I hope you all back me up here, and if you haven’t yet tried this one, I hope you visit your closest friend or board game cafe that owns it. The tutorial scenario is great, and the campaign scenarios have been awesome so far. Okay, yes, when I first played it with Laura, my wife made several comments about it being a 3 hour game, but once that first one is completed, the subsequent plays run much smoother.
What I love so much about this is how indefinitely expandable it is. Most of the components are multi-use (akin to all the character cards in the Chronicles of Crime games), and can be used in campaign after campaign. The drawbacks I see for this, though, is any sort of waning interest in it forcing designers to abandon plans to create more scenarios. Could a new scenario pack be an acceptable expansion versus a large expansion box with oodles of new components and minis? I think so, but I am no designer. Could the Millennium Series treatment be given to Destinies? Absolutely! This system does not need to be played in a medieval fantasy world. It could be molded to almost anything, and that gives me excited shivers over the future of this game.
If you are anything like me and have now embraced the hybrid gaming trend, I highly recommend Destinies. I plan to also review all the expansions in the near future, so do look out for those, but please do yourself a giant favor and pick up Destinies. The excellent storytelling, great components, and just amazing fun helps Purple Phoenix Games give this one a perfectly deserved 12 / 12, and a Golden Feather Award! I can’t stop thinking about it and how I would play it differently next time, and hopefully after I have played through the expansion material I will be able to restart from the very beginning with different characters and choices. It’s a sign of a great game when I can’t stop thinking about it, and I do believe Destinies currently is knocking at the door of my Top 10 Games of All Time. No, it’s there. It’s totally there. TOP 10 BABY!!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated VENOM Assault in Tabletop Games
Jan 25, 2021
What would you say if I told you I completely expected a game I received to fall completely flat for me but instead may actually unseat a revered similar game from my Top 10 list of games? That would be surprising, right? Well such is life, and such is this game. I do believe that VENOM Assault may knock off one of my favorite games: Legendary: A Marvel Deck-Building Game. That’s really saying something from me, so let me discuss a bit about why I state this.
VENOM Assault is a deck-building game very similar in style to Legendary: A Marvel Deck-Building Game (which, if I have to reference again will just call Legendary). Players take control of a team of (relative) wimps in order to help recruit the real elites and battle the evildoers plus their henchmen. Sound familiar? For this review I will be playing the Solo rules, which are the same as the multiplayer rules, but for one player. Novel, eh?
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup a game, please follow the rulebook as there is way too much to cover here in complete detail. The setup should look similar to the following photo. Here is what you will see: a space for the Mission scenario in the upper left corner. To its right a space for the active Event card. Next to that is the area for the VENOM Support cards to be displayed. Then the VENOM Support deck and discard areas. Below the Mission area is the space to track threat level and the current VENOM Leader’s Health and Defense values. Beneath those trackers is an area for four decks: the VENOM Leader deck, Reward deck, Event deck, and Event discard. To the right of this area is the Training Ground (recruitment zone), the Recruitment deck, and the Retirement pile. In the middle of the board are seven spaces to be populated with Reward cards and VENOM Leaders on top of the Rewards. Each player is dealt six Recruits and four Commandos and will shuffle these to create their draw deck. The players then draw five cards to create their hand and the game may now begin! Go save the world!
I will not be covering every aspect of a turn but will highlight the goings on. The Commander (first player) will draw and read the Event for the round. Events can be helpful for the players, extremely hurtful by advancing the VENOM plot, or even uneventful altogether. Next, player(s) will enter the Recruitment Phase. During this phase players will be using their entire hand to total the recruitment points that can be spent on recruiting those elite soldier, vehicle, and location cards from the Training Ground right into their discard piles.
Once the Recruitment Phase is complete, the Tactical Phase begins, and this is a large part of the game that helps differentiate it from others of its like. The players will choose one of the seven revealed VENOM Leaders on the map to attack in combat (if they choose – this is optional). Using the stats on the VENOM Leader card the players will adjust the Health and Defense values on the trackers on the board. If the VENOM Leader has any abilities that would trigger during this phase, then they trigger now. These could include Global Abilities as well. Once the Leader is done with their abilities, the players will choose one of their cards played to become the Combat Leader. This character now may not use their printed ability but will use their Combat Value (crossed pistols) to place combat dice on their card. The other team members in the combat will add dice to the pool as well if their abilities direct them. Next, the VENOM Leader will call forth their VENOM Support armies to aid them in the combat round. Once displayed, any hero Tactical Phase abilities can be resolved. If VENOM Support armies still are active, their abilities may be resolved at this point.
