nidland

When writing a short review of this game it’s almost impossible not to mention Arkham Horror. I think Elder Sign is a concentration of Arkham Horror, Fantasy Flight has taken the most important aspects of what makes that game unique and created a shorter, lighter and more accessible game.
Elder Sign contains the same great theme that is found in Arkham Horror, luck and randomness plays a big part too and a big bad monster is lurking in the darkness waiting to devour the players and maybe the whole universe.
So does Elder Sign replace Arkham Horror? I would say no to that question. I think Elder Sign is a good complement and can be a nice way to introduce new players to the Arkham universe. Even though the rules and mechanics differ between the two games you still get the same feeling and the objectives are almost identical, the way to get there differ somewhat.
As you can see in this short text, the game is very often compared to Arkham Horror, too much so I think. I’ve made the same mistake, mostly because I played Arkham Horror first. Elder Sign stands on it’s own and is a great game with or without bothering about Arkham Horror.

Others have written great reviews that includes the game mechanics so I won’t repeat that but summarize my feelings about the game.

Pros:
* Quite easy to learn
* Thrilling
* Great value for the money
* Great theme
* The number of players are very flexible

Cons:
* Cooperation between players could be more pervasive
* The manual is a bit ambiguous (first edition)
* The card items could be more varied, not just a ticket for red or yellow dice
* The element of randomness might be an issue for some players

Elder Sign gets two thumbs up from me. Don’t forget to check out the Android and iOS versions, they’re great too.

Since there are a lot of good reviews that goes through the mechanics I will keep this short.

This is the game all of my friends like to play and talk about. It’s one of the best co-op games I’ve played because it’s balanced and it’s very easy to vary the difficulty level. The play time is quite short so you can always bring out the game and play at least one round.

Adding the expansion adds even more ways to alter the difficulty setting and adds new mechanics that let you tailor the game after the group you play with: newbies, occasional gamers and hard core gamers.

I think the components are well made and the game is very affordable.

Pros:
* Easy to vary difficulty
* Easy to learn
* Team play really matters
* Accessible
* Great value for the money
* Unique theme

Cons:
* The strategic and tactic dimensions might not be very deep
* The theme may feel somewhat weak compared to games like Arkham Horror
* The manual is a bit ambiguous in some parts (Swedish translation)
* The player pawns are a bit dull looking

I think the electronic version is well made and a good adaptation of the board game but I really miss the social factor.
The graphical interface is easy to use and he whole game feels like the board game mechanically. But I found that the game wasn’t very fun to play without friends around the table.
I think Settlers of Catan need “real” opponents and playing it solo removes a vital dimension of the board game.

My tip is to play the board game with your friends instead, if you’re not a Settlers addict that is 🙂

Tsuro is a great game that you could bring out at any time. A round of Tsuro is quite quick so it’s perfect to bring out when you’re waiting for someone. This isn’t the kind of game you play a whole night but it’s a great warmer before longer games.

Good:
– Well made components and nice graphics
– Easy to learn rules
– Short playtime

Not so good:
– Might get old if played often
– Can be uneventful with two players

The game has a very rich theme and the components are awesome. As an old roleplayer I have no problems with the setup time and the lengthy play time. The problem I have with the game is that after about an hour of playing the game I start to get the feeling that I don’t control my character but rather move it around the board and let stuff happen to him/her. Enter a location, draw a card, roll some dice and something bad would probably happen. I almost get the same feeling I got when playing those old adventure gamebooks.

Some locations have quite few cards with events and since you shuffle them every time a player ends up at a location, it’s possible to get the same event multiple times. It does feel a bit silly when the same character accidentally tips over the same bottle of ink at the news paper location for the third time in a row. I think this ruins the atmosphere a bit which is sad because there are moments when you are sucked into the story of the game, almost like in a table top RPG.

The basic rules wasn’t terribly hard to learn but there are so many details one have to keep in mind and that can be a problem during the first couple of sessions when you’re new to the game.

The replay value should be great considering the vast amount of cards in the base game and all the available expansions.

My advice is try before buy.