by BroccoliRage » Sunday March 26th, 2023 8:54pm
Alright, here we go.
We played the first scenario. The game is cooperative, with each turn broken into a player phase and then a villain phase. The attack dice are six sided, with some faces containing claw marks, others containing lightning bolts, and others blank. Each character has individual skills and traits unique to that character. My daughter and I played as Eliza and Goliath, respectively. Drawn cards allow for special attacks or conditions to be played during the active player's turn. After the villains rack up a certain amount of played cards, you move to daytime conditions, with results in healing or recovering of other playable points. This is the Cliff's Notes version, I'm aware.
Villains and their minions attack players depending on a set of rules. Typically the enemies will go after the player closest to them. In the scenario we played, we went up against Xanatos and Demona, with Coldstone acting as an unkillable minion. The game went with me gliding from rooftop to rooftop as the sprout provided covering fire from the street. We took out Demona quickly, but I made a tactical blunder and found myself stuck between Coldstone and Xanatos. The rules of the scenario stated that if either of us were defeated it was a loss of the skirmish, so with the beating I ended up taking we lost our first outing.
My thoughts on the game...
The instructions are a bit unclear but if you perseverance through a session you can figure the game out. The difficulty and depth of strategy surprised me for a licensed Disney game. The blunder I made was rushing headlong into the enemy and trying to tank my way through. While I could take a lot of punishment, I ended getting spanked in two rounds. The sprout played more conservatively, staying just out of reach and providing added damage.
Ranged attacks are not blocked by cover and I consider this to be a poor game design choice. But it's the only one I really dislike. I like the highly specialized traits of each player character, and the rules are set up in a way that players can't really send minions and villains after another player. If you go in too deep, you'll find yourself overwhelmed. Stay too far apart and the same can happen. Group up too closely and you can make yourselves easier targets. The game honestly requires cooperation. There is an element of chance provided by random card draws and combat dice, the combat system reminds one of HeroQuest a little. "Dungeon crawler" was a bad name for this game, this is a light tactical cooperative skirmish game.
There are four scenarios that are pretty high in replayability included, and there is potential for expansion with this game. If it catches on, I could see a few official expansions taking place, but it also seems to me that with a little work one could homebrew their own scenarios, random conditions, and even extra characters. I'd personally like to see more Villains.
I will add more to this review as we play if necessary, but so far...
Pros:
Cheap game, roughly $20
Moderate depth of play
Fast pace of play
Nice presentation
Good family skirmish game, could work as a fun introduction to wargaming
Strategically and tactically engaging
Encourages player communication
Cons:
Instructions are written in a sometimes confusing and obtuse manner
Questionable lack of cover vs ranged fire mechanic
Components are not very durable (suggest gluing the building together and storing separately)
As noted above, storage container isn't big enough to contain assembled buildings
I rate this 7/10. Not an astoundingly excellent game, but pretty good. Considering the price and replayability factor, I definitely recommend it. Good for days when some fast action with tough combat is what your looking for.