As the Tactical Phase ends, the Combat Phase begins. The Combat Phase is where the players are able to roll their combat dice in the hopes of besting the VENOM Leader’s Health and Defense values. Defense values dictate the dice values that need to be hit or exceeded to equal a successful attack. The Health value is how many successes are needed to defeat the Leader. However, once rolled the VENOM Leader will trigger any Combat Phase abilities at this time. Once complete the hero team will be able to resolve their own Combat Phase abilities, if any. Finally, the VENOM Support will resolve their Combat Phase abilities. Now the dice may be completely resolved against the Leader, after all abilities have been resolved. If the Freedom Squadron (heroes) defeated the Leader, they take the Leader and Reward cards into their VP pile. Depending on the Mission, these Rewards may be necessary to win the game, and all will have VP values.
After a lengthy Tactical and Combat Phase, the players then enter the Retirement Phase. The players may retire a card from their hand, thus removing the card from the game entirely.
Once a card has been retired (or not), the End of Turn Phase will help clean up the mess of the current round. Any other End of Turn Phase abilities will trigger, and used cards will be discarded to the appropriate areas and refills of key points on the board and players’ hands will setup the next round of play.
Once the Mission card’s success or failure stipulations have been met the game is over and, with any luck, the Freedom Squadron has defeated VENOM once and for all!
Components. This game boasts a large game board, a metric ton of cards, some dice, and some cardboard tokens. All the components are of fine quality and I have no issues with them. The art style used in the game is pleasing and, thankfully, not over-the-top gory or bloody or anything.
You may have noticed or thought that perhaps this game is taking inspiration from a cartoon/toy line from the ’80s, and I would very much agree with you. Could it be called Legendary: G.I. Joe? Maybe, but this one stands on its own, though very similar to the Legendary system. What I do like about VENOM Assault is the fact that it already comes with a large amount of incredible cards to be recruited. I do not know if I will ever feel the need for extra heroes in this game, whereas with the Marvel Legendary one can really go overboard trying to collect all the mini expansions and big box expansions just to find their favorite Marvel entities. Since VENOM Assault isn’t tied to any specific IP and is more generic overall, each character provided is its own thing, not a specific hero that one has grown up loving their entire life.
You see, the problem with those mini expansions in Legendary, at least for me, is that each one brings with it a host of heroes AND a host of new keywords and rules that must be remembered or referenced until it becomes second nature. In VENOM Assault, the rules stay the same and play is altered by the Missions and which characters can be recruited. I like a more reliable and static ruleset when I’m playing an intense game. So point goes to VENOM Assault here too.
Now, I was never into G.I. Joe and I am not at all a war or guns kinda guy, but I am really attracted to this game. I don’t necessarily think of my heroes as going in and shooting the place up, but rather taking Navy Seals-style tactical maneuvers to eliminate the target. So the point is that if you were never into that IP before, you should not feel alienated by this one. It appeals to all, in my opinion.
I said previously in this review that VENOM Assault is knocking on the door of bumping Legendary from my Top 10 games. I continue thinking about it even when I am not playing, and that is a mark of an excellent game for me. If I never think of a game again after playing, there is no way it remains in my collection. This one, however, has me considering different strategies in my head even now as I’m typing.
If you are in the market for a great deck-builder with worldwide espionage at its heart, I urge you to grab a copy of VENOM Assault. If you like the Legendary system but are looking for something just a little different, check this one out. If you just enjoy owning games that are fun and make you think, but also include a bit of luck in the dice rolls, then you owe it to yourself to play this. I really think you’ll enjoy it, as I have. Okay, time to setup another game.
VENOM Assault is a deck-building game very similar in style to Legendary: A Marvel Deck-Building Game (which, if I have to reference again will just call Legendary). Players take control of a team of (relative) wimps in order to help recruit the real elites and battle the evildoers plus their henchmen. Sound familiar? For this review I will be playing the Solo rules, which are the same as the multiplayer rules, but for one player. Novel, eh?
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup a game, please follow the rulebook as there is way too much to cover here in complete detail. The setup should look similar to the following photo. Here is what you will see: a space for the Mission scenario in the upper left corner. To its right a space for the active Event card. Next to that is the area for the VENOM Support cards to be displayed. Then the VENOM Support deck and discard areas. Below the Mission area is the space to track threat level and the current VENOM Leader’s Health and Defense values. Beneath those trackers is an area for four decks: the VENOM Leader deck, Reward deck, Event deck, and Event discard. To the right of this area is the Training Ground (recruitment zone), the Recruitment deck, and the Retirement pile. In the middle of the board are seven spaces to be populated with Reward cards and VENOM Leaders on top of the Rewards. Each player is dealt six Recruits and four Commandos and will shuffle these to create their draw deck. The players then draw five cards to create their hand and the game may now begin! Go save the world!
