torzul

This game is a favorite of mine. I’ve been playing the campaign mode and my group and I have been having a lot of fun. Descent gives you the characters to choose from and throws you into the action. It gives you the scenarios to face and there is no need for a player to have to create an elaborate story for all the players to explore.

The game forces you to have one character of every basic class (healer, fighter, mage, thief/scout). Unfortunately for me I agreed to be the healer, but even that is fun. I am already debating what class I want to be for the next campaign. Heroes each have a heroic feat which is a one time use ability per mission that triggers an appropriately impressive effect (an extra attack for the dwarf berserker, a big group heal from my healer, a vanish from our rogue).

There is a tension between killing enemies, exploring for loot, and finishing the objective. Maybe this is just for my character who for some reason just wants us to get $$$. After every mission there is a chance to buy items that will give you better dice to attack, better armor etc… The money is pooled so there can be some debate as to what the group should spend the cash on.

The Overlord (GM) has complained that he has been losing scenarios to the players, but some of our wins have been very close. It seems advisable to have the most strategic player be the GM if possible to solve any balance issues.

There are dice to be rolled when you attack – and if you roll an X on the blue die your attack misses (odds 1 in 6). Die faces can have surges that can trigger special attacks, one or more hearts (damage), and a range value which only matters for ranged attacks.

I highly recommend this game and would strongly recommend playing the campaign mode which allows you to buy better abilities and flesh out your character to one you enjoy playing.

I was lucky enough to be taught this game by friends that had played a number of times before. Therefore I had an easy time learning the rules and I had a blast playing the game.

One player pilots the enemies, She/he is the “console” and the skill of the console will go a long way towards making the game enjoyable. I played a partial game (2 players vs the Console) and look forward to a gaming session with more people hopefully soon.

Each character has a certain number of moves (represented by a number next to a D pad) and a certain number of action points (next to a picture of a button being pressed). There are monster spawn points that need to die to keep the players from being overwhelmed – and treasure boxes just begging to be opened!

Pros – 1)felt like a video game and there was both action and strategy
2) many different classes with abilities. rogue, shape-shifting druid, ranged attacking mages, i want to be them all, 3) one of the most fun board games I’ve ever played.

Cons – 1. painting minis is not my favorite thing, but the painted Figs look much better,
2. dice rolling can get frustrating (good thing i’m lucky!)
3. The play time can be long, this is no 30 minute game here – but it is worth it

The DC deckbuilding game is, unsurprisingly, a deckbuilding game with the DC comic license. I like deckbuilding games and my initial impression is that the cards look good, feel like good card stock, and the game feels fun.

Unlike other deckbuilding game there is only one resource, power. Power is used both to fight the super villains in the super villain stack (more on this below) and to buy better cards for your deck which are either heroes, equipment, superpowers, locations, or even villains. This makes the game easier to learn because you do not have to teach a new player how to decide whether to choose to go down a purchasing or fighting path like you would in Ascension.

To begin each player is assigned randomly a hero card which provides a benefit. Batman gets one additional power for every equipment you play during your turn while Superman gets one additional power for each differently named superpowers you play during your turn.

The starting deck of each player is 7 punches (+1 power each) and 3 vulnerabilities (0 power). There is a Line Up of 5 available cards to purchase and one super villain you can defeat and acquire for your deck. The base rules say that no new cards come out during your turn, so the 5 you see are the 5 you can buy.

There are cards which attack other players, forcing them to gain a weakness (0 power card that provides -1 victory point at the end) or put a starting card from their discard pile onto the top of their deck. There are defense cards that let you discard them to not be effected by an attack and to draw a card or some other bonus. The only attacks that can not be blocked are the super villain cards that other players play after first defeating the super villain.

The super villain stack contains Ra’s Al Ghul as the top revealed card for every game. There are 11 other cards of which you randomly choose 7 to put face down below Ra’s. These cards provide a better victory point to cost ration than other cards, usually 5 or 6 points. Once you defeat a super villain it goes to your discard pile and becomes part of your deck. Some of these super villains provide you a bonus, some do an attack that is not called an attack (and I believe therefore is not able to be defended against – but I may be wrong on this).

Locations (ex. Batcave, Fortress of Solitude, Arkham Asylum) stay in play once played and allow you do draw an additional card when you play a specific type of card (equipment, superpower, villain respectively). They cost 5 power each and are better the earlier that you acquire and play them.

I have played the game only with one opponent so far but the game accommodates 2-5 players. Some cards clearly get better with more opponents

The game is fun and I have only begun to scratch the surface. The art is good and the flavor is fun. My only request for future cards is that I would like more ability to thin out my deck – the term in this game is destroy. I do not doubt that the lack of destroy cards is intentional, but the Ascension player in me wants more of an ability to destroy.

I just downloaded it (the app is free) and I would suggest that everyone do so as the price is right.

The game on the Iphone is a little bit buggy as of 12/4/12. Playing in the Arcade mode I had crashes after every match. I briefly watched the video but the actions of the opponent can be a little bit difficult to decipher. On occasion I would win/lose and not be sure why a stun occurred or why I won/lost.

I believe the point of the game is to simulate a match in a fighting game (like street fighter).

The graphics look good and the gameplay does have strategy. To make an attack you choose one card from a pool of actions (ex. retreat, advance, focus, sweep etc…) this card will have modifiers to range, power, and initiative, and you pair it with a card from the pool on the right that has a base range, power, and initiative.

To clarify, in the pool of the left are a number of partial moves, like sliding, or advancing, sweeping, and on the right are other partial moves, like shot, grab, or jab. A move you might construct would be advancing jab. advancing would provide 0 to initiative, +1 to power, and 0 to range, while also letting you move your character 1 or two spaces. The Jab part would give you +3 to initiative, +1 range, and +1 power. This hypothetical would result in a 3 initiative, 2 power, +1 range move where you could move forward 1 or 2 spaces before it resolved.

The player with the higher initiative total from the move constructed goes first and makes any applicable choices (moving 1 or 2 squares if a card gives the move that ability, retreating, etc…)

Be careful which actions you use right away as the actions you used will be on “cooldown” for two turns. This stops you from repeatedly doing one action and provides the strategy of saving a closing move for later etc…

Based on limited gameplay I am considering purchasing a physical copy. As for the app I am hopeful that the bugs will be fixed and that what seems like a fun game at a free price point will being working as intended. There are in game unlocks but I’ve had the game for one day and with the crashing I do not know how long the various unlocks will take.