I will not be covering every aspect of a turn but will highlight the goings on. The Commander (first player) will draw and read the Event for the round. Events can be helpful for the players, extremely hurtful by advancing the VENOM plot, or even uneventful altogether. Next, player(s) will enter the Recruitment Phase. During this phase players will be using their entire hand to total the recruitment points that can be spent on recruiting those elite soldier, vehicle, and location cards from the Training Ground right into their discard piles.
Once the Recruitment Phase is complete, the Tactical Phase begins, and this is a large part of the game that helps differentiate it from others of its like. The players will choose one of the seven revealed VENOM Leaders on the map to attack in combat (if they choose – this is optional). Using the stats on the VENOM Leader card the players will adjust the Health and Defense values on the trackers on the board. If the VENOM Leader has any abilities that would trigger during this phase, then they trigger now. These could include Global Abilities as well. Once the Leader is done with their abilities, the players will choose one of their cards played to become the Combat Leader. This character now may not use their printed ability but will use their Combat Value (crossed pistols) to place combat dice on their card. The other team members in the combat will add dice to the pool as well if their abilities direct them. Next, the VENOM Leader will call forth their VENOM Support armies to aid them in the combat round. Once displayed, any hero Tactical Phase abilities can be resolved. If VENOM Support armies still are active, their abilities may be resolved at this point.
As the Tactical Phase ends, the Combat Phase begins. The Combat Phase is where the players are able to roll their combat dice in the hopes of besting the VENOM Leader’s Health and Defense values. Defense values dictate the dice values that need to be hit or exceeded to equal a successful attack. The Health value is how many successes are needed to defeat the Leader. However, once rolled the VENOM Leader will trigger any Combat Phase abilities at this time. Once complete the hero team will be able to resolve their own Combat Phase abilities, if any. Finally, the VENOM Support will resolve their Combat Phase abilities. Now the dice may be completely resolved against the Leader, after all abilities have been resolved. If the Freedom Squadron (heroes) defeated the Leader, they take the Leader and Reward cards into their VP pile. Depending on the Mission, these Rewards may be necessary to win the game, and all will have VP values.
After a lengthy Tactical and Combat Phase, the players then enter the Retirement Phase. The players may retire a card from their hand, thus removing the card from the game entirely.
Once a card has been retired (or not), the End of Turn Phase will help clean up the mess of the current round. Any other End of Turn Phase abilities will trigger, and used cards will be discarded to the appropriate areas and refills of key points on the board and players’ hands will setup the next round of play.
Once the Mission card’s success or failure stipulations have been met the game is over and, with any luck, the Freedom Squadron has defeated VENOM once and for all!
Components. This game boasts a large game board, a metric ton of cards, some dice, and some cardboard tokens. All the components are of fine quality and I have no issues with them. The art style used in the game is pleasing and, thankfully, not over-the-top gory or bloody or anything.
You may have noticed or thought that perhaps this game is taking inspiration from a cartoon/toy line from the ’80s, and I would very much agree with you. Could it be called Legendary: G.I. Joe? Maybe, but this one stands on its own, though very similar to the Legendary system. What I do like about VENOM Assault is the fact that it already comes with a large amount of incredible cards to be recruited. I do not know if I will ever feel the need for extra heroes in this game, whereas with the Marvel Legendary one can really go overboard trying to collect all the mini expansions and big box expansions just to find their favorite Marvel entities. Since VENOM Assault isn’t tied to any specific IP and is more generic overall, each character provided is its own thing, not a specific hero that one has grown up loving their entire life.
You see, the problem with those mini expansions in Legendary, at least for me, is that each one brings with it a host of heroes AND a host of new keywords and rules that must be remembered or referenced until it becomes second nature. In VENOM Assault, the rules stay the same and play is altered by the Missions and which characters can be recruited. I like a more reliable and static ruleset when I’m playing an intense game. So point goes to VENOM Assault here too.
Now, I was never into G.I. Joe and I am not at all a war or guns kinda guy, but I am really attracted to this game. I don’t necessarily think of my heroes as going in and shooting the place up, but rather taking Navy Seals-style tactical maneuvers to eliminate the target. So the point is that if you were never into that IP before, you should not feel alienated by this one. It appeals to all, in my opinion.
I said previously in this review that VENOM Assault is knocking on the door of bumping Legendary from my Top 10 games. I continue thinking about it even when I am not playing, and that is a mark of an excellent game for me. If I never think of a game again after playing, there is no way it remains in my collection. This one, however, has me considering different strategies in my head even now as I’m typing.
If you are in the market for a great deck-builder with worldwide espionage at its heart, I urge you to grab a copy of VENOM Assault. If you like the Legendary system but are looking for something just a little different, check this one out. If you just enjoy owning games that are fun and make you think, but also include a bit of luck in the dice rolls, then you owe it to yourself to play this. I really think you’ll enjoy it, as I have. Okay, time to setup another game.